Before the Energy Transitions Commission was even launched here in Houston a few weeks ago, environmentalists had already dismissed it as a public relations ploy by major oil companies and other peddlers of fossil fuels.
They immediately questioned the climate change credentials of companies like Shell, which is one of the leaders of the initiative to help meet the energy needs of growing world population without damaging the environment beyond repair.
Just a few weeks ago, activists from the environmental community took to their kayaks and posed for pictures in front of Shell’s Polar Pioneer rig moored in Seattle. Paddles raised in defiance, they decried the company’s plans to drill in the Arctic.
Europa Oil & Gas said an independent assessment carried out on three prospects has estimated an un-risked net present value (NPV) of around $7billion.
The company said the estimate was made on three prospects on the Frontier exploration licence in the Porcupine basin, offshore Ireland.
It was also found on a risked NPV basis, there was a 100% working interest of $1.1billion.
Floating wind turbine technology is well placed to help oil and gas operators reduce the cost of recovery from reservoirs using water injection, according to an industry expert.
A new joint industry project - Win Win - being led by DNV GL, has brought together oil majors including ExxonMobil, ENI, Statoil, Nexen and VNG to share knowledge and pursue water injection in subsea reservoirs delivered by wind-power rather than traditional gas turbines.
The technology is seen as being cost-efficient, able to reduce an oil platform's carbon footprint and offers opportunities for one turbine to be used on multiple wells.
A Nigerian court declared the election of a governor in one of the country’s oil hubs as invalid due to irregularities.
A fresh vote has been called for within three months in the Rivers State region as concern is raised it could lead to tension.
It comes after former militants in the southern region said they might resume a fight for a greater share of oil revenues if President Muhammadu Buhari ends an amnesty due to expire in December.
Hibiscus Petroleum has spudded the Sea Lion well after the project was delayed.
The company’s subsidiary, Carnarvon Hibiscus, said the West Telestro drilling rig arrived at the site last week following a 196-mile tow from its original location.
The planned total depth of the well is 1,800metres with the exploration well expected to take up to 30 days.
Woodside Petroleum Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Peter Coleman sees more time, not money, as the key to securing a takeover of Oil Search Ltd.
“You don’t always have to sweeten deals,” Coleman said in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Angie Lau on Monday. “What happens is that over time, expectations come together. You’re starting to see some M&A activity in Australia post the approach we made to Oil Search and you can see that peoples’ view of the world is starting to get a little closer.”
Oil swung between gains and losses near the lowest closing price in almost four weeks as investors weighed a slowing pace of U.S. drilling-rig reductions against an interest rate cut in China.
Futures in New York rose as much as 0.5 percent and fell as much as 0.4 percent. The number of active machines targeting oil dropped by 1 through Oct. 23 after declining by 45 over the prior three weeks, according to Baker Hughes Inc. China, the world’s second-biggest crude consumer, stepped up monetary easing with its sixth interest-rate cut in a year on Friday to combat deflationary pressures and a slowing economy.
Oil is failing to sustain a rally earlier this month above $50 a barrel as surging U.S. inventories bolstered speculation that a global glut will be prolonged. World crude supplies will remain ample until at least the middle of 2016 while investments in the industry is set to shrink further, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said in Singapore on Monday.
North Sea helicopter operator CHC is leading the way with innovative new technology offshore.
The company has replaced paper documents to create an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB).
It combines pilot logs, flight procedures and other documents in the field onto one tablet device which pilots can use when flying to different North Sea destinations.
Fracking could have a detrimental impact on the North-east oil and gas industry, an Aberdeen academic has warned.
The onshore fracking process has led to huge public protests over the potential environmental impact of blasting gas from shale rock using water and sand, including a major demonstration at Barton Moss in Greater Manchester.
Professor of petroleum accounting at Robert Gordon University, Alex Russell, has said fracking could have a hugely detrimental impact on Aberdeen’s position as Europe’s oil and gas capital.
A busy Offshore Europe event delivered “staggering” occupancy levels for Aberdeen hotels, but failed to reverse an ongoing decline due to the oil price crash, new figures show.
In what is the first report on the Granite city’s hotel trade for the key month of September 2015, LJ Research found that room occupancy fell 12.8% despite reaching 99% capacity halfway through oil week.
The report also found that hotel room yields in the month were down 13.8% on September 2013 – the last time Aberdeen hosted the biennial oil and gas event.
The UK treasury made a multimillion-pound loss on North Sea oil and gas for the first time in 40 years.
Thanks to the plummeting oil price, dipping government revenues were outweighed by repayments to producers in the first six months of this financial year.
It is thought to be the first loss recorded over a six-month period since the industry was established.
Scottish energy minister Fergus Ewing insisted that oil and gas could proposer for decades in the North Sea – but opposition parties suggested the revelation reflected the benefits of being part of the UK.
With oil prices still wobbling around $50, Norway is in danger of a recession that could drive its benchmark interest rates, already at a record low, to zero.
That’s what economists at Svenska Handelsbanken AB in Oslo say as they warn that “recessionary risks are significant.” The central bank in September cut rates to 0.75 percent and signaled more than a 50 percent chance for a third reduction since the drop in oil prices accelerated, about a year ago. Handelsbanken sees three cuts next year, bringing the benchmark to zero by the end of 2016.
“The Norwegian economy will now experience a deeper downturn than during the financial crisis, with output expected to stay below its potential for longer than it did last time,” Kari Due-Andresen and Knut Anton Mork, economists at Handelsbanken, wrote in their latest report.
The grandchildren of a British man who reportedly faces 350 lashes for breaking the law in Saudi Arabia have appealed directly to David Cameron as “his only hope”.
Karl Andree, who has battled cancer and suffers from asthma, was arrested in Jeddah in August last year for breaching the country’s strict anti-alcohol laws after he was caught with home-made wine.
The 74 year old has served his time in jail but is still locked up as Saudi officials wait to carry out the lashings, according to his son Simon Andree.
Petrobras has cancelled an ongoing tender for heavy and medium helicopters used in its offshore operations.
Era Group said Aeroleo Taxi Aero, its Brazilian joint venture, had received notification after Petrobras has carried out a review of its aviation needs.
It was concluded no additional contract was needed amid the challenges of the current marketplace.
Trade union members from Unite have voted in favour of strike action.
The catering and auxillary staff have been in dispute with COTA (Catering Offshore Trade Association) over a pay freeze.
The next move will be determined shortly, Unite said, in a short statement.
Technip has been awarded a subsea contact by JX Nippon Oil and Gas exploration in Malaysia.
The deal will see the company cover the engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation and commissioning of three flexible pipes in the Layang field, offshore Sarawak.
The flexible pipes consist of two production risers and flowlines and one gas export riser and flowline, connecting shallow water platforms to a new FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading Unit).
Oil traded near $45 a barrel as investors weighed data that showed US crude stockpiles expanded more than twice as much as forecast.
December futures rose 0.5 percent in New York after falling 2.4 percent Wednesday. Inventories climbed by 8.03 million barrels last week, the biggest gain since April, according to U.S. government data. A Bloomberg survey forecast a gain of 3.75 million.
Venezuela proposed a summit between OPEC heads of state and other producing nations in November to discuss the price needed to sustain future supplies, according to its oil minister Eulogio del Pino.
Nigeria’s government plans to split an oil- industry bill stuck in parliament for seven years and resubmit it to lawmakers after it held up reforms and deterred investment in Africa’s largest crude producer, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said.
Breaking up the Petroleum Industry Bill, or PIB, into smaller laws focused on fiscal and regulatory measures in Nigeria’s energy industry would make it easier to pass through parliament, he said.
The bill, first presented to parliament in 2008, will be resent to lawmakers in the first quarter of 2016.
A company set up by Wood Group last year to perform personnel services to external businesses will now be brought in-house once again.
Wood Group said the move to reel in its Altablue recruitment and payroll business was to reflect the “changing need” for resourcing service provisions in the current climate.
The 100% owned Wood Group firm was set up in June last year and registered in Jersey.
A mathematical technique developed to test the efficacy of nuclear bombs is being used by a Scottish company to predict the reliability of vital equipment on North Sea oil rigs.
North Sea energy firms are continuing efforts to break into new, global markets as the collapse in oil prices takes its toll on the supply chain.
Firms like Aberdeen-based Reftrade UK, which specialises in providing refrigeration containers in harsh environments, is looking to the pharmaceuticals industry.
Meanwhile, Enermech, a mechanical engineering group which has its headquarters in Aberdeen, has invested £250,000 to offer a mobile valves testing service in South Africa which takes in sectors as diverse as brewing and the pulp and paper industry.
An investigation has been launched after a worker was been killed in an accident on a drillship contracted to oil major Chevron in the Gulf of Mexico.
The man, who was employed by Pacific Drilling was fatally injured on board the Pacific Santa Ana while it was operating in waters in the US Gulf.
Subsea 7 is to downsize its Aberdeenshire office as it looks to streamline costs during the oil price decline.
The company, which announced it would be making headcount reductions earlier this year, said it would “optimise” its other buildings.
Subsea 7 currently has its east and west complex as well as its workshop and sports centre based in Westhill.
