EU plans offshore oil & gas safety law push but what does it mean for UK?
THE safety and environmental impact of the offshore oil and gas industry has, in past year or so, seen unprecedented scrutiny by the press and regulators.
Insights
Deal or No Deal?
THE level of global upstream oil and gas assets merger & acquisition activity was a little bit flat through early 2011.
Fuelling the Dragon: China’s strategic oil & gas policy
THE world's most-populous country, China, is also the second-largest consumer of oil; moreover, this huge country's rapidly rising demand and imports have made it a significant player in global energy markets.
Making sense of the North Sea’s future
WHEN we at Oil & Gas UK recently published our 2011 Economic Report, we highlighted some pretty positive findings: increasing investment, a flourishing supply chain, a massive economic contribution and a bright future ahead with considerable reserves remaining to be extracted.
A shadow over energy security in Uganda’s burgeoning oil sector
IN JANUARY 2009, Heritage Oil, in partnership with Tullow Oil, announced that exploration on concessions in the Lake Albert Basin in Uganda held over 2billion barrels in reserves, far exceeding the commercial viability threshold.
North Sea safety: back off Brussels
OH DEAR, the meddlers at the European Commission are at it again . . . planning a raft of new rules and regulations without taking proper account of what is already in place.
Longannet is dead, but there are alternatives
LONGANNET is dead. Long live carbon capture and storage. The two statements are by no means incompatible, as some of the obituary notices for the ScottishPower project in Fife have suggested.
Alarming decline in UKCS production
THE latest UKCS oil and production statistics from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) show big falls. June's output averaged 946,982 barrels per day, which was down 12.4% on June 2010. Gas averaged 4,004million (4billion) cu.ft, down 26.5% year on year.
Should we ask Norway to run our Treasury?
THE announcement by BP of its intention to invest £4.5billion in the Clair Ridge development West of Shetland has quite rightly attracted a lot of interest, not least from PM David Cameron.
Politicians’ fine words, platitudes and pledges of support . . . yet more hot air?
With PM Cameron just having jetted into Aberdeen to grab a bit of positive publicity and Treasury first secretary Alexander scheduled to be in Europe's Energy Capital in a couple of weeks for a bunch of engagements, including a (SCDI) Scottish Council Development and Industry dinner, this looks suspiciously like a government charm offensive.
Is Apache-ExxonMobil deal another Forties in the making?
North Sea.
The Good, the Bad and the Indifferent
IN 1966, Sergio Leone directed Clint Eastwood in The Good the Bad and the Ugly. In recent months, three FTSE100 listed E&P companies have re-written the script, issuing drilling updates which have been received in the market as "the good, the bad and the indifferent".
Who says golfers and wind turbines are incompatible?
THERE'S a funny clip on YouTube of Donald Trump's appearance on the David Letterman show on American television when he talks about owning "thousands of acres of Scotland" and his plans to make the dunes "even more beautiful than they are now".
Meanwhile, back here on Planet Earth . . .
IT'S time for a reality check. Could we create over 100,000 jobs in Scotland's renewable energy sector?
Energy oligopolies . . . just as bad as monopolies
I WAS not pleased when I received my last electricity and gas bills, and even less so when I received notification of the latest price increases, which were 19% for gas and 12% for electricity.
Apache captures Beryl from Exxon
SO, APACHE has finally struck the deal that has generated so much speculation within the North Sea oil and gas community of late. It has agreed to buy the Beryl field off ExxonMobil; oh and much else besides.
Africa . . . a continent on the move
AFRICA is on an upward growth curve. This growth is underpinned by a long-term process of economic and regulatory reform that has occurred across much of the continent since the end of the Cold War -- a period in which inflation has been brought under control, foreign debt and budget deficits reduced, state-owned enterprises privatised, regulatory and legal systems strengthened, and many African economies opened up to international trade and investment.
Trio of opportunities beckon
THE Middle East and North Africa have been at the forefront of the news this year. They have always represented a significant political risk for the oil and gas industry, but amidst the political turmoil and the personal sacrifice, the industry continues to develop.
Preparing for winter
THE winter months loom ahead and the weather forecasters are already arguing as to whether we're set for an extremely cold one or will get away with mild conditions.
Setting the pace for fit and robust industry standards
THE date April 20, 2010, will be forever etched on the collective memory of the oil and gas industry. This was the night a massive hydrocarbon release engulfed the Deepwater Horizon while drilling the US Gulf of Mexico Macondo field, claiming the lives of 11 men and unleashing the largest oil spill in the history of the American petroleum industry.
Time to be partisan
OFFSHORE Europe 2011 day one: for once there's a decent new project announcement ... BP's £700million Kinnoul satellite field that the company says will support 1,000 or so jobs at peak.
“The UK is not a Well, Fair State . . .”
It is reasonable to say, given the current economic state of the nation, all is clearly not well and all is not fair in the UK either. The phrase the "State of the Nation" is sadly a rather apt phrase . . .
A whining Aberdonian
Welcome to our new look and, we believe, dramatically improved web presence, with more news and features that ever before, including material specifically written for the site . . . like this . . . er . . . blog. We're of course all hoping that the gremlins stay in their box, especially since this is Offshore Europe week.
Jeremy Cresswell: ‘We need more than a belated apology from Shell’
Shell is having a rough time just now, with the Brent field having been out of action for many months because of the need to carry out major repairs before production from this ageing North Sea giant resumed a few days ago.
Joint venturing on the rise in oil and gas sector
OIL and gas merger and acquisition activity was strong in 2010 and has continued in 2011. , Total global industry transaction value topped $266billion in 2010, up 33% from 2009.