Aker Solutions and Baker Hughes agreed today to co-operate on early-phase studies to help customers improve the overall economics and value of oil and gas field developments.
Aker's front-end spectrum unit and Baker Hughes' reservoir development services group will provide customers with development concept studies that address the entire value chain - from reservoir understanding and well design to subsea and topsides facilities, including flow assurance and risk management.
Russia today signed a preliminary agreement on building a natural-gas pipeline through Greece.
The deal signals strengthening ties between the countries as the crisis-stricken government in Athens is increasingly isolated from the rest of Europe.
Builders of the UK's first nuclear plant in two decades are about to take a vital component and break it.
The 110-tonne spherical steel lid was destined to sit atop EDF Energy's new reactor at the Hinkley Point site in Somerset.
European oil and gas explorer Sound Oil announced changes to its management team today.
Luca Madeddu, an existing director of the company and currently managing director for Italy, is taking on the role of managing director for Morocco.
Development body Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future (Acsef) today added its backing to plans for a carbon-capture and storage (CCS) plant at Peterhead Power Station.
Acsef chairman Colin Crosby said: "It will be the first of its kind in the world and we are delighted it will be based in the north-east.
France's Total has signed an agreement to sell its 16.67% stake in the Schwedt refinery in north-east Germany to Russian oil and gas giant Rosneft, which already holds indirectly an 18.75% interest in the facility.
The deal is valued at $300million (£190million) excluding working capital and remains subject to customary approvals.
Alternative-market-listed Roxi Petroleum, the central Asian oil and gas company with a focus on Kazakhstan, said today it had received the first $10.4million (£6.5million) from the sale of the Galaz asset.
China's provocative parking of a giant oil rig near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea was at the heart of tensions that have caused a slump in Chinese tourist visits to Vietnam.
Petrol prices have reached a six-month high with many motorists cutting back on car use, according to the AA.
And the extension of the districts in which drivers get a special rural area fuel rebate has failed to kickstart sales at the pumps in some places, the AA said.
The average price of petrol nationwide is now 117.19p a litre - up from 116.42p a month ago and above £1.17 for the first time since mid-December 2014.
Diesel is now averaging £1.21 a litre, compared with 120.7p in mid-May.
Since the low point for fuel prices was reached on February 1 this year, average prices have risen by more than 10p a litre.
An AA/Populus survey showed that 37% of the 28,080 AA members polled had already started to cut back on car use, with this figure rising to 48% for lower-income drivers.
The rural fuel rebate scheme, previously only available for those living on some of the UK’s islands, was extended on May 31 to around 125,000 people living in remote mainland locations, with those eligible getting a 5p cut in pump prices.
The AA said today that this had led to a doubling of business at a Devon filling station but that some drivers in Scotland had missed out, apparently due to confusion with the scheme.
The AA highlighted a parliamentary question last week by Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross SNP MP Paul Monaghan.
He asked why proprietors of fuel stations in Durness and Scourie in Scotland had not been reimbursed through the rural fuel rebate scheme for fuel duty reductions they had passed to customers.
Treasury Minister Damian Hinds replied that taxpayer confidentiality had to be maintained and he could not comment on individual circumstances.
Scotland currently has the priciest petrol, at 117.6p a litre on average, while Wales and Northern Ireland have the cheapest - at £1.17.
Scotland also has the most-expensive diesel, at 121.6p a litre while Northern Ireland has the cheapest, at 119.7p a litre - the only area where diesel is under £1.20 a litre.
AA president Edmund King said: “Our fuel report this month illustrates vividly the power of pump prices on consumer spending.
“It sends out a clear message to government on fuel tax: don’t be mistaken into thinking that because pump prices are 13p-a-litre lower than this time last year that drivers are ripe for another fuel duty increase."
Energy service giant Petrofac said today its projects and operations business unit had secured contract renewals for UK North Sea work worth a total of about $400million (£252million).
The North Sea energy industry faces a potentially crippling domino effect unless action is stepped up to save key infrastructure, a conference heard yesterday.
Aberdeen South SNP MP Callum McCaig called on the Caterers Offshore Trade Association (Cota) to restart talks with unions over a staff pay deal.
In April, Cota announced it was withdrawing its 2015/16 pay offer, worth around 2% and part of a two-year pay agreement.
Unite and RMT remained “keen to engage” with the association, Mr McCaig said, adding he had written to Cota asking for a meeting with the unions as soon as possible.
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace says 13 of its activists have blocked Shell's Polar Pioneer drilling rig as it tries to leave Seattle for Arctic waters.
Braemar Community Hydro (BCH) has reached the half-way mark to fund a hydroelectricity scheme in the heart of Cairngorms National Park.
It takes the community-funded initiative close to the trigger point where a construction contract can be signed for building on the Corriemulzie Burn, near Mar Lodge, to begin.
The main share offer opened in May and a month on the fund now stands at a total of £400,000, half-way to the overall target of £800,000.
Health and safety in the offshore renewable-energy industry will be under the spotlight when international experts attend a conference in Aberdeen this week.
Maritime, shipping and legal experts will discuss how offshore renewable safety can be improved and accident levels reduced.
Bruce Craig, partner and leading offshore health and safety expert at law firm Pinsent Masons, will address delegates on how to ensure crew safety during offshore windfarm operations and focus on risk management to avoid potentially dangerous situations.
North Sea company Trap Oil said yesterday it could be force to sell assets to guarantee its survival beyond July.
The eight-year-old company warned in April that it may go bust and urgently needed a “viable funding solution”.
Yesterday, it said: “The company's directors, in conjunction with the company's advisers, are continuing to urgently assess a number of potential funding sources, including the potential disposal of certain of the group's licence interests.”
J Denholm said yesterday it was to spin off its oilfield services division to focus on its other “traditional” activities, such as seafood processing, shipping and logistics.
John Denholm, the family-owned company’s chairman, said the oilfield services division’s “hunger for capital” was holding other parts of the group back.
A demerger would allow it to seek the capital it needs from other sources, he said, announcing plans for its listing on the Alternative Investment Market.
India-focused Hardy Oil and Gas said yesterday it may have to change tack and turn its attention to other areas.
Aberdeen-based Hardy is led by former KCA Deutag director Ian MacKenzie as chief executive.
Alasdair Locke, the former executive chairman of Abbot Group, now KCA Deutag, is its chairman. The company’s portfolio includes exploration, appraisal and development assets.
Sentinel Marine has celebrated the latest addition to its growing fleet of offshore support vessels, naming the ship Cygnus Sentinel at a christening event in its home city of Aberdeen.
It is the second of four emergency response and rescue vessels (ERRV) that Sentinel is taking delivery of as part of a £28million funding package from Clydesdale Bank and Germany’s Norddeutsche Landesbank.
The 200ft-long Cygnus Sentinel is starting a five-year contract serving Gaz De France operations in the southern sector of the UK North Sea.
Norwegian oil and gas firm Statoil is celebrating a key milestone for its giant Mariner development near Shetland.
Pipe-laying for the £4billion-plus project got under way earlier this week.
About 25 miles of pipelines for gas, oil and diluting agent are being installed on the seabed by the pipe-lay vessel Seven Navica.
Oil and gas explorer Serica Energy has finally completed its cash and shares acquisition of an 18% stake in the UK North Sea’s Erskine field.
It is nearly a year since the London company first announced the deal, which is estimated to be worth about £8.7million.
Chairman Tony Craven Walker said the protracted transaction underlined the need for greater co-operation within the industry to open up shared access to key infrastructure.
A flurry of North Sea deals is welcome news for an industry facing ongoing challenges, Bob Ruddiman, head of energy and natural resources at legal firm Pinsent Masons, said yesterday.
Mr Ruddiman, who is based in Pinsent’s Aberdeen office, was speaking after Serica Energy revealed it had completed the acquisition of an 18% stake in the Erskine field.
He said: “The UKCS (UK continental shelf) more than most oil producing regions has had to adapt to the constraints of a lower oil price which no one could foresee.
