A good place to start is back in early summer, when everything in the garden looked rosy. Simmons, as a global firm, had just completed its best year ever (our fiscal year ends in June), with both the corporate finance and securities businesses recording record revenues.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has just published a major new study into global gas markets and paints a picture of rising demand and rising prices, especially in gas-deficient economies such as the European Union.
Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority has said that StatoilHydro's Statfjord A production platform had a close call with disaster earlier this year when an oil spill within the utility shaft resulted in build-up of explosive gases within the huge concrete structure.
DUTCH heavy-lift specialist Jumbo reports that the latest addition to the fleet, the 144m Fairplayer, has recently arrived at Huisman, in Holland, to have a pair of 900-tonne cranes fitted.
Nautical Petroleum is confident that the Kraken appraisal well currently drilling on UK North Sea Quadrant 9 will lead to a sizeable heavy crude field development.
Providence Resources has signed a staged farm-out agreement with Chrysaor, a privately owned UK development-led company, covering the Spanish Point discovery in the Porcupine Basin, west of Ireland.
This was a very badly kept secret - at last Arcadia Petroleum has Falkland Islands government approval to farm into North Falklands Basin Tranches C and I.
THE EU's greenhouse emissions and renewable energy targets are "unrealistic" and could damage European business, according to the head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
A STUDY by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors shows that the payback periods for energy technologies installed in the average home in England and Wales are lunatic.
Oil & Gas UK turns the spotlight towards the UK oil&gas supply chain in November with two major events specifically designed to help strengthen the long-term future of this hugely important part of the sector.
The continuation and evolution of "The Great Game", that oft-quoted 19th-century struggle for dominance between Imperial Britain and Czarist Russia, was among the topics discussed over coffee with Energy's editor, Jeremy Cresswell, on August 4.
"I HAVE registered with FPAL but I still don't seem to be getting my fair share of orders. Why is that?" - this is a common complaint heard by FPAL purchasers from disgruntled suppliers.
The importance of meeting future world energy demands and, at the same time, reducing carbon footprint is moving further up the global agenda. And to meet these challenges will involve a great deal of creativity from both our industries and our wealth creators.
I have been in Georgia several times this year, working on a feasibility study of transporting gas from the Caspian Sea countries - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - to European markets.
An opportunity for industry it indeed was, and yet the turnout of oil&gas bosses to the first joint Energy Institute/Aberdeen and The Robert Gordon universities MSc projects seminar was dismal.
COAL-BURNING, primarily in North America and Europe, contaminated the Arctic and potentially affected human health and ecosystems in and around Earth's polar regions a century ago, according to new research.
German scientists say that, in future, it will be possible to use miniature, fuel-cell-powered robot helicopters to search for people trapped in damaged buildings, check out traffic or investigate contaminated terrain.
Here at Energy we enjoy highlighting the development of new technologies, and it is always a struggle to create sufficient space for them.
As Aberdeen's leading occupational-health provider, Abermed carries out nearly 4,000 drug tests and more than 1,000 alcohol tests for various companies on an annual basis.
Odfjell Drilling of Norway and Metro Exploration (Th. Angellopoulos Group) have teamed up in a joint venture to own a pair of two ultra-deepwater drillships to be delivered from Hyundai Heavy Industries, South Korea, during Q1 and Q2 2011. The drillships are of Gusto design, and will be equipped for operations in water depths to 3,000m (10,000ft), but are designed to be upgraded for operations in waters as deep as 4,000m. Metro Exploration will retain 60% ownership in the vessels ordered earlier this year from HHI, and Odfjell Drilling will take a 40% stake and be responsible for the construction supervision, marketing and operation of the vessels.
NEW field projects and actions to increase oil&gas production are expected to add 600,000 barrels oil equivalent per day to StatoilHydro's production from the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) by 2015, according to Hege Marie Norheim, the group's head of reserves and business development on the NCS.
I have happily hosted many a lunch with senior executives from many industries and, not surprisingly, the conversation at some stage moves to people. And one of the concerns often expressed is about the potentially catastrophic effects of highly talented people having too much responsibility too soon.
It's interesting, isn't it, that, as much as we tend to disapprove of supermarkets - tut-tutting when we read about their profits, shaking our heads at the allegations of how they treat their suppliers and despairing at how they put local shops out of business - we still can't quite bring ourselves to stop using them?
JUST when some of the world's oil and gas hotspots were threatening to go up in flames a couple of weeks ago, lo and behold, the price of oil started to fall. Whatever the attractions of high prices to oil companies, the rest of us should breathe a small sigh of relief.
StatoilHydro has joined an initiative that aims to tap ultra-deep geothermal energy sources in Iceland with a view to generating huge quantities of electricity sustainability. Success could deliver a tenfold increase in the amount of energy harvested from existing wells.
