The devastating images of the aftermath of the terrible incident in the Gulf of Mexico last month have served as a stark reminder to the global oil & gas industry that we can never, ever, become complacent when it comes to the safety of our people who work offshore.
While we don’t yet know the cause of this latest incident, we do know that risk is part and parcel of working in hazardous environments and it is the duty of every man and woman engaged in our sector – both offshore and onshore – to reduce the potential for accidents and injuries every step of the way.
Knowledge is power and being able to properly understand the changing nature of risk, identify potential old and new hazards and react in the right way when something does go wrong is a fundamental part of keeping people safe.
Five years after it was first introduced to the North Sea, Minimum Industry Safety Training (MIST) has been significantly restructured and re-launched last month to take account of the changed requirements in the UK sector.
Energy firm SSE said “significant progress” has been made towards a major wind farm development off the Moray coast, as it announced a new partner for the project.
The Beatrice offshore wind farm in the outer Moray Firth could generate as much as 750 megawatts of electricity from its 140 turbines when it is up and running.
SSE has agreed to sell a portion of its shareholding to fund management company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), which will own 25% of the project after the deal has gone through. SSE will then own 50% and Repsol Nuevas Energias UK will have the remaining 25%.
Just two days after Denton, Texas made international news by voting to ban hydraulic fracture stimulation within its city limits, there will be yet another fracking debate in London involving an outspoken critic of the Texas ban, Chris Faulkner, chief executive of Breitling Energy Corporation.
The debate, billed as “The Frack Off” will be held today at 12.30pm as part of the 3rd Annual Energy Live 2014 conference, which is expecting more than 600 attendees.
Faulkner will be debating Eva Jasiewicz, a journalist, union organizer and activist.
Jasiewicz supports the group, No Dash for Gas, a UK-based vocal grassroots network that feels development of additional natural gas power plants in England would be harmful to the environment.
The group opposes fracking, and its supporters participate in frequent rallies against bringing the practice to the UK.
Faulkner is no stranger to the energy debate, as host of his own daily radio show, Powering America, which airs nationally in the United States. This debate, however, comes only two days after the voters of Denton, Texas, a community about 45 minutes drive from Faulkner’s downtown Dallas offices, voted to ban fracking inside the city limits.
“I promise you, this will come up in London,” Faulkner said on his radio show Wednesday, referring to the Denton vote.
Residents fighting against fracking in their village take their case to the High Court today.
They are objecting to planning permission which has been granted for further works to be undertaken at Lower Stumble in Balcombe, West Sussex.
Lawyers representing the Frack Free Balcombe Residents Association (FFBRA) claim the decision by West Sussex County Council to grant permission to energy firm Cuadrilla was “unlawful”.
Law firm Leigh Day says the company, which previously had permission to frack for oil and gas at the site, has been given the go-ahead to return.
It said: “According to the latest application, permission was sought for exploration and appraisal of the recently drilled ’hydrocarbon lateral borehole’ together with a new 46ft (14m) high flare on the site.”
Planning permission was granted “despite massive objection to the development”.
Chancellor George Osborne has been told that he must act urgently to deliver North Sea tax reform or jobs and energy security will be in jeopardy.
Industry body Oil and Gas UK yesterday piled the pressure on the Treasury in advance of Mr Osborne’s autumn statement next month.
In a letter to the chancellor, the group’s chief executive Malcolm Webb warned that costs in the North Sea were outstripping profits and that it was “not sustainable”.
Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander told the Press and Journal on Monday that the offshore sector will be given “positive” tax news in the autumn statement on December 3.
The Highland MP is due to deliver a speech in Aberdeen today which sources said would feature an announcement of a “significant milestone” in the Treasury’s review of the oil and gas tax system.
Oil and Gas UK has called for the immediate removal of the hugely controversial tax hike announced in the 2011 Budget, as well as the scrapping of petroleum revenue tax, and new tax breaks on investment.
Petrol firms and supermarkets will be pressed by the Government to pass on the benefit of falling oil prices to customers filling up at the pumps.
Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander will demand an assurance from fuel companies and distributors that they are doing all they can to pass on the price cuts to motorists.
Mr Alexander will use a speech in Aberdeen to warn people would "rightly be angry" if they felt prices were not coming down as much as they should.
A north-east oil and gas academic has called for energy policy to be fully devolved to Scotland with all revenues flowing to Holyrood.
In a submission to the Smith Commission, Alex Russell argued the Scottish Parliament should also have control over the fiscal and regulatory regime for “all economic activity” both onshore and in the North Sea.
Professor Russell, an expert in petroleum accounting at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, said devolving more financial powers north of the border would encourage future growth.
Interest rates are expected to remain on hold tomorrow as the recent fall in oil prices eases pressure on the Bank of England for an imminent hike.
The Bank rate has been left at 0.5% for more than five years but expectations of an upward move have dwindled in recent weeks due to global economic worries and signs that the housing market is cooling.
Despite strong UK growth, the majority of members on the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) are worried that a rise will choke off the recovery at a time when the eurozone is in danger of plunging back into recession.
Policymakers will have access to the Bank’s latest quarterly projections but these are likely to show inflation is less of a threat due to falling shop prices and oil market weakness.
Russia’s rouble currency is hitting an all-time low as the country’s economy struggles with the combined blows of western sanctions and a worldwide fall in oil prices.
In trading on the MICEX exchange, the rouble dropped to 44.9 to the US dollar late today - about a three per cent fall for the day.
The rouble has lost more than 25% of its value this year.
The collapse of a deal for the oil refinery in Milford Haven is “very disappointing”, David Cameron has said.
But the Prime Minister insisted ties should not be cut with Klesch Group, which is also in the process of buying Tata Steel’s long products division.
Mr Cameron made the remarks in answer to Labour MP Tom Greatrex who highlighted concern about the Swiss-based firm’s intentions given its record of “asset stripping”.
Councillors ended hopes of a 12-turbine wind farm being erected on top of Mormond Hill yesterday after backing the local authority's planners recommendation to refuse the application.
It is the second blow to Muirden Energy in as many months after councillors on the Buchan area committee similarly rejected their plans in October.
Green Cat Renewable's director, Gavin Catto, whose company represented Muirden, was present at yesterday's meeting of the Banff and Buchan area committee. He told elected members in Banff that the project could produce more than 100 gigawatts of power annually if they gave it the go-ahead.
September 18 has been and gone and now we are less than a month from another critical political event.
On December 3, George Osborne will undertake his Autumn Statement - often a damp squib, but this year vitally important.
The contents of the speech could have wide-reaching impacts for the North-east of Scotland and England, East Anglia and a number of other UK regions.
However, in the short-term it will have the most impact offshore in the UKCS.
We’ve spoken with our members and the view is clear, the Chancellor has to make a positive announcement on the fiscal regime in the UKCS in four weeks’ time.
Operators tell us the UKCS fiscal regime is unpredictable, unnecessarily complex and simply too burdensome.
The North-east asks are clear - we want a reduction in the headline rate of tax in the UKCS, we want exploration to be made more attractive, we want allowances to be simplified.
However, these asks are not parochial as they are important for the rest of the UK too.
Trust in energy suppliers has risen in recent months, with more people believing their power company to be transparent and fair, a survey by the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) suggests.
Worries about energy bills are at their lowest since the survey, conducted every three months, began in early 2012, as are concerns over power cuts becoming more frequent in the future - despite widely-voiced fears over a looming “energy crunch”.
But a third (34%) of the 2,103 households questioned in September were still concerned about paying their bills while just under half (49%) were concerned about power cuts becoming more frequent.
More than three-quarters of those quizzed (77%) were worried about steep rises in energy prices in the future, although the figure is the lowest level since the DECC public attitudes tracker survey started in March 2012.
The survey also revealed continuing high support for renewables, with solar gaining top backing of 80%, offshore wind receiving 74%, wave and tidal 73% and even often-vilified onshore wind backed by more than two-thirds of those quizzed (67%).
A man has been arrested after officials smashed a huge fuel laundering operation believed to be costing the taxpayer more than EUR10million (£7.8million) every year.
Revenue officers, backed up by the Garda, moved onto the site at Drumboat, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, last night.
The fuel cleaning plant was set up in a commercial yard close to the border with south Armagh in Northern Ireland.
It is estimated this could cost the public purse as much as 10.5 million euro (£8.2 million) every year in lost taxes.
A mobile oil laundry was concealed in an oil tanker at the plant.
Aberdeen-based training and consultancy firm ITB Competence Assurance has appointed a new assessor.
Michael Morrison will join the competency specialists with more than 20 years’ experience in the offshore oil and gas industry.
The Aberdeen-based organisation is one of a select band of OPITO approved competency and training specialists working with oil and gas clients worldwide.
Encana Corp has extended a deadline to buy outstanding shares of common stock of Athlon Energy at $58.50 a share until next week.
The deadline, set to US east coast time, will see the chance to purchase shares stop at 12am, Wednesday, November 12.
The offer had previously been scheduled to expire at midnight at the end of this week but the company said based on information provided by the depository for the offer 35,302,143 shares of common stock of Athlon had been validly tendered, but not validly withdrawn from the offer.
Australian energy firm Santos has completed the first of three major gas processing hubs in its Queensland gas fields.
The hub is now fully operational, as commissioning of Santos GLNG’s two other major processing hubs continues.
It follows the delivery of first gas into the Santos GLNG (Gladstone Liquefied Natural Gas) pipeline last month.
A positive session for corporate earnings ensured the FTSE 100 Index made progress despite a poor performance from heavyweight oil companies.
Shares in Imperial Tobacco, Primark owner Associated British Foods and Legal & General were all higher after posting well-received figures.
The FTSE 100 Index, which closed sharply lower on Monday due to disappointing manufacturing data in a number of countries, was 16.9 points higher at 6505.2.
The offshore industry is due to be hit with a £200million bill over the next two decades to help pay for Aberdeen’s new North Sea regulator.
The UK Government confirmed yesterday that it plans to give itself new powers next summer to levy oil and gas firms in order to fund the body.
Ministers also revealed that the number of officials dedicated to overseeing the North Sea sector would rise from 59 at present to about 145 as the Oil and Gas Authority gets up and running in Aberdeen. The creation of the new regulator was recommended after a major review was held into the future of the offshore industry, led by the businessman Sir Ian Wood.
Just over a year ago, Statoil decided that it wanted to press ahead with redeveloping the Snorre field in the North Sea t o enable production to continue through to 2040 and perhaps beyond.
An evaluation of the “Snorre 2040” project had been carried out with examination of two development concepts: a subsea development with continued use of the Snorre A and B platforms or a project that involved a new platform tied in to Snorre A and B.
Iraq is now more violent than at any time since the bloody 2006-2007 insurgency period. The country experienced an average of almost 80 violent incidents a day between July and September. Hundreds, possibly even thousands of people are being killed every month and there are no signs that the conflict will rescind in the near future.
As violence continues to rage, the energy sector remains concerned with developments affecting Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) territory, as well as oilfields in the south.
International military assistance has bolstered the position of the Kurds and for now, this will act as a major safeguard for the region's interests.
October was a “bumper month” for renewable energy in Scotland, with wind power alone producing more than enough electricity to meet the needs of every home in the country, campaigners have claimed.
Wind turbines generated an estimated 982,842 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity last month - with environmental group WWF Scotland suggesting this was enough to power 3,045,000 homes, the equivalent of 126% of the electricity needs of every home in Scotland.
WWF Scotland analysed figures from the WeatherEnergy organisation, looking at the estimated amount of power produced by the wind and the sun in Scotland.
For buildings fitted with solar PV panels, it is estimated there was enough sunshine last month to provide almost half (46%) of the electricity needs of the average home in Edinburgh, while houses in Inverness could get 38% of the electricity needs this way, compared to 37% for properties in Glasgow and 33% for Aberdeen.
Foster Wheeler's profits have slumped with the company’s income down by half in its third quarter results.
The company announced its income from operations was $25.4million, compared with $48.9million the same time last year.
Shares are currently sitting at an individual price of $0.25, compared to a cost of $0.50 during the third quarter of 2013.
New Zealand-focused oil and gas explorer Kea Petroleum has seen a spike in profits as a result of hydrocarbon sales.
The company announced its preliminary results for the year ending May 2014, with revenue increasing to £2,087,000, up from £829,000 in 2013.
Kea said the increase was associated with the production of hydrocarbons from Puka-1 and Puka-2.
Seven wells are currently active on the NCS . . . six exploration; one appraisal. Four are North Sea, two Norwegian Sea and one in the Barents.
There are nine active development/production wells utilising mobile units in the sector, all North Sea. There are 38 units on the NCS . . . six on E&A duties and nine on D&P drilling. In addition, eight fixed platform D&P wells were operating as October closed.
Of the remaining 23 MODUs, three are stacked in port, including the XL Enhanced 2, which is a new-build; the remaining 20 are either mobilising between drilling locations or working on in-field operations.
