Private-equity owners just the ticket
A little over a year ago, a battle to gain control of one of Aberdeen's premier companies was in full swing, with a consortium of private-equity investors slugging it out against Halliburton.
A little over a year ago, a battle to gain control of one of Aberdeen's premier companies was in full swing, with a consortium of private-equity investors slugging it out against Halliburton.
Slumps may be an important mechanism for assuring the ultimate health of the oil&gas industry, according to a study commissioned by major contractor Petroleum Services Network.
German wind turbine manufacturer REpower Systems has won the contract to supply Vattenfall with the 30 five-megawatt power heads needed for the hybrid Ormonde wind/natural gas development in the North Irish Sea.
BRITISH Gas and the Welsh Assembly have committed to creating the UK's first dedicated Green Skills Training Centre for training thousands of people into green energy jobs. It will be opened in Tredegar, in the South Wales Valleys, later this year.
The global economic downturn has created some of the most challenging trading conditions in 20 years and has also reduced demand for energy as economic output across the country has faltered.
I don't have time to read much fiction these days, but the recent flood of reports on renewable energy policies in the UK makes up for that.
EDINBURGH University is out to cash in on the current carbon fashion by launching a Master's degree on the subject.
This is an incredibly tough summer for students, especially those graduating into a global recession. More than 200,000 students will graduate this year in the UK and, with more than 13% of employers apparently set to further reduce their graduate recruitment targets for next year, the situation is not looking too optimistic.
ABERDEEN'S Bankhead Academy's Young Engineers' Club came out tops at this year's Celebration of Engineering & Science Festival for young folk in Scotland.
A RECORD number of pupils from schools across the north-east are expected to compete to become successful oil&gas operators in the UK heat of a major international competition.
SCHLUMBERGER'S new seismic acquisition technology is giving broadband marine acquisition a boost in efficiency, according to Ed Kragh, Schlumberger Cambridge Research programme manager.
People working offshore not only need to be in sound physical condition to work effectively, but also need to have a clear head and be constantly alert to safety issues around them.
The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has given the green light for a number of rigs to get on with new tasks on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
Petrobras may not, after all, place planned huge orders for deepwater drilling units with Far East yards. Rather, they could be built in Brazil itself now that domestic yards are gearing up for such work.
RUSSIA'S Vyborg Shipyard has launched the first of two semi-submersible rigs destined for deployment in the Shtokman gas development in the Russian sector of the Barents Sea. The yard has two Shtokman semis on order from Gazprom subsidiary Gazflot, signed in 2007. First to be delivered should be the Polyarnoye Zvezda (Polar Star), with sister Severnoye Siyanie (Northern Light) to follow later.
INTERNATIONAL security and risk mitigation specialist AKE Group has conducted an in-depth study of violence in Iraq to map the countrywide level of risk on a provincial scale. The basic message is that Iraq is a place where extreme care must still be taken, even in the oil-rich province of al-Basrah.
AT LEAST 350 senior pupils from schools across the north-east are expected to attend Offshore Europe for the Energise Your Future event on the closing day.
AIM-LISTED Serica Energy has been awarded further acreage in the Irish sector of the Atlantic Frontier comprising Rockall Basin blocks 5/17, 5/18, 5/22, 5/23, 5/27 and 5/28.
While the UK North Sea continues to struggle, with capital and operational spending currently stalling, major contracts are being doled out overseas, especially on the subsea front offshore West Africa and the US Gulf of Mexico.
Kongsberg Maritime, a world leader in autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) development and manufacture, has teamed up with Scottish communications technology company Wireless Fibre Systems (WFS) to develop a wireless system for locating and communicating with AUVs in ice conditions.
AS THE Chinese muscle their way around the world, it should come as no surprise that they are going to be at Offshore Europe, mounting their biggest display ever in Europe's Energy Capital.
One suspects that Ian Whewell, who stands down at the end of this month as the head of the HSE's Offshore Safety Division, has not always seen eye to eye with North Sea bosses.
The Greenland shark, which is basically a super-large relation of our humble dogfish, could become a source of fuel for the Inuit people.
Nigeria's energy minister, Rilwanu Lukman, has just warned that more than half of his country's oil production capacity has been shut-in as a result of ongoing violence and sabotage against the federal government and petroleum companies, notably Shell.
It may surprise some readers to know that oil&gas companies across the EU are subject to the same rules requiring cross-border competitive procurement as government departments, local authorities and public utilities.