Since 1980, Peterhead Power Station, in the North East of Scotland, has played an essential role in keeping the lights on across the country. This has rarely been more evident than over the last year, with our critical workers ensuring the station continues to provide the energy needed throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
As the UK and other countries seek to seize the potential in Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW), the nascent technology offers diversification opportunities for the oil and gas industry and the supply chain.
The idea of an energy transition itself is not new. We have been experiencing it for decades already in the search for reliable, affordable, and less-polluting sources of energy. However, the need to get to net-zero quickly in response to a growing climate emergency is taking us all through uncharted territory.
For many years in the North East of Scotland, the personal service company (PSC), otherwise referred to as a one-man company, has become a fairly standard way to provide services, particularly in the oil and gas sector, due to a mixture of employment law and tax law.
Much of my career has been in the oil and gas sector of the UKCS and I’ve felt extremely privileged to have worked with some amazing leaders over the years and some equally outstanding engineers, scientists, HR professionals.
On this day exactly one year ago, Mintra asked our staff to pack up their desks and make their home space their new office space. We knew that the Covid-19 stay at home order would be coming – it was only a matter of time – and that we needed to act swiftly to keep our team both safe and operational, even before governments made working from home mandatory for non-key workers.
Like so many other parts of the economy, Scotland’s renewable and alternative energy sector has not avoided the impact of the global pandemic. The recent UK Budget set out a variety of key climate and environment measures that, alongside other political and market developments, may re-energise the sector following the recent difficulties.
The skills deficit in energy is a source of concern that has increased rapidly for employers. With global authorities cementing their commitment to reaching net zero targets by 2050 at the latest, the pressure is on for energy companies to deliver against substantial sustainability targets. But a dearth of trained resources has the potential to hinder this growth.
Despite an increased focus in recent years, the energy industry has consistently struggled to attract more women.
At COP21 in Paris in 2015, 11 countries made gas flaring a stated commitment to their Paris Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs). Disappointingly, five years on, flaring has increased for these 11 countries, by 6% to 60 billion cubic metres per year.
The oil and gas industry needs to be careful that Covid-19 doesn’t undo the large strides that have been made to address gender imbalances in recent years.
International Women's Day, taking place today (8th March), grew out of a 1908 women's march for better labour laws to become an event recognised by the United Nations. To celebrate, Energy Voice spoke with Simone Pizzolato, Forum Energy Technologies' commercial manager, about the changes in the energy industry in the past two decades.
A sustainable future is closely linked to creating and adopting innovative technologies. These new products, services and ways of working may solve many of the challenges we face as individuals and as a society. However, to unlock the power of innovation, these technologies must be adopted and deployed. How we produce and consume energy is a critical element of a sustainable future.
International Women’s Day is a great chance to celebrate my mother, wife, sister, daughter and all the women that have made a difference in my life. But for reasons I hope will become clear, I’m starting with a story about my Dad.
It has become something of a cliché that the Millennial and Gen Z generations are more environmentally conscious and values-driven than their predecessors in the workplace. The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020 showed that there is still truth in that cliché, and despite the financial hardship and anxiety of the last 12 months, younger workers remain focused on larger societal issues and the need to drive positive change in their communities and around the world. This is seen as presenting a challenge to the sector in terms of attracting new recruits.
A UK Modern Apprenticeship typically lasts four years. To put that in context, a standard honours degree in Scotland demands a four-year commitment; in England it’s three.
In 1992, the UK’s energy system was a very different place.
Over the last year, labour markets in Latin America and the Caribbean have faced an unprecedented unemployment problem.
News ahead of tomorrow’s Budget that Scottish businesses are set to receive a boost to energy transition efforts have been widely welcomed by our industry.
The transition to a lower carbon economy, including commitments by the UK and Scottish Governments to achieve net zero by 2050 and 2045 respectively, coupled with increased urgency around climate action plans leading to COP26 in November, have sent a clear message.
On 10 February 2021 the UK Government published a consultation paper seeking views on an approach to sequencing the deployment of carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS) clusters.
Does anything ever go right for the ambition to turn Scotland’s renewable energy resources into actual jobs? Waiting for Godot was a brief intermission by comparison with delays in matching that rhetoric to reality.
The future of the energy system belongs to our children, grandchildren and all subsequent generations. But what we do now regarding climate change will determine the quality of that future.
I watched a Scottish Energy Forum’s webinar - The Future of Hydrogen in Scotland - presented by Stuart Mckay, the Scottish Government's head of hydrogen policy.
Environmental requirements around petroleum products are becoming increasingly stringent, and the share of heavy oil in the refining process is rising. In response to these challenges, Russia has undertaken large-scale modernisation of its oil refineries. Deep conversion of raw hydrocarbons is becoming essential. Catalyst processes are key to facilitating this, and, as such, now account for more than 80% of all secondary oil-refining processes.