Moscow tightens screw on TNK-BP
A TOTAL of 148 BP employees working for TNK-BP have been recalled from Russia due to problems with registration, the joint venture has said.
Oil & Gas
May mooted for JDZ licensing
IT SEEMS that the long-awaited award of the last two blocks (5 and 6) in the licensing round for concessions in the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone (JDZ) will now be made in May, according to Patrice Trovoada, prime minister of Sao Tome. The round had been suspended 18 months ago.
Epi-V fund gets stuck into Norwegian Tarblaster outfit
UK PRIVATE equity fund Epi-V has taken an 18% stake in Tarblaster, a Norwegian company that specialises in technology designed to increase the efficiency of the oil recovery process for oil sands. The business was launched in 2006 by Olav Ellingsen, an entrepreneurial developer of innovative oil-recovery technologies. Epi-V's investment will enable Tarblaster to scale up its new technology and begin successfully commercialising it for the global oil sands market.
Chief executive makes his Mark
A RELATIVELY new player in the UK North Sea sector, Fairfield Energy, hosted a reception at the Marcliffe Hotel, Aberdeen.
Awards dinner gets the Bird
MORE than 400 people attended the 23rd Scottish offshore achievement awards dinner at the Mercure Ardoe House Hotel, near Aberdeen.
Scottish Offshore Achievement Awards 2008
Relocation heralds expansion
AGR will soon be on the move to a new Aberdeen home. The company has outgrown the current premises at Queens Terrace, where it started life as Peak Well Services some years prior to being acquired mid-2006 by Norwegian group AGR.
Dutch group picks off The EB
Dutch group IHC Merwede has taken over The Engineering Business (EB), one of the UK's best design, engineering and construction outfits serving the needs of the offshore industry.
Get set for the 2008 BG Energy Challenge
ONE of the upstream petroleum industry's premier charity fundraising events, the BG Energy Challenge, this year takes place in Plymouth on July 10-12.
Siberia training centre onstream
SCHLUMBERGER has inaugurated a $100million-plus training facility in Tyumen, Siberia, the gateway city to many of Russia's oil&gas resources.
Munro’s and P&J launching Middle East oil&gas push
THE Press and Journal and Munro's Travel Group of Aberdeen have teamed up to launch their first Middle East oil & gas conference and exhibition initiative.
Oilexco founder to speak at DEVEX
ARTHUR Millholland, the founder and president of exploration and production independent Oilexco, will deliver the keynote address at DEVEX 2008, which takes place in Aberdeen next month.
Oil and gas M&A undeterred
The appetite for mergers and acquisitions in the global oil & gas industry remained robust in 2007, despite the credit crunch sparked by the US sub-prime mortgage lending debacle.
European oil&gas asset deals back on the rise in 2007
THE value of oil & gas asset deals in Europe climbed above $5.5billion in 2007 after two straight years of decline, driven by a rise in both corporate and asset deal value. Total deal count was flat for the third consecutive year and four of the top eight buyers in Europe were state-owned or controlled, according to analysis by John S. Herold, Inc. and Harrison Lovegrove & Co.
Contractors boss endorses e-competence Energy
An innovative internet-based system designed to help verify worker competence in the offshore industry has attracted the attention of the UK's Offshore Contractors' Association.
Corporate manslaughter act HSE milestone
Our oil industry is high value, high risk. When the UK's Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007 comes into force next month, it is expected to herald the start of a new era in the world of health and safety prosecutions.
Iraq: five years on from allied invasion
Five years have passed since US and UK forces invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein. There would be few people who expected the problems there to have lasted so long, with little sign of solutions in the foreseeable future.
Shell signs US deal to crack biofuels challenge
Shell has signed up to a joint research and development agreement in the US that is intended to make biofuels more efficient and greener.
Amec snaps up Rider Hunt
Amec has made an acquisition calculated to deliver huge leverage to its oil & gas engineering and project management capabilities worldwide.
The credibility crunch
The current turmoil in the financial markets may feel pretty much irrelevant to anyone working in the oil & gas industry. Believe me, it isn't.
A Dutchman, a Scot and a Korean
It came out of left field - I mean the £500million conditional deal between Lunar Energy and the Koreans to manufacture and deploy tidal (marine current) turbine technology developed by Aberdeen offshore oilfield company Rotech Engineering.
‘Glider’ uses ocean power to fly
An undersea robot "glider" that harvests heat energy from the sea to propel itself across oceans? You have to be kidding - surely?
Energy ills and an ancient Scottish pile
Glamis Castle is not the most obvious setting for me to engage in a spot of contemplation about how the world's energy needs could be met and climate crisis averted. Even less would I expect to be doing so in the company of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
Ships are key to cost-effective well intervention
Light well intervention using ships rather than cumbersome, expensive mobile offshore drilling units rigs is gaining momentum. The population of vessels capable of handling this type of work is poised for a growth spurt and the technologies required to carry out the work are maturing.
Global wind capacity set to rocket by 2012
The Global Wind Energy Council is forecasting that the global wind market will grow by more than 155% to reach 240GW (Gigawatts) of total installed capacity by 2012.