University energy conference in 16th year
APRIL will see Aberdeen University once again run its enduring get to know the energy industry conference.
Shell offers 40% in Stavro
SHELL is offering the opportunity to acquire 40% equity in UK Licence P.077, block 22/12a Stavro Area, with a view to drilling the 100million-barrel prospect in Q4 2009 or Q1 2010.
Subsea sector not immune to triple whammy of negatives
Just because of healthy backlogs for 2009 and 2010, the subsea sector is not immune to the triple whammy of recession, the financial crisis and the current oil-price slump.
Signs claimed of evidence of mid-Atlantic oil
Evidence is growing that oil may be found in the Dreki area north-east of Iceland, according to Orkustofnun, the National Energy Authority of Iceland (NEA).
Rig rates: $350,000 in January and $300,000 last week – could they drop to $250,000?
For months, the North Sea has been teetering on the edge - $40 oil isn't enough to sustain the flow of mini-projects needed to assure reasonable health, though large developments and cash-cow production appear secure.
Norway’s petroleum safety watchdog – standards just not good enough
February's ditching of a helicopter at the BP-operated ETAP fields complex has once again raised safety concerns in the UK North Sea, even though there were no casualties and injuries were relatively minor. It emphasises the vital need to keep on top of safety and to learn from the past where possible.
Attracting fresh talent to gas patch
Over the next 10 years, it is estimated that the international LNG (liquefied natural gas), LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) and wider natural-gas industries will be faced with losing up to 50% of their most senior workers.
North Sea flying high on safety of workers
The survival of all on board the helicopter that ditched into the North Sea 125 miles east of Aberdeen on February 18 is testament to the UK oil&gas industry's hard work over the last two decades in ensuring the safety of its offshore workers.
Iraq – opportunity versus fear
As foreign military forces withdraw from Iraq, a new army of foreigners is beginning to enter this beleaguered but resource-rich country armed not with combat skills and weapons, but with expertise in technology and skills honed in the international energy industry.
Like ostriches with heads in the sand
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at a conference in Edinburgh entitled Powering Scotland, which took a serious look at whether or not the provisions are in place to keep the lights on over the next decade or so.
Good news – and bad
Scotland has a company called Scottish Bioenergy that has developed a bioreactor which uses a mixture of algae and water to strip carbon dioxide from flue gas and convert it to oil and proteins.
Don’t just screw supply chain
I don't chew my fingernails, or at least not since I was a schoolboy. It doesn't mean that I don't worry, because I do. I simply torture myself in other ways. However, there are heaps of adults who do chomp away at their nails and, pound to a penny, there's rather a lot of that happening throughout the upstream oil&gas patch right now, especially in major centres such as Aberdeen, Calgary, Houston and Stavanger, as the screws tighten on the supply chain.
Pioneering Azurite Africa-bound on maiden voyage
Prosafe Production's innovative hybrid Azurite floating, drilling, production, storage and offloading vessel (FDPSO) is on its maiden voyage en route from the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore to its first contract - working offshore the Republic of Congo.
Chilly times for decommissioning sector?
As the UK weathered Arctic conditions last month, the key players in the decommissioning sector gathered in snowy Bergen at the ninth annual conference organised by the Norwegian Petroleum Society. Was the chill at home reflected in the atmosphere inside the conference?
Gaddafi urges power to the people
Muammar Gaddafi wants Libya's Basic People Congresses to support his proposal to dismantle the government and turn over its oil wealth to the people themselves. Oil is worth $32billion a year to this North African state of five million.
Global expansion heralds 400 more jobs for the north
Northern Scotland's Global Energy Group predicts turnover for 2009 to leap to £170million, compared with £130million last year. The firm's chairman, Roy MacGregor, also expects to recruit another 400, mostly engineering and fabrication, personnel over the same period, which is twice the forecast of just of a few weeks ago.
German outfit sees 100% Euro-renewables in 50 years
WIND and solar, accompanied by hydro power, biomass and geothermal energy, will pave the way to a 100% renewable power generation, "very probably within the first half of this century", according to Germany's Energy Watch Group. The organisation sees wind and solar as being particularly important vehicles to achieving this - and especially wind.
UK’s ETI doles out £20million to first tranche of renewable technology projects
The UK's Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has decided to award its first tranche of funding to four maritime energy projects - three offshore wind and one tidal technology.
Scots engineers develop revolutionary offshore turbine installation technology
A Scottish company has developed an installation system that offers the potential to revolutionise the installation of wind turbines offshore. Two variants of the technology have been drawn up - one to handle steel monopile foundations, the other for the concrete gravity base equivalent.
Protecting your rights to payment and services
In the current economic climate, the risk of companies becoming insolvent is rising rapidly. The move of Oilexco into administration has sent shock waves through an industry that has rarely seen insolvencies among operators.
Great customers and suppliers make good business sense
RECESSION - it's official now. It seems we had better get used to using the "R" word as the crisis which originated such a short time ago in the financial sector quickly impacts on the whole economy.
Can changing global landscape lead to revised corporate tax regime?
Oil&gas companies are operating in a changed landscape, with a number of them no longer able to escape the effects of the global economic downturn and unprecedented market volatility.
So what was the OSO?
This is the first in a series of short articles about the OSO or, to give it its full title, the Offshore Supplies Office. It was an organisation that, at one time, had a fearsome reputation as it strove to ensure that British industry secured a fair share of the huge opportunities generated by the advent of North Sea oil.
Offshore industry rings true for Cambridge Bell
RICHARD Bell has been with Hallin Marine unit Prospect since joining as an engineering graduate in July, 2005. He is an example of the kind of talent that the North Sea industry is hungry for.
MEC secures £3million for school
A £3MILLION initiative - the so-called Midlands Energy Graduate School (MEGS) - has been launched in a bid to provide a pipeline of home-grown sustainable energy specialists, including people with practical engineering skills and a grip on new-generation energy technologies now coming forward. The graduate school, not a trace of which can be found on the internet beyond a single news story, will also pilot and develop new methods of training and research collaboration.