SHETLAND: Total officially launched on Monday a huge new gas project in Britain’s remote Shetland Islands, hailed by London as a ‘vote of confidence’ in the flagging North Sea oil and gas industry. The French energy giant officially opened the Shetland Gas Plant in Britain’s northernmost outpost, which cost £3.5 billion to build. Bringing in gas from the Laggan-Tormore fields, the plant began production on February 7, which has since been ramped up to its full capacity of 500,000 cubic feet of gas per day. The fields are expected to last for about 20 years.