If the Russian invasion of Ukraine has taught us anything it’s that war isn’t now so much a matter of slugging it out hand to hand on the battlefield and firing big lumps of metal at each other, although sadly that still happens, but increasingly about making far greater use of remote controlled and autonomous or semi autonomous weaponry.
Without putting too fine a point on it 2022 has been a disaster for pretty much everyone who didn’t run a hedge fund, is a shareholder in an oil and gas or other energy company or works in a bank and is due a bonus.
A new pact on hydrogen between Scotland and Germany has been branded “extremely bad news” for the domestic supply chain.
What brought that on? My anger with one of the latest “Scotland is now” claims. Issued by Scottish Development International as a Tweet it claims, and I quote: “From wind to wave and hydrogen to solar, Scotland is a global leader in renewable energy”. The associated video itself then goes on to claim that “Scotland’s a leader in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies”.
I spent nearly ten very happy and rewarding years working offshore with a great bunch of people operating deep water manned submersibles and ROVs mainly in the N Sea.
It’s very difficult for me as a supporter of Scottish independence to write about Norway – or Denmark and some other small countries for that matter – without becoming extremely hot under the collar.
It’s not often an entire train of thought is triggered by a report on an unusual event in the world of ornithology.
During a recent visit to the USA the First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon gave a speech at the Brooking Institute in which she expressed extensive support for the proposition that hydrogen will be an essential part of the move away from fossil fuels.
My eldest son is an aerospace engineer and lives and works in Seattle on the US West coast. He’s built a career in an industry which nowadays offers few opportunities in Scotland nor many in other parts of the UK.
Work for a trio of giant floating wind projects off the coast of Scotland have gone to the UAE fabricator Lamprell, sparking outcry.
The war in Ukraine has jolted European politicians into finally understanding that overdependence on imported energy can carry extreme risks. What they haven’t understand yet though is that you can’t just turn off one set of taps and turn on another.
The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has made a rebrand to the North Sea Transition Authority - here's the industry reaction to the move.
There are those that only talk about Net Zero – the “talkers”, those that are forever preparing Net Zero plans and studies – the “ditherers”, and those who are really getting on with implementing genuine Net Zero – the “doers”.
Europe is too reliant on Russian gas. In fact, Europe is too reliant on gas full stop but it being mainly Russian gas makes it even more problematic.
Reaction to news that the leading trade body for the North Sea, Oil and Gas UK (OGUK), is rebranding has varied from claims of it being a “PR stunt” to praise for a move that’s “not before time”.
I’m a little bemused. Inevitably the ScotWind lease awards were going to trigger all sorts of claims about how the Scottish offshore wind supply chain will gain from this huge project, but nobody seems prepared to explain exactly how this will happen given that we don’t actually have a supply chain of any note particularly when it comes to the high value hardware.
Building an additional 10GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 is an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up Scotland’s plans to try to reach Net Zero. ScotWind will be ground-breaking both in terms of size and opportunity.
I read with wry amusement that some 58 of Aberdeen’s great and good have written to the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and other political leaders asking for a “more reasoned debate” on the future of oil and gas.
The whisky industry has been quick to recognise the potential for green hydrogen to reduce its carbon footprint.
Let’s face it, 2021 was a terrible year.
The “electrify everything” lobbying brigade has just been deal a damaging blow.
Removing, breaking, and recycling what we can of redundant offshore oil and gas infrastructure is a huge task but worth many hundreds of millions of pounds to those fortunate enough to win the work.
I have long been an advocate for the renationalisation of energy. My father was a veteran of both the pre-WW2 private electricity industry and post war nationalisation.
A leading energy adviser has lamented the decision to award a contract for a major Scottish hydrogen project to a company from Norway.
The UK Government has pledged to support the advancement of both green and blue hydrogen as part of plans to create a “thriving” low carbon sector.