In the mid-1970s, the first British oil was brought onshore and, within 10 years, there were more than 100 installations in the North Sea. Technology has evolved over the decades, allowing companies to drill deeper and deeper under the sea to harvest oil from reserves that were considered to be exhausted
The start of 2010 sees just four mobile units and a single platform rig active on UKCS exploration and appraisal drilling.
SHELL and Oceaneering International have set a new industry record in subsea well intervention by successfully replacing a failed subsurface-controlled subsurface safety valve in the US Gulf of Mexico using an "openwater wireline" technique at a water depth of 815m (2,673ft). This sets the bar for producing wells. Openwater wireline has previously been deployed only in shallower waters.
BJ SERVICES has set a world record for cementing the longest solid expandable tubular liner for an operator in the US Gulf of Mexico.
STATOIL has warned that there will be fewer stand-alone development projects on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in the next few years, whereas the number of satellite fields and maintenance investments will increase.
BY 2020, Fife can be the centre of Scotland's low-carbon economy and this will encourage more companies to invest in the area and create up to 2,000 jobs, according to a report just completed for Fife Council, Invest in Fife and the Fife Economic Partnership.
THE fifth-generation semi-submersible drilling rig, Leiv Eiriksson, transited Istanbul's narrow Bosporus Strait late-December, obliging Turkey to temporarily shut down one of the world's busiest waterways. Leiv Eiriksson, one of the world's largest rigs, is making its way to the Black Sea to begin oil and gas explorations off Turkey's coast in February.
ARTIFICIAL Lift Company (ALC) of Houston has had its rigless electric submersible pump (ESP) technology approved for commercialisation by co-developer ConocoPhillips.
CHEVRON has cut its capital and exploration budget for this year to $21.6billion, which is 5% below the figure for 2009.
NEIL Bruce, one of the north-east of Scotland's most influential businessmen, has been made an honorary professor at Aberdeen Business School - The Robert Gordon University.
BAKER Hughes has carried off the 2009 ICoTA Innovation Award for a live well deployment system for sand screens.
A clearly revolutionary "light emitting wallpaper" could start to replace light bulbs as early as 2012, according to the Carbon Trust.
A new method which simplifies drilling operations in unstable formations and thereby saves time and costs has been successfully tested by Statoil on the Brage field.
Exploration and drilling activity on the UK Continental Shelf was generally dismal in 2009, but there was one bright spot - West of Shetland, where eight wells were drilled.
I wrote last month's column in advance of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. I was politely optimistic about it but, in reality, I feared it would be a failure, and it proved to be worse than even I expected.
So there I was, half past seven in the morning, shortest day of the year, children off on the bus to school, under pressure from the editor of this estimable publication to deliver my column early - or at least not as late as usual.
There are huge dangers arising from the UK Government's CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (formerly known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment), which is the UK's mandatory climate-change and energy-saving scheme due to come into operation in April 2010.
When UK energy, climate environment and sundry other things secretary Ed Miliband fleetingly visited Aberdeen a few weeks ago, I deliberately did not ask him anything about the COP15 climate-change conference. There wasn't much point: the UK mainstream media circus was indulging in such a feeding frenzy that the topic had become boring.
If Britain is ever going to meet its national carbon-reduction obligations, its commercial, industrial and public buildings need to improve from an average of an E energy rating today to C by 2020 and A by 2050, warns the Carbon Trust.
The future of SLP, one of the UK's best known offshore fabrication yards, continues to hang by a thread following its collapse into administration several weeks ago.
LLOYD'S Register has made what it says is its most significant move yet in its mission to become the leading authority in the provision of business assurance and risk management services to the oil&gas, nuclear and transportation markets by taking over Scandpower of Norway.
The head of carbon capture and storage research at the formerly state-owned TUV NEL laboratory, East Kilbride, insists that the UK is in a "strong position" to accelerate development and application of CCS technologies.
FUGRO'S latest ship, Fugro Searcher, was successfully launched last month at the Fassmer Shipyard in Germany.
EUROPE'S largest renewable energies company, Statkraft of Norway, has commissioned the world's first osmotic power prototype.
Seven concepts out of 100 submissions have been shortlisted as part of a multimillion-pound Carbon Trust competition to find wind turbine foundation designs suitable for deeper sea water conditions (30-60m) where the next generation of offshore windfarms will be built.
