I have recently completed a study of new market opportunities for the former oil fabrication yard at Nigg, in Easter Ross. Brown and Root stopped building offshore platforms and modules there in 2003, since when the facilities have only been used by other companies on a very small scale.
ABERDEEN'S Balmoral Group is hoping to cash in on the burgeoning market for remotely operated vehicles, especially deepwater units, by developing a suite of new-generation buoyancy systems with depth capabilities to 7,000m.
Eni is to delay first oil from its Goliat project in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea by a year, to 2013, because the company can't begin necessary purchases in time for the planned start-up.
ITI Energy has put out a call for parties interested in working with the publicly funded Intermediary Technology Institute to harvest energy from seaweed.
The extraordinary convulsions continue and you can bet your bottom dollar that the North Sea exploration and production landscape will have changed dramatically by this time next year regardless of whatever fiscal changes are implemented in the spring 2009 UK Budget following the just-published Treasury consultation paper on the topic.
WITH both the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer and the President-elect of the United States making major speeches a few days ago about how to tackle the effects of global recession, one obvious contrast lay in the relative lack of emphasis placed on the drive for clean energy by Alistair Darling.
"The board should set the global corporate standards that apply and can be effectively translated to every area of the company's business" - Lord Woolf, the Woolf Committee, May, 2008.
The engine of future increase in world oil output will be Opec, its members' collective share rising from 44% in 2007 to 51% in 2030. So says the International Energy Agency in its headline-grabbing World Energy Output 2008 report.
Privately financed UK independent Chrysaor is to develop the West of Shetland Solan discovery at a cost of £150-175million, with first oil anticipated in 2010.
FAR East yards like Yantai Raffles have huge new rig order books. However, the credit crunch and $50 oil are now leading to cancellations.
North Sea company Bow Valley Energy said yesterday that a range of alternatives were being considered for its future.
International engineering and project-management company AMEC said yesterday it had now begun conceptual engineering studies to test the potential for further development of the huge Clair field west of Shetland.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg spelled out his opposition to a windfall tax on the offshore oil and gas industry yesterday.
Faroe Petroleum announced a near-£25million bank boost to help finance its Norwegian exploration and appraisal programme.
A recent Scottish university spin-out working in the field of renewable energy has ambitious expansion plans.
WHEN the Piper Alpha oil platform exploded in the North Sea 20 years ago, it fell to various agencies to scramble their resources and deal with the blaze, the fatalities, the bereaved families and the aftermath.
Engineers yesterday urged the Scottish Government to set up a £40million fund to help launch marine energy projects.
MONTROSE Port Authority has its eye on more oil and gas-related business, chief executive John Paterson said yesterday.
OIL and Gas UK published updated guidelines yesterday for the safe packaging and handling of cargo to and from offshore installations, with the aim of securing improvements in safety.
The exploration director of Scottish oil and gas company Cairn Energy has been in Greenland for a signing ceremony for two oil and gas exploration blocks offshore southern Greenland.
Aberdeen Valve Supplies (AVS) has made a multimillion-pound buy south of the border.
As a youngster growing up near Potterton in the north-east, Mike Brown had only one career ambition.
ABERDEEN City and Aberdeenshire councils are offering companies the chance to share their stand space at the world's most important oil and gas show.
A north-east training firm said yesterday it was pioneering a food-safety programme for offshore workers.
Subsea UK is warning oil and gas companies against the temptation to put investment in research and development on hold as the industry begins to feel the effects of oil-price falls and the credit crunch.