This year’s downgrading of the UK’s Energy Trilemma Index rating by WEC, from AAA to AAB might seem a surprise to some given the UK’s past leadership in attempting to tackle pressing issues related to the energy transition, but for those of us living in the UK, it has been clear for some time that the country is losing balance on energy policy.
The UK has seen its top rating for energy supplies downgraded in an international assessment, amid uncertainty over Government policy. The World Energy Council’s annual “trilemma” index, which looks at how 130 countries are meeting the triple challenge of ensuring secure, affordable and sustainable energy supplies, has revised the UK’s AAA rating of previous years to an AAB grade. The trilemma report said the UK’s ranking had slipped as electricity became comparatively more expensive, although its security of supplies and environmental performance remained stable.
National Grid Plc, the operator of UK’s electricity and natural gas networks, started a process for the potential sale of a majority stake in its domestic gas distribution business.
Established oil and gas investors have long been aware that in this market you need to take a ‘through-cycle’ strategy, managing the up cycle in the knowledge that tougher times are always on the horizon. The execution of the strategy in down cycle, organic or inorganic, can play a decisive role in determining the winners when the market recovers. And the market will recover.
You may not have noticed it, but the planet was saved this week.
Iona Energy has called for a two month extension on a debt restructuring plan after it raised concerns about the “funding position” of its partner, Atlantic Petroleum.
Oil supply outside OPEC will cease growing by 2020 as spending cuts that started this year take their toll on the global industry, according to the International Energy Agency.
Oil and gas industry decision-makers are under growing pressure to reduce asset downtime in the quest for greater efficiencies offshore, new survey findings show.
With the immediate threat of industrial action by offshore catering workers put on hold as negotiations continue between employers and unions, Energy Voice looks back at the 1979 catering dispute that made headlines at the time.
Recently we’ve heard suggestions that the SNP’s flagship £10 million wave-power prize should be scrapped. But given the history of The Saltire Prize it's no surprise that it has run into problems, with no-one even likely to come close to meeting the qualifying criteria by the 2017 deadline. From the start it looked like another of Alex Salmond’s pipe dreams and a PR stunt for the nationalists.
Total has named its new managing director in the UK set to take the helm after Philippe Guys announced his retirement. Elisabeth Proust, who became Total’s first female managing director for its Nigeria operations only last year, will take over the role. The move will be her third role as a managing director leading its UK operations after successful stints in Africa and Indonesia.
The oil and gas industry has cut $200 billion from investments this year as low prices discourage new projects, leading to cuts in crude supplies equal to half the daily output of Saudi Arabia, according to the kingdom’s Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman.
Hurricane Energy has been given the go-ahed to split its West of Shetland licence into four subdivision.
Apache Corp., the oil and natural gas company worth more than $18 billion, has received an unsolicited takeover approach, according to people familiar with the matter.
Andy Hall and Daniel Yergin think oil prices are bottoming out. Hedge funds agree.
Oil halted its three-day decline near $45 a barrel as Saudi Arabia sees low prices spurring demand growth.
An Aberdeenshire renewable energy firm Raggnar has vowed to deliver savings on electricity for households and businesses after inking a new distribution deal. Since it was set up almost three years ago, Raggnar has installed biomass boilers across the UK. The Insch-based firm will now be able to provide not just green heat, but also electricity and industrial cooling systems under the new deals.
An Aberdeenshire oil and gas well technology firm has received a major boost after netting a multi-million pound contract with Norwegian energy major Statoil. Darcy - which takes its name from Darcy’s Law, the foundation for the understanding of fluid flows in porous media – tested its new “sand control” technology on Statoil’s Statfjord field on the Norwegian North Sea earlier this year. Darcy will now supply its patented Endurance Hydraulic Screen technology to Statoil as part of a contract that is expected to run for seven years and is worth millions of pounds to the firm.
Aberdeen-based oilfield service firm Coretrax has taken another step in its Middle East expansion plans with the launch a fifth base in the region in four years. Coretrax said it made the move to help satisfy increasing demand for its wide range of downhole tools and services. The firm said it had retained all of its clients since it entered the Middle East market in 2011.
A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, Denmark’s biggest company, said profit at its oil unit dropped 86 percent in the third-quarter as energy prices fell. Maersk Oil’s net operating income after tax for the three months through September was $32 million, down from $222 million in the same period a year earlier, the Copenhagen-based company said in a statement on Friday.
Taqa Bratani said a consultation over headcount reductions launched in August has now concluded with the loss of 100 offshore core crew positions. The company previously announced it was considering the move which was most likely to affect contractors.
A former BP engineer is having a change-of-plea hearing in New Orleans, where he has been fighting a charge that he obstructed an investigation into the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Kurt Mix was indicted in early 2012 on two criminal counts arising from allegations that he deleted text messages about the amount of oil that spewed into the Gulf after the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig explosion that killed 11 workers. He has been in an up-and-down legal battle ever since. He was acquitted on one criminal charge in a 2013 trial and convicted on an obstruction of justice charge at the same hearing.
Norwegian operator Statoil said it has received an expert calculation of revised tract participation's for the Agbami field in Nigeria. The calculation will result in a reduction of 5.17% in Statoil’s equity interest in the field from 20.21% to 15.04%. The company previously initiated arbitration proceedings to set aside interim decisions made by the expert.
Each week Energy Voice pulls together the Friday Five. Click below to see the site’s most read and engaged with copy of the week.
More than 600 people working in North Sea oil and gas came together last night to celebrate achievement in the face of adversity and the best examples of how the industry is collaborating to ensure the future of the region. The 2015 Oil & Gas UK awards took place at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre attended by indsutry veterans including Sir Ian Wood and Total's Philippe Guys. The industry body's chief executive Deirdre Michie said this year's event was "notable" marking both "50 years of progress in exploration and production in the UK" but was also an important "tuning point" for how the sector does business.