If there is one thing worth looking forward to it's a visit to a distillery, so being invited to attend the switching on of Scottish BioEnergy's algae reactor system at the home of the Famous Grouse - the Glenturret distillery in Crieff - was something definitely not to be missed.
State oil funds have proved to be an invaluable source of emergency funding for resource-rich emerging markets during the global financial crisis, but with these cash reserves soon to be depleted, it is foreign investors who could end up footing the bill.
The UK oil&gas industry has been in the political spotlight lately, with several of our sector's achievements receiving the commendation of Scottish and UK politicians alike.
It has been a mixed month for the electricity industry in Scotland. On the negative side, DONG Energy announced its withdrawal from the joint venture planning to build a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston.
There is a great deal of anticipation and momentum building as we near the Copenhagen meeting in December.
With the UK economy back from the brink, some companies are showing signs of emerging from a crisis of financial uncertainty and starting to plan again for the future.
THREE E&P (exploration and production) learning companies, IHRDC, Nautilus and NExT, have forged the Plato Alliance, which is designed to deliver an "unprecedented" learning opportunity for professionals in the industry. Launched in Houston, the Plato Alliance is designed to offer the talents of the most experienced learning providers in the business worldwide.
GROWING the energy crops, short rotation coppice (SRC) willow and miscanthus grass, could help the UK to reduce carbon emissions and benefit wildlife, according to researchers from the UK Research Councils' Rural Economy and Land Use Programme.
Can the idea of "green motorsport" actually work? Yes, according to Dr Kerry Kirwan at the University of Warwick, who led the research team that designed and built the world's first "wholly sustainable" Formula 3 racing car.
BATTERIES can power anything from small sensors to large systems. While scientists are finding ways to make them smaller yet even more powerful, it turns out that problems can arise when such batteries are larger and heavier than the devices they power.
Later this week, oil&gas industry key players will unveil their plans for the next 18 months at one of 2009's most important events.
Mass-flow excavation (MFE) company Rotech Subsea is celebrating a significant milestone in its eight-year history by embarking on its 200th project.
If the oil&gas industry is to succeed during current economic and climate difficulties, it is vital that it attracts well qualified and talented workers.
THE Norwegian arm of Italian energy major Eni has awarded Technip an engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract for the Goliat field worth about $300milion.
BJ SERVICES, which has a major presence in Aberdeen, has secured a contract with Karachaganak Petroleum Operating (KPO) to provide a range of process services in Kazakhstan.
TOTAL has discovered oil on block 17/06 in the deepwater sector of the Atlantic offshore Angola.
THE first floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) for the US Gulf of Mexico is almost ready to leave its builders in Singapore.
STATOILHYDRO and US group Tierra Geophysical are to jointly develop seismic imaging software intended to improve the Norwegian petroleum company's ability to assess exploration and production targets in areas of complex geology. Tierra has spent years optimising its "finite difference propagators" - a family of algorithms - and combining that with StatoilHydro's imaging expertise and experience is considered to be an "ideal marriage of complementary skills and technologies".
Many people in the upstream oil&gas industry will know that better integration between disciplines such as petroleum engineering, geology, geophysics and geomechanics is required to achieve maximum value from reservoirs.
NORWAY is raising its carbon game by planning to invest close to £380million (3.5billion NOK) in capturing and storing greenhouse gases next year, according to finance minister Kristin Halvorsen.
THE UK's Energy Technologies Institute has given the green light to an £8million project that will produce tools capable of accurately estimating the energy yield of major wave and tidal-stream energy devices.
GE OIL & Gas has further expanded its subsea portfolio capabilities with today's official opening of the new GE Oil & Gas, Drilling and Production business unit devoted to subsea and remote technologies.The expansion at Nailsea, near Bristol, is appropriately called the Subsea Monitoring and Remote Technology Center (or SmartCenter).
NEPTUNE Marine Services' patented dry underwater welding technology has been qualified to 70msw (metres sea water) following a programme of research-and- development testing conducted at the UK's National Hyperbaric Centre in Aberdeen.
Aberdeen's Subocean Group is showing the way ahead for the renewables industry by becoming the first company to use a dynamically-positioned vessel equipped with ploughing technology to instal cables in a large North Sea windfarm.
One would have to reach back at least 15million years to find carbon-dioxide levels on Earth as high as they are today, according to US research which has its roots in a high-accuracy technique developed at Cambridge.
