The SNP has been accused of “deceiving” voters in September’s referendum after analysis suggested an independent Scotland would have received only a fifth of the party’s oil revenue estimates.
According to reports projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which take into account plummeting prices put oil revenues at £1.25 billion in 2016/17 - the first year of independence had Scotland voted Yes - instead of the £6.9 billion predicted by the Nationalists during the campaign.
Meanwhile oil giant Shell confirmed it is to sell its share in the Sean gas field in the southern North Sea.
BP and SOCAR (The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) have signed a new production sharing agreement to explore shallow water prospects in the Absheron Peninsula.
The agreement is part of the government’s plan to ensure that all of Azerbaijan’s offshore areas are fully explored.
A deal was signed by Rovnag Abdullayev, president of SOCAR, on behalf of the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Gordon Birrell, BP’s regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
Mr Birrell said: “BP is proud to embark on this new era of exploration in the Caspian together with SOCAR.
Libya’s oil output fell below its own consumption as fighting spread to Mellitah, a region that hosts the country’s fourth largest oil port, the state petroleum company said.
National Oil Corp. already this month declared force majeure at two export terminals, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, after an attempt by Islamist militias to capture them.
Force majeure is a legal status that protects a company from liability when it can’t fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control.
Russia has bailed out a mid-sized bank to save it from bankruptcy - a clear sign that the slide in the value of the rouble in the wake of falling oil prices is straining the banking system.
The Central Bank said it will give Trust Bank 30 billion roubles (£350 million) that will allow it to continue operating as normal.
It will also place Trust Bank under its own supervision until it finds an investor. Major Russian banks said they had no interest in acquiring Trust, a top 30 Russian bank with about £3.2 billion in assets.
It goes without saying that if you work offshore, you work in a physically demanding and hazardous environment. So when the European Court of Justice rules that obesity can constitute a disability, then of course safety must come into the discussion.
Before we get into things, we must remember that the EU’s judgement states that obesity is only classed as a disability in certain circumstances, not in every circumstance. It’s only a disability if the person has a long-term impairment that has been induced by their weight.
OAO Rosneft (ROSN) repaid $7 billion in debt and said it is generating enough dollars to meet the obligations taken on to buy TNK-BP last year and become the world’s largest traded oil producer.
The state-led company, hit by sanctions on Russia from the US and European Union limiting access to capital markets, said it has settled $24 billion this year in line with credit agreements.
Rosneft has sufficient foreign currency to cover debt, Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said in a statement.
Oil producer Afren has seen a boost in its shares following a preliminary offer from Seplat Petroleum Development.
The company’s shares rose 10.5% on the London Stock Exchange to 50.82pence.
The company’s shares rose 10.5% on the London Stock Exchange to 50.82pence.
The Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said he will attend a North Sea oil summit organised by Aberdeen City Council.
The meeting has been called by Aberdeen City Council in response to a plunge in oil prices to just above $62 a barrel, from more than $100 in the summer. Scottish Labour pledged to send its leader, Jim Murphy, and urged both Mr Cameron and Ms Sturgeon to attend.
Alistair Carmichael will attend the summit as well as the Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie.
CNOOC’s Nexen unit has shutdown its operations at an oilfield in Yemen due to a security threat.
The company made the move because of safety fears related to terrorist group Al Qaeda.
Oil and gas explorer Providence Resources has won a case related to claims made against it by firm Transocean Drilling UK.
A ruling was made in its favour at the commercial court in London.
The case related to costs made by Transocean against Providence regarding the use of the Arctic III mid-water semi-submersible rig in 2011 and 2012 on its Barryroe oilfield offshore Ireland.
Premier Oil has completed transactions in two of its asset sales worth a combined $147.5million.
The company previously revealed it would be selling off its non-operated interests in the producing Scott, Telford and Rochelle fields to MOL Group for $130million before interim period adjustments.
A new appointment has been made to the board of LGO.
Fergus Jenkins will join the board after two years as the company’s chief operating officer.
Mr Jenkins is a chartered engineer with more than 20 years’ experience working initially in mining before moving into petroleum.
Energy specialist Munro’s Travel reports strong interest from UK companies keen to attend and exhibit at the world’s top oil show.
Next year’s Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in the US oil capital of Houston is being held from Monday, May 4, to Thursday, May 7.
Executives and experts from leading oil companies will be attending this important event, which attracted a show record of more than 108,000 people last year.
Energy-based stocks maintained the London market’s pre-Christmas rally today after benefiting from a rebound in the price of oil.
Comments from Saudi petroleum minister Ali Naimi that he was certain the oil market would recover with the improvement of the global economy helped the price of Brent crude rally to just below 63 US dollars a barrel.
This provided a much-needed boost to Royal Dutch Shell, which lifted 3% or 61p to 2283.5p, whilst BP added 2% or 9.2p to 422.2p.
The boom that adorned Gulf Arab monarchies with glittering towers, swelled their sovereign funds and kept unrest largely at bay may be over after oil prices dropped by almost 50% in the last six months.
The sheikhdoms have used the oil wealth to remake their region.
Landmarks include man-made islands on reclaimed land, as well as financial centers, airports and ports that turned the Arabian desert into a banking and travel hub.
The money was also deployed to ward off social unrest that spread through the Middle East during the Arab Spring.
In these interesting times we may need to look outside our usual patch to keep our people busy through 2015. But Bethlehem? OK, not exactly Bethlehem, but perhaps not far away from that little town.
Israel just announced a major new gas discovery (reportedly 3.2 trillion cubic feet). While many of us were transfixed by the oil price, Israel was holding its first ever international oil and gas conference.
There used to be an Israeli joke that Moses had delivered the Jews to the only place in the Middle East with no oil or gas.
Prime Minister David Cameron and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon were last night urged to attend an emergency oil and gas “summit” in Aberdeen and help save jobs as the North Sea industry struggles with low crude prices.
The meeting has been called by Aberdeen City Council in response to a plunge in oil prices to just above $62 a barrel, from more than $100 in the summer. Scottish Labour pledged to send its leader, Jim Murphy, and urged both Mr Cameron and Ms Sturgeon to attend.
But trade body Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) said there was no need for a knee-jerk reaction to the low oil prices, adding it was probably enough to “reflect” on them after Christmas.
A UK Government minister was under fire last night for refusing to meet the widows of the oil workers who died in the 2013 Super Puma crash.
Labour MP Frank Doran said he was “extremely disappointed” Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin had declined an invitation to meet families and the survivors who were on-board the doomed flight.
Sarah Darnley, 45, from Elgin, Gary McCrossan, 59, from Inverness, George Allison, 57, from Winchester and Duncan Munro, 46, from Bishop Auckland died when the aircraft plunged into the sea near Sumburgh in Shetland in August last year.
As we watch the oil price go down, with no indication of how low it will go or how long this trend will be sustained, it’s increasingly clear that the impact of this – alongside a double whammy of falling production levels plus cost inflation - is being keenly felt by operators across the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).
In recent weeks, we’ve seen Christmas parties cancelled, free meals curtailed and shareholder revolt on CEO pay as well as plans to cut onshore and offshore contractors pay in 2015.
There is also the prospect that up to $150bn of global projects could be labelled as uneconomic next year, resulting in them being mothballed or cancelled altogether.
US oil drillers pulled rigs this week as crude traded below $60 a barrel for the seventh straight day.
Rigs targeting oil declined by 10 to a six-month low of 1,536, Baker Hughes said.
Those seeking out natural gas slipped by eight to 338, the Houston-based field services company’s website. The total count fell by 18 to 1,875, the lowest level since July.
Nabors Industries Limited (NBR) Chief Executive Officer Tony Petrello, the best-paid oil executive in the US, and his finance chief are getting salary cuts as the world’s biggest land-rig contractor confronts an industry downturn.
Petrello’s base salary for the first half of next year will be pegged to an annual rate of $1.53 million, a 10% cut from the current $1.7 million.
Chief Financial Officer William Restrepo is also getting a 10 percent cut in his annualized base salary, to $585,000, over the same period, the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company said today in a federal filing.
An offshore worker has been airlifted to hospital after being hit on the head by a falling object.
The 57-year-old man was working on the Murchison platform, about 123 miles north-east of Shetland, when he was reportedly hit on the head by a falling pipe or hose.
Shetland Coastguard sent a rescue helicopter to the platform, and he was airlifted to Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to reveal the Scottish Government’s assessment of the tax cut needed to save the jobs of thousands of oil workers.
Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy said the move was necessary given the “crisis” currently unfolding in the sector due to the dramatic fall in the price of a barrel of oil, which is currently less than $60.
It comes as renowned economist Prof Ronald MacDonald, of Glasgow University, said a fall to below $40 a barrel was “not unreasonable”.
Crude prices surged from the lowest closing levels since May 2009 as comments from Saudi Arabia’s oil minister yesterday added to the most volatile market in three years.
West Texas Intermediate climbed 4.5% in New York, the biggest gain since August 2012. Both WTI and Brent rose more than 5 percent during the session.
A measure of expected WTI futures movements and a gauge of options value was at the highest level since October 2011, data shows.
Balmoral Group chairman and managing director Jim Milne is toasting “another year of positive growth in turnover and profitability”.
He was speaking after the Aberdeen engineering firm reported turnover growth of more than 25% to £79.06million in the year to March 31.
Pre-tax profits were up by more than 13% to £4.56million, with Balmoral highlighting a 53% increase in operating profits to £6.18million.
