Billionaire industrialist Sir Jim Ratcliffe has blamed Britain's lack of industrial strategy and levies on carbon polluters for the closure of the UK's last plant producing synthetic ethanol.
Christopher O’Shea, chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, has said he is “worried” about low gas reserves this winter.
Aberdeen-headquartered ASCO has been awarded a £70 million contract by Aker BP for work across its Norwegian operations.
2024 ended on a high at Concordia Damen, with the Dutch shipbuilding group reaching the roughly halfway stage in the design, build and delivery of two 550ft (167.5m) roll–on–roll–off wind turbine systems carriers for fellow Dutch company Amasus, with delivery of the first sister expected later this year (2025).
A search is underway for a new chairman at Asco Group following the surprise departure of both the oilfield services firm’s chief executive and chairman. The Aberdeen-based company remained tight-lipped last night over the details of why chief executive Derek Smith and chairman Billy Allan were exiting the business. It said that Mr Smith was leaving to “pursue other opportunities”, while Mr Allan had “indicated his intention to step down”, but made no further comment.
Oil and gas services firm Can Group has recorded a boost in turnover and pre-tax profits for the year ending December 2013. The Aberdeen-headquartered firm, which provides engineering, inspection and trade services to the oil and gas sector, posted a 20% increase in pre-tax profits to £18.5million, from £15.4million previously.
The plunging oil price is giving an unexpected lift to Europe’s crisis-battered southern periphery as decreasing fuel costs help spur demand. Spain, Europe’s fourth-largest economy, could add as much as 1 percent to annual growth with oil prices between $80-90 a barrel, the government said. Italy, which is in its fourth year of recession, stands to boost GDP 0.3% points with a sustained $10 oil price drop, according to BNP Paribas SA. “There’s no doubt lower oil prices will act as a stimulus to growth in the region,” Frederik Ducrozet, a Paris-based economist at Credit Agricole, said. “Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy would be clear beneficiaries.”
Igor Sechin spent $55 billion in 2013 to buy competitor TNK-BP and create a Russian oil colossus, pumping about 5 percent of the world’s crude. Almost two years later and investors have written off the deal. Battered by sanctions and oil’s accelerating price crash, OAO Rosneft has lost 38 percent of its market value this year in dollar terms and today the whole company, TNK-BP and all, is worth $50 billion. And buying TNK-BP has left Sechin, Rosneft’s chief executive officer and a long-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with a lot of debt to repay. State-controlled Rosneft owes about $60 billion to banks and bondholders, making it more indebted relative to earnings than any large oil producer apart from Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA.
One of Russia’s leading oil companies is asking the High Court in London for an urgent order to stop the Government introducing in the UK this weekend sweeping new economic sanctions announced by the US and Europe. Lawyers for OJSC Rosneft Oil Company are seeking a “stay” on the sanctions, which are due to take effect in Britain on Saturday (November 29), until their legality can be challenged in an application for judicial review.
UK natural gas rose for an eighth day, the longest such streak since March 2011, as field outages in Norway continued to curb supply amid increased demand for the fuel used in heating. Front-month gas in the UK, Europe’s biggest market, climbed as much as 3.1 percent on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. The within-day contract reached the highest price since March 3 on the National Balancing Point hub, broker data on Bloomberg showed. Norway, Britain’s biggest foreign supplier, has flow constraints at three fields, with a reduction at Aasgard adding to continued limited flows from Troll and Skarv. Demand for the fuel is forecast to exceed seasonal norms. Prices also climbed as European Union carbon permits touched the highest level since March 3 in London trading.
Russia will refrain from cutting its oil production amid declining global prices, the country’s energy minister said.
US firm ConocoPhillips has become the latest oil major to warn of job losses in the UK North Sea, although it refused to say how many or where exactly the axe is likely to fall. ConocoPhillips, which is poised to take over as the biggest oil producer in the region in terms of production volume by the end of this year, told the Press and Journal it had recently launched a review of its UK business. It added: “Like other operators in the North Sea, we are focused on improving the operating efficiency and production outlook for our business. “We have now started a consultation process with staff relating to organisational restructuring to establish a model to drive our UK business forward in an efficient and sustainable manner. “We do anticipate some redundancies but at this stage the actual number has not yet been defined.” ConocoPhillips is the world’s largest oil and gas exploration and production company. It currently employs about 1,000 people directly and a further 600 contract workers in the UK. A spokeswoman for the firm said the totals included about 700 staff and 400 contractors working out of Aberdeen. The group’s Granite City-based UK business either operates or has stakes in assets including the Britannia field and its satellites, Judy/Joanne, Jade, Jasmine, CMS, Galleon, LOGGS, Saturn Unit, V-Fields, Victor, Viking, Calder, Darwen, Crossens, Asland, Millom, Dalton, Clair, MacCulloch and Nicol. Onshore, the company has interests in the Rivers terminal at Barrow-in-Furness, the Teesside oil terminal at Seal Sands, Middlesbrough, and Theddlethorpe gas plant in Lincolnshire. Its job cutting comes hot on the heels of BP launching a cost reduction exercise in the North Sea in line with rivals such as Shell and Chevron which have axed hundreds of roles as low oil prices and high overheads take their toll. BP has declined to reveal the likely impact of its review on its 4,000-strong North Sea workforce.
Norway’s central bank is adapting its policy to ensure plunging crude prices don’t disrupt the economy of western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer. While central banks elsewhere grapple with the threat of deflation, policy makers in Norway face “problems and challenges that are in a different class,” Governor Oeystein Olsen said today in an interview in Bergen, on Norway’s western coast. “There are some clouds now that are darker in regards to the prospects of the Norwegian economy, we see those dark clouds in the future development of the oil industry.”
The Spanish authorities have detained Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise after the activist group staged a protest against Repsol’s oil exploration campaign off the Canary Islands.
Russia’s financial crisis has become so severe that President Vladimir Putin found himself reassuring investors late last week that the government would provide the support needed to the world’s largest oil company.
Bibby Offshore won a scope of work with Total worth millions. Through the deal, the subsea firm will carry out work on the Ellon and Grant fields, located 270 miles north-east of Aberdeen.
political dissident Liu Xiaobo. The world’s second-biggest economy is trying to gain access to energy sources needed to fuel its growth. Part of that plan involves the Arctic, which may hold more than 20 percent of the globe’s undiscovered oil and gas resources. “We like to cooperate with oil and gas energy producing companies from everywhere in the world,” said Lien. “And if they are skilled and good at what they are doing, that’s what’s important for us.”
A new centre which aims to speed up the development of new technologies for the North Sea oil and gas industry will be formally launched by Energy Minister Fergus Ewing in Aberdeen tonight
Energy service firm Hydrasun Limited reported a healthy order book and “strong pipeline of new opportunities” in its latest annual accounts. The Aberdeen company - part of Hydrasun Group - achieved a small rise in profits to just under £17million, from £16.2million a year earlier, during the 12 months to March 31. Turnover increased by more than £20million to £120.9million.
Enegi Oil has been awarded a production licence in the UK Central North Sea in the 28th round of licensing. The block, 21/28b, was awarded by the Department of Energy and Climate change. It contains two known discoveries named Crinan and Dandy, which lie adjacent to the Fyne Project area in water depths of 89m.
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”.
“If you look at the assets that we’ve held the longest, like Thistle, the Dons where we have the (FPSO) Northern Producer, and Heather, we’re having a very good year,” says Enquest’s North Sea president, Neil McCulloch. “We’re doing well on the regulatory side of things too; had inspections around our facilities this year . . . some of the oldest in the North Sea. “While you never get an entirely clean bill of health, we’ve done very well with no prohibition notices, no improvement notices; just some support for the way we go about our business. It’s about doing simple things very well, repeatedly. And that’s a core value at Enquest.
North Sea operator CNOOC confirmed its Golden Eagle Area Development (GEAD) has commenced production. The timetable is in-line with predictions made earlier this year. The Chinese state-run oil group is targeting between 422million and 435million barrels of oil equivalent from its operations this year.
Moscow and Kiev have clinched a deal that will guarantee that Russian gas exports flows into Ukraine throughout the winter despite their intense rivalry over the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine have resumed talks in a bid to strike a reprieve in the pair’s longstanding gas stand-off.
Statoil ASA may cut investment plans for the two next years after the sale of assets from the North Sea to Azerbaijan reduced the spending commitments of Norway’s biggest energy company.
A Super Puma helicopter has made an emergency landing on a North Sea platform.
The UK arm of Dutch energy service firm N-Sea Group said yesterday it had secured work worth a total of more than £100million since a change of ownership at the start of the year.
Collaboration by North Sea states will help tackle Europe’s carbon emissions, an international gathering of CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) emission experts will hear. The SCCS (Scottish Carbon and Capture Storage) annual conference will tell politicians, industry experts and academics that the combined efforts of the industry could see hundreds of years’ worth of Europe’s carbon emissions stored.
