Robert Gordon University (RGU) and the Mexican Government said yesterday they had agreed to an oil and gas industry knowledge swap.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was announced at Offshore Europe in Aberdeen and follows Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s visit to the Granite City in March.
Under the pact, the Mexican energy ministry and RGU will share information and seek opportunities to support the training of Mexicans for the oil and gas industry. RGU will be included on the list of preferred universities for Mexican scholarships.
Escape Business Technologies is under new ownership today after a Norwegian takeover of the Aberdeen-based information technology company.
It is the second multimillion-pound acquisition of a business in or near the Granite City in as many days, following Proserv’s move to buy Nautronix on Monday.
Cegal, headquartered in Stavanger, will announce its swoop on Escape to the Norwegian stock exchange this morning.
The firm behind Aberdeen’s controversial Marischal Square scheme has revealed it hopes to attract a “big name” oil company to move into the offices.
Bosses at the developer Muse discussed the plans as they unveiled updated designs for the £107million complex at the former St Nicholas House complex on Broad Street
Final specifications for the scheme show about two-thirds of the outside of the building will be glass, with the rest made of granite.
There will be two office buildings, a 126-room Marriott hotel, and seven restaurants and bars – including All Bar One and Burger and Lobster.
Enquest, the largest UK independent producer of oil in the UK sector, has agreed the sale of its new North Sea headquarters in Aberdeen for £45.1million.
It’s 42 years since the first Offshore Europe conference was held in Aberdeen and 30 years since it first occupied its current home at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.
Statoil chief executive Eldar Saetre made his first trip to the firm's Aberdeen base today.
The company leader visited the Norwegian operator’s new premise in Kingswells before sitting down to talk with Energy Voice.
The industry leader had one clear message – there’s still plenty left to find in the UK North Sea.
“We believe even in mature provinces the industry can still make the mistake of leaving too early,” he said.
“We have the capability to take a second look and see if there’s anything we haven’t seen before.”
ConocoPhillips could be set to make headcount reductions to its North Sea operations.
The company announced last month that it had already reduced staffing numbers by 1,000 positions since the decline in oil price.
The amount equates 5% of its global workforce across its operations.
Plans to expand a major oil and gas office complex in Aberdeen have been hailed as evidence that the city is “here to stay” as a global centre of expertise.
A planning application has been lodged to create a 20,000sq ft extension at Chevron House, part of the Hill of Rubislaw business park that is the UK home to oil giants Chevron, Marathon Oil and Conocophillips. The development has emerged at a time when thousands of North Sea jobs have been lost or thrown into doubt as a result of the global oil industry downturn.
Maeve Callery, vice-president of commercial development at the site’s owners, the Talisker Corporation, said: “We have been active in the Aberdeen market for nearly 30 years, including the development of Chevron House and the proposed R7 development across the road.
The North Sea is still a good return on investment, according to an industry boss.
Enquest’s president for the North Sea, Neil McCulloch, said the sector was still very much open for business.
The company leader spoke to Energy Voice as it confirmed a 20% slide in earnings.
Despite the dip, Enquest’s North Sea assets posted a strong return with its Kittiwake Area (GKW) increasing production efficiency by 87% in the first half of the year.
TCO said it has expanded its workforce by a third after strong sales results for the company.
The well completion technologies provider has employed eight new members of staff within the past six months for its UK base, including a new managing director.
Paul Betteridge was appointed in March in response to company growth and to focus on TCO’s international expansion.
British war-time comedian Tommy Trinder is widely credited with coining the phrase – “over-fed, over-paid, over-sexed and over here” when referring to American GIs during World War Two.
Low oil and gas prices steered Aberdeen hotels to double-digit percentage falls in both occupancy and revenue for the second month on the trot, a new report says.
And there is uncertainty as to whether hotel prices will be ratcheted up for next month’s Offshore Europe conference, a common practice in the Granite City.
Aberdeen hotel rooms generated £52.45 a night on average in May, down an alarming 30% year-on-year, according to accountancy network BDO’s survey of three and four star establishments.
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness all experienced strong increases in revenue, though the Scottish capital was the only location to enjoy a rise in occupancy.
Petrotechnics has opened a new competency and training centre in Aberdeen.
The company said the new facility will offer increased capacity to meet the growing demand for a range of courses.
A wide-ranging review of the high cost of electricity in the north and north-east will be carried out by the UK Government following a campaign by Energy Voice's sister publication, the Press and Journal.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell revealed last night that there "will be an opportunity to change things" over the coming months.
Families in the Highlands and islands, Grampian and Tayside currently pay the highest power bills in the UK because of a regional system for distribution costs.
An offshore engineering company founded by one of the north-east’s best-known businessmen is launching a Marine Safety Systems (MSS) division following a six-figure investment.
Aberdeen-based Imes Group, which was co-founded by Melfort Campbell, expects to create a total of ten jobs at the new subsidiary, with six staff having already been hired.
Mr Campbell last year chaired the Scottish Government’s Independent Expert Commission on Oil & Gas and who is a former chair of CBI Scotland.
Other directors of the new division include Rod Buchan, who was appointed as executive chairman of Imes Group in April.
Experts in well intervention are being called upon to submit an abstract on the topic and share the latest developments with their peers.
The findings will be shared at the annual SPEICoTA European Well Intervention Conference which takes place at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre in November.
A range of topics will be covered over two days, with a focus on new technology and innovative solutions, subsea fields, mature fields and challenging environments.
An investigation is underway after a gas leak on a North Sea platform.
Production was temporarily shut down on the Beryl Alpha platform around 200 miles from Aberdeen after the incident earlier this month.
Operator Apache said the leak was suspected to have come from a flow transmitter on one of its wells.
Serica Energy said production at the Erskine field in the North Sea has been around 2,000boepd (barrels of oil equivalent per day) since it restarted two months ago.
The field, which is 150miles east of Aberdeen, had previously been shut down altogether from September last year to late May due to work on the Lomond platform.
The oil and gas explorer said four of the five wells at the asset are now in production and exceeding estimated potential.
