Opportunities for the oil and gas industry to learn from innovation in the biotech sector will be explored at an event in Aberdeen on Thursday.
The Oil & Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) and the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) are collaborating to host Biotechnology in Oil & Gas: the Art of the Possible – a workshop which will explore the opportunities to apply technology and know-how from biotechnology to challenges facing the oil and gas industry.
Taking place at the Rox Hotel on Thursday 25 June, the event will examine the impact biotechnology could have in a range of disciplines in
German utility E.ON is set put its North Sea and Algerian oil and gas assets up for sale, hoping to raise an estimated £1.25billion as it restructures its business.
E.ON, which operates a number of North Sea fields including Huntington, also has production interests in the Elgin, Franklin, Glenelg and West Franklin fields.
Offshore Installation Services (OIS) has been awarded a contract by Antrim Energy to decommission four subsea wells in the central North Sea. The scope of the campaign, which also includes six wells from Centrica Energy, will include offshore and onshore project management, vessel charter, equipment and personnel.
A North Sea-focused energy company saw its share price spike yesterday after revealing it had raised enough money in a share placement to meet a loan repayment in September.
The share price of Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) rose 14% yesterday as it confirmed it was still in talks with an “internationally listed group, with a multi-billion dollar market capitalisation” for a longer-term funding solution.
The AIM-listed firm said the £145,000 raised through the share placement made it “adequately funded” until September 4 – the deadline for a final repayment of £358,155 to specialist lender, Darwin Strategic.
Two former directors of Cairn Energy have raised backing of up to £316million to start a new oil company in India.
Mike Watts and former Cairn managing director Jann Brown have joined forces to launch a new India-focused upstream oil and gas company, Magna Energy.
Investment giant Carlyle Group said it had made an initial commitment of £158million, and would invest a further £158million, depending on projects brought by the company, and approvals by Carlyle's investment committee.
Aberdeen-based oilfield service firm Coretrax has invested £1.25million in the Middle East after it opened its fourth office in the region in Abu Dhabi.
The expansion comes after it launched a new cement placement tool to coincide with its participation in the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference.
Coretrax said a team of four will work from the new base, and this is expected to grow to 14 within the next 12 months as it expands to another office and warehouse based in Mussafah, southwest of the city, later in the year.
French energy services giant Technip will mark National Women in Engineering Day with an open evening at its UK headquarters in Westhill tonight. on Tuesday, June 23rd from 6pm-7.30pm.
Following the success of a similar event last year, Technip’s UK operating centre has invited young women interested in a career in engineering to come along to find out more about the industry and the company’s work in the subsea sector.
Engineering services firm Penspen is set to launch a feasibility study on extending a key pipeline in partnership with the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
Penspen and Ecowas signed a contract in February 2015 to enable a formal start to the feasibility study examining the current West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) system performance and its possible future network extension to other Ecowas states.
Troubles with ageing oil platforms and their associated infrastructure are just some of the causes of North Sea costs spiralling in recent years - a problem for operators even before the oil price crash started making some of the clunking old kit uneconomic to run.
BG Group had a number of options to consider when it came to its Everest and Lomond platforms in the central North Sea.
One of the plans hatched last year was to sell the fields along with BG’s Armada platform, although as the oil market started on the downturn this idea was shelved.
A body responsible for training North Sea workers is working to ensure that skills development does not fall off the agenda due to the oil price slump.
Yesterday Opito launched schools week, a work experience taster programme for 70 north-east pupils. The students from 27 schools across the region will get a chance to learn about and engage with 22 oil and gas companies across the supply chain.
The number of companies participating in the week-long series of events has risen from nine last year which was the first time the scheme was trialled.
Tickets have almost sold out for a one-day business event which will link two of Europe’s leading energy hubs next month.
The second annual Aberdeen-Stavanger Gateway will be hosted by Aberdeen-based Granite PR in association with Statoil at the city’s Norwood Hall Hotel on Tuesday, June 2nd.
The event will feature an array of speakers, joined by participants who will benefit from knowledge sharing and networking between these key locations.
A drone firm specialising in the oil and gas industry has been boosted by venture capital investment worth more than £2.5million.
Sky-Futures, which is opening a new, larger office in Aberdeen on Monday, has also been backed by a US fund specialising in drone technology.
The firm was founded in 2009 by James Harrison and Chris Blackford who operated drones in Iraq and Afghanistan while in the British Army.
There will be “no winners” if unions press ahead with industrial action in the North Sea, the new boss of the oil and gas industry’s trade body warned yesterday.
Deirdre Michie, who has taken over as chief executive of Oil & Gas UK, said over 5,000 jobs had been lost in the North Sea - mainly onshore jobs - with “more to come”.
But she added while the North Sea was mature and had produced over 43 billion barrels of oil, the body believes that there remains “still half again to go for” in the region if operators and the wider supply chain slim costs and the government provides more fiscal support.
BG Group has saved itself more than £18million after it agreed a new contract on a flotel damaged by North Sea gales.
Life boats on the Safe Bristolia were damaged last October when a huge wave lashed the vessel that was in place to offer accommodation to workers on BG’s North Everest platform.
The flotel’s owner, Prosafe, took the vessel back to a shipyard in Norway for repair. Last week, the Norwegian offshore accommodation specialist announced it had “rephased” the Safe Bristolia’s work programme with BG.
The newly-appointed energy minister came to Aberdeen just days into the start of her term to underline the importance of the North Sea to the UK.
Andrea Leadsom, the Conservative member of parliament for South Northamptonshire, was appointed the fifth minister of state in as many years following the Conservative general election victory. She will report to Amber Rudd, the new secretary of state overseeing Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc).
Ms Leadsom said her priorities will be “keeping the lights on, keeping the bills down – and getting a climate change deal in Paris”.
One of her first jobs will be to attend the major UN climate summit in Paris later this year, where it is thought Germany and France plan to push for an “ambitious, comprehensive and binding” global agreement on cutting carbon emissions, replacing the Kyoto Protocol.
The boss of the new oil and gas regulator has been revealed as the keynote speaker at the first Press and Journal Gold Awards.
Andy Samuel, chief executive of the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) which is set to usher in a new era of collaboration in the North Sea, said events such as the Gold Awards would help the industry “create a positive future”.
The announcement of the evening’s highlight comes just days before the deadline for submitting entries to the awards comes on Friday.
Mr Samuel said: “I am delighted to be speaking at the Press and Journal Gold Awards in June. At this challenging time for our industry, it has never been more important to recognise and reinforce the positive impact oil and gas companies and their employees have on Aberdeen and the north-east.”
Vedanta Resources posted a full-year loss after a sharp drop in crude prices precipitated a $4.5 billion writedown related to its Indian oil and gas business.
The company's London-listed shares fell as much as 4 percent early on Thursday before recovering to 660 pence, unchanged from the previous day's close.
Best known as a mining company, Vedanta bought a controlling stake in Cairn India Ltd CAIL.NS, India's largest private-sector oil producer, in 2011.
Like other resources companies, it has struggled with plummeting commodity prices in the last year. Brent crude collapsed to a low of just above $45 a barrel in January from a high of $115 last June.
Oil prices eased slightly on Thursday as weak data from the world's top economies raised concern about the outlook for global fuel demand.
Uncertainty over the strength of any decline in US oil output also weighed.
The larger economic picture offset data that showed a large drawdown in US crude stockpiles last week.
June Brent crude was trading 10 cents down at $66.71 a barrel as of 0917 GMT. US crude for June delivery, at $60.20, was 30 cents lower.
The Trans Nigeria Pipeline that carries Nigeria's Bonny Light crude oil to an export terminal has been shut down since May 12, a Shell spokeswoman said on Thursday.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has launched a consultation that will see the watchdog bring in legally enforced safety standards on North Sea helidecks.
Currently an Aberdeen-based body called the Helideck Certification Agency (HCA) oversees inspection and certification services for more than 300 offshore helidecks.
But a review launched by the CAA last year following the fatal crash off Sumburgh saw the watchdog look at ensuring that the safety requirements of landing areas for helicopters were enforced under law, which currently the HCA is not required to do.
The HCA was set up in 1997 by helicopter operators. Last year it was acquired by investors backed by a private equity company, Praesidian Capital Europe. The HCA is now controlled by a firm called Helideck Analytics, set up by former CHC executives, Neil Calvert and David Dobbin.
Deal making in the oil and gas sector is set to accelerate as higher oil prices and an improved outlook for the sector boost investor appetite, a broker has predicted.
Royal Dutch Shell's £46billion bid for smaller rival BG Group last month highlighted the shift in sentiment in the sector after mergers and acquisitions (M&A) slumped in the first quarter of 2015 to a 20-year low, a report by Morgan Stanley revealed.
The research found that there were only 30 deals completed at a value of £2.6billion in the quarter, most of them in North America.
An Aberdeen entrepreneur now based in Houston has shrugged off a $20million (£13.2million) hit to his business as a result of the Petrobras “graft” scandal.
Oilfield services giant Expro has launched its OTC exhibition campaign with the announcement of a £30million ($45million) contract in Canada with Statoil.
Pipeline engineers Stats Group, has invested £1.3million in new facilities in Houston to expand its services in the US and South American oil and gas markets.
A fresh profits warning on the troubled Laggan-Tormore gas terminal development hit the share price of service giant Petrofac yesterday.
Almost £350million was wiped off Petrofac’s market value as shares slid 10% to 912.5p.
The firm admitted it would lose a further £130million on the Total-operated project, in addition to the £154million in losses it took on the scheme in 2014. This on a project value of £800million.
Ayman Asfari, Petrofac’s Chief Executive listed a number of difficulties facing the development of the loss-making gas terminal that included industrial action and the high cost of doing business in the North Sea.
