Energy Minister Fergus Ewing will champion Scotland’s trouble-hit offshore industry on a trade mission to the heart of the US oil and gas sector this week. There are still “huge opportunities” despite significant challenges, he said as he prepared for his trip to Houston to meet key figures from a number of companies. The visit comes at a time when the industry globally has been hit by a slump in oil prices.
Aberdeen-based project management and engineering expertise will support a new multimillion contract group won by energy service group Harkand from Maersk Oil North Sea. Harkand is to supply diving support vessel (DSV) services under the one-year deal, using its Da Vinci and Atlantis ships. The contract covers well tie-ins, structure installation, piling, flexible flowline lay, flexible riser installation, pre-commissioning, riser recovery, decommissioning and general inspection, repair and maintenance work.
A trio of professional services firms are beefing up their tax teams in Aberdeen to help the oil and gas industry survive the downturn. Johnston Carmichael (JC), Deloitte and Maclay, Murray & Spens (MMS) are all adding to their Granite City presence as they try to help clients prosper in the wake of the slump in oil prices. Aberdeen-based accountancy firm JC has recruited Anderson Anderson & Brown tax partner Richard Britten to become tax director at its office in Europe’s energy capital.
Parkmead Group said yesterday it had “significant” cash available to take advantage of lower oil prices and continue on the acquisition trail it has been on since 2011. The Aberdeen-based oil and gas firm, led by north-east entrepreneur Tom Cross, has already pulled off six deals since a refocusing of the business four years ago. It was previously an investment and advisory firm. Announcing first half results yesterday, Mr Cross said: “I am pleased to report significant progress in the period to December 31, 2014. “Parkmead discovered a new onshore gas field at Diever West, in the Netherlands, which delivered excellent production flow rates, providing an additional near-term cash flow opportunity to the group.
Shares in Aberdeen firm Plexus Holdings shot up more than 18% yesterday after the latest in a string of announcements this week. The oilfield technology company unveiled plans to expand into the important and growing Chinese energy market after striking a deal with a major Chinese oil services group. Plexus, whose innovative Pos-Grip wellhead technology has been used in more than 300 wells globally by the likes of BG, BHP Billiton, BP, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Tullow Oil, and Wintershall, said it had signed the framework agreement with Yantai Jereh Oilfield Services Group Company.
There is an urgent need to cut the accident rate among helicopters working in the global oil and gas industry to at least the level of mainstream commercial airlines, an aviation “summit” in Canada has heard. This was the core message of Mark Stevens, chairman of the aviation sub-committee at the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), on day two of the 2015 CHC Safety & Quality Summit in Vancouver. Mr Stevens said there were 406 helicopter and 71 fixed wing accidents over the period 1998-2014, killing 502 and 171 people respectively.
The “welcome and long-awaited” oil and gas tax measures unveiled in the Budget will help drive new investment in North Sea exploration and production, the boss of Aberdeen firm Plexus Holdings said yesterday. Plexus stands top gain from the tax cuts and incentives announced by Chancellor George Osborne last week, Ben van Bilderbeek, the oilfield technology company’s founder and chief executive, added. Particularly helpful is the new cluster allowance to support the development of high pressure, high temperature (HP/HT) projects and encourage exploration and appraisal activity nearby, he said.
A new gas project west of Shetland shows there is still a bright future for the UK North Sea industry, Energy Minister Matt Hancock said last night. He was speaking after French energy giant Total announced it had received Department of Energy and Climate Change approval for its £990million Edradour and Glenlivet field development plans (FDPs). The decision to invest was taken by Total last May. UK Government sanction for the FDPs allows Total, which has an 80% stake, and Danish partner Dong Energy (20%) to progress to development.
North Sea oil and gas is to the fore at a helicopter safety conference in Vancouver, Canada, this week.
Fair Work, Skills and Training Secretary Roseanna Cunningham will meet energy industry staff in Aviemore today to mark the launch of a “refreshed” skills strategy. It aims to encourage firms to “retain and invest in skills to ensure future prosperity”. The Scottish Government said yesterday its new Skills Investment Plan was developed through “extensive consultations with employers and stakeholders”.
About 100 oil and gas industry contractors are today taking part in what the host, Centrica Energy, has described as a “hackathon” of ideas aimed at reducing the costs for projects that are stuck in the pipeline. The term is more usually used for gatherings of software developers and programmers, where they get together to look at problems and figure out how to solve them. Centrica Energy hopes today’s event in Aberdeen will deliver new ways to approach some of its oil and gas projects, using new technologies which “might make the difference” between them going ahead or not in the currently difficult operating climate for North Sea firms.
An Aberdeen company's expansion to Houston in the US is just another example of the strong links between the two cities, the UK Government's representative in Texas says. Consul-general Andrew Miller was speaking during a trip to the Granite City, leading a 14-strong delegation from America's oil capital for the third annual Aberdeen-Houston Gateway event. Following a visit to electrical product and service provider AEL, which opened its Houston office last year, Mr Miller said: "It is another great example of a well-established Aberdeen company which is capitalising on the business links and synergies which exist between its home city and fellow global energy industry hub, Houston.
Two experienced industry figures have been appointed to the board at Aberdeenshire energy service firm Paradigm Drilling Services in the wake of a £5million investment in the business. Nicholas Gee and Mike Hill have become directors at the drilling and intervention technology company following the injection of capital by Buckthorn Partners and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV), the corporate venturing subsidiary of Saudi Aramco. Mr Gee, a former executive vice-president of strategy and development at Weatherford International, reprsents Buckthorn on the board. Mr Hill, who has over 17 years' investment experience in the oil and gas sector, represents SAEV.
German utility E.ON was staying silent about the future of its North Sea oil and gas interests last night after a report said the company was making plans for an exit. A spokeswoman said she could not comment on speculation, and there would be no announcement of any kind until the conclusion of a strategic review launched by the firm late last year. In November, Dusseldorf-based E.ON unveiled plans to split in two and spin off most of its conventional power generation, energy trading and oil and gas exploration and production (E&P).
Urgent reform of the oil and gas tax regime is essential to encourage exploration and ensure the North Sea is competitive for investors, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said.
In the latest in a series of meetings with political leaders, Oil & Gas UK (OGUK) met Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson and Tory general-election candidate Alexander Burnett in Aberdeen yesterday. The trade association said it highlighted "the important role the offshore oil and gas industry plays in both the Scottish and national economics" as well as "the need for urgent fiscal and regulatory reform alongside industry action to improve cost efficiency".
Oil and gas service firms in the east of England are being urged to pitch for business - at Aberdeen's expense - in the dismantling of hundreds of redundant platforms and wells in the North Sea. Baker Hughes director Julian Manning told the East of England Energy Group Decommissioning Special Interest Group new partnerships must be forged to secure work in such a competitive market.
When the price of a barrel of oil falls savings need to be made but a company’s greatest asset is its healthy workforce.
Canada's Tourmaline Oil has struck a deal to acquire Perpetual Energy's interests in the West Edson area of the Alberta Deep basin. The interests include Perpetual's land interests, production, reserves and facilities that are currently jointly owned with Calgary-based Tourmaline, which will issue 6.75million shares to acquire assets producing 5,750 barrels of oil equivalent per day net to Perpetual.
Sweden and Norway have agreed to boost their target for renewable-energy production amid concerns the additional capacity will exacerbate a power glut and strain the region’s electricity grid. The subsidised joint energy programme will be increased by 2 terawatt hours (TWh), or the annual use of about 80,000 Swedish households, to 28.4TWh by 2020 from 2012 levels, the countries said today in Stockholm. The proposed new target will be set for January 1, 2016, pending lawmaker approval in both nations.
China and India are poised to fill up their strategic oil reserves this year, taking advantage of lower prices, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The two nations are building emergency stockpiles with millions of barrels of crude that mirror the reserves of oil and refined products that the US and its western allies amassed after the first oil crisis of 1973 to 1974.
The European Union has blocked Hungary’s £8.6billion nuclear expansion deal with Russia, highlighting Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s challenge in maintaining close ties to the Kremlin while observing EU rules. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, supports the European Atomic Energy Community’s refusal to approve Hungary’s plans to import nuclear fuel exclusively from Russia, sources say.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund - or oil fund - rose in value by £45billion to £600billion last year as stimulus from central banks across the world boosted bonds and equities. The fund, the world’s biggest and an example the Scottish Government would like to follow, expects diminished returns going forward amid record low and even negative yields in key government bond markets as well as slow economic growth in developed markets.
Energy stocks led the FTSE 100 Index lower today after Labour leader Ed Miliband reiterated his election pledge to force a cut in household bills. He wants Ofgem to have the power to order energy companies to cut their prices by the end of the year if Labour gains office at the general-election.
Oil prices are headed for another weekly decline - the fourth in a row - amid signs that a global supply glut will expand. Futures were little changed in New York today after falling 2.3% to a six-week low yesterday.
