Despite the uncertainties raging around us, as an industry and as individuals we have adapted quickly to the challenges of lockdown. The return to normal may prove a longer, challenging but potentially rewarding path, believes Jon Clark, EY EMEIA Oil & Gas strategy and transactions leader.
Rever Offshore has released a video of North Sea divers showing their appreciation for frontline workers as they prepare to spend a month in saturation.
While the immediate priority is survival, senior management of exploration and production (E&P) companies will also be looking to the future, seeking ways to access the capital required to bring undeveloped oil and gas discoveries into production and lower carbon dioxide emissions.
There has been a lot of discussion in the media recently about the prospects that the “great plague of 2020” will inevitably lead to fundamental changes in both our economy and our society.
Boris Johnson has “assured” MPs that the UK Government is working on a sector deal for the crisis-hit oil and gas industry.
Brent Crude’s rebound yesterday brought it up beyond $30, but the figure is still too low to make an impact for the UK North Sea.
Oil and gas firms are “grappling” between putting workers on the government’s coronavirus furlough scheme or going straight to redundancies, according to experts.
Oilfield services firm TechnipFMC is understood to be following up hundreds of job losses across its sites in Norway with scores of UK redundancies.
A wave of restructuring will wash through the North Sea oil industry as firms battle to make themselves “fit” for the new reality, a top accountant has said.
Jersey Oil and Gas has said it plans to launch a farm-out process later this year for its Greater Buchan Area in the North Sea, despite the Covid-19 and oil price crises.
As the UK oil and gas sector predicts up to 30,000 job losses over the next 12-18 months, Catriona Ramsay of Aberdein Considine sets out workers' legal rights.
What in recent offshore industry terms were regarded as five of the most powerful brands in US drilling history are in deep trouble and the situation can only get worse.
We are all getting used to the challenges of the lockdown. As it becomes clear that this situation is going to continue for some time, we need to consider the legal implications of the stress caused to businesses by the double blows of Covid-19 and the oil price fall.
Do we play as a team or individuals? How should we take on the challenge of the unpredictable turbulence of today’s business environment? Our industry faces a triple whammy of pressures from operational disruption due to Covid-19, massive reductions in demand for our product and a globally oversupplied market.
We’ve endured downturns many times before but the rapid spread of Covid-19, the resulting restrictions on working offshore and drastic fall in oil price has meant that the UKCS has never before faced challenges like this.
The US oil industry has been shrinking in much the same way as the country’s car industry – and the price crash will accelerate the process, according to a top economist.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (the "Scheme") was announced on 20 March 2020 and opened to applications on 20 April 2020. By 23 April 2020 it had received 512,000 claims in respect of 3.8 million furloughed employees. However, a great deal of uncertainty remains around the application of the Scheme to businesses in the oil and gas sector.
The UK’s Job Retention Scheme has proved a lifeline for many employers and a way to ensure employment is protected while oil and gas firms deal with the double hit of Covid-19 and the drastic fall in oil price. The uptake figures demonstrate the need for the scheme, with over nine million people in the UK expected to be furloughed, yet the decisions to furlough staff have often been made quickly with little planning for the scheme ending.
Around 200 North Sea workers have been evacuated with suspected Covid-19 symptoms over the last six weeks as the sector has attempted to manage the spread of the virus.
Total barely managed to stay in profit for the start of 2020 as oil prices took a nosedive due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Neptune Energy is “assessing the impact” Covid-19 will have on the delivery of its 50million barrel Seagull development in the UK North Sea.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are almost completely off the table in the oilfield services (OFS) sector, investment experts have said.
The Covid-19 pandemic has created a severe demand shock for the energy market, coinciding with an oil price war that has caused prices to plummet further.
My recent Energy Voice article comparing Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) with Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) generated some interest. To my mind the BEV has clear benefits from an energy efficiency standpoint, as an FCEV requires twice the energy of a BEV.
After weathering the storm that was the price collapse of 2014, the oil industry has again been hit in recent months by two new blows almost simultaneously: oversupply (caused by the failure of negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Russia to agree on production cuts and the aggressive response of the former); and a demand shock (reflecting the economic impact of the Covid-19 lockdown).