The UK Government has rejected a call from MPs for an independent study into North Sea helicopter safety. Louise Ellman, the chairwoman of the transport select committee at Westminster, wrote to ministers last month asking them to order research assessing any safety improvements and on-going issues in the sector. The move followed the publication of the committee’s report into a series of recent helicopter crashes in the North Sea.
Oil and gas contractor Saipem said it was not given formal notice the South Stream Offshore Pipeline contract would be scrapped. Russia said the 40 billion euro pipeline link to Europe was to be dropped due to tension between the European Union and Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin said Russia scrapped a proposed $45 billion Black Sea pipeline to carry gas to Europe, the latest sign economic ties with the European Union are breaking down as the Ukraine crisis persists. Shelving the South Stream project ensures pipelines through Ukraine will remain vital supply links to Europe for years to come. The route under the Black Sea would have offered Russia’s OAO Gazprom a more direct path to feed the continent’s gas needs, a plan the EU objected to because it would reduce Ukraine’s leverage against its neighbor.
Atlantic Petroleum has made a gas discovery in its Ivory exploration well in the Norwegian Sea. The company said the 6707/10-3S well tested the westernmost segment of the Ivory structure. It is one of several prospects within the PL528 B license.
The UK oil industry, after chafing at suggestions it’s subsidized by the state, wants Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to help save it from the market’s crashing prices. Osborne’s Autumn statement tomorrow, setting out tax and spending policies, is a chance for the more than 500 companies represented by Britain’s oil lobby to press for what it says is a fairer deal. In a letter sent to the chancellor last month, Oil & Gas UK said the collapse in prices comes on top of a 26% jump in unit costs for the industry last year alone. “Expect news on how the government will look to shore up investment in the North Sea,” said Sanjeev Bahl, Numis Securities Ltd.’s director of oil and gas equity research.
An offshore worker was airlifted to hospital last night after falling on a North Sea platform. The 64-year-old man is believed to have fallen from a ladder aboard TAQA's Eider platform, 112 miles north-east of Shetland, at 10pm.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell, trimming the biggest rally since August 2012 as investors weighed OPEC’s decision to let the market curb a global supply glut. Brent slid in London. Futures dropped 0.7% in New York, decreasing for the fifth time in six days. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may hold an emergency meeting in the first quarter of next year, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez said in an interview. The group’s failure to cut output at a gathering last week bodes well for US producers, according to billionaire wildcatter Harold Hamm, a founding father of the nation’s shale boom.
It is worthwhile taking a moment to marvel at the built environment around you – houses, shops, offices, factories, hospitals, roads, railways, airports, cars, aeroplanes and so forth – and to then realise that virtually ALL of this was built using energy from fossil fuels – oil, natural gas and coal. At the same time fossil fuels provide virtually ALL of the energy that flows through our society, enabling economic activity and the creation of wealth. Fossil fuels are heavily taxed at every stage of their production and use. The economic activity they enable is taxed as well creating vast revenue streams that pay for education, defence, healthcare, welfare and pensions.
The decline in oil prices could have a substantial adverse effect on the oil and gas industry in the UKCS (UK continental shelf) a leading industry expert has warned. Research by Professor Alex Kemp and Linda Stephen from the Aberdeen University has found that if the current drop in price continues, there will be reduced investment and production. Using economic modelling, the pair highlighted two scenarios which reflect investment screening prices.
An Austrian energy group has drawn its first oil from a drilling campaign in New Zealand. OMV said that well MR-8A, which is part of the Maari redevelopment drilling campaign, has an estimated production capacity of 4,500 barrels of oil per day. The firm will invest €205million in the campaign which has five drills producing new reservoirs.
Statoil has completed its deal with German oil and gas company Wintershall to exit two assets in the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The transaction involves a farm down in Aasta Hansteen, Asterix and Polarled as well as signing over its assets in the non-core Vega and Gjoa fields. Statoil said it would allow it to redeploy around $1.8billion of capital expenditure from now until the end of 2020.
Incredible footage has emerged of a lightning strike offshore. The short video, which was captured last month, shows a massive electric discharge hitting the water from above. Watch the amazing clip below.
Electromagnetic Services (EMGS) has struck an $8million deal with an international oil company. The contract will see EMGS provide 3D EM data from its multi-client data library in the Barents Sea. The company said the data will be delivered in the fourth quarter this year, with the firm booking $4.5million after the partner's share of revenues.
Last month at PETEX in London, the hunt for shale gas resources in the UK was a hot topic and among the companies offering their expertise and wares at the show was CGG, currently being stalked by fellow French group Technip, and US energy services giant Baker Hughes, which arch rival Halliburton ha made a $35billion bid for. While companies such as these cannot easily answer the social and political questions, or indeed even wish to engage that way, they can contribute to the debate on technical feasibility and potential. And both Baker and CGG are well equipped to do this. Firstly, and according to CGG, we in Europe and not just the UK have the opportunity to benefit from the latest developments in North America. Integrated workflows, which bring together a broad range of geoscience data, have shown great potential for the comprehensive reservoir characterisation required to optimise drilling and completion activities in heterogeneous unconventional resource plays.
In May, Transocean revealed a plan to hive off its eight North Sea midwater rigs into a spin-off company to be called Caledonia Offshore Drilling to be based in Aberdeen. The offshore drilling assets scheduled to move across to Caledonia included the Sedco 704, Sedco 711, Sedco 712, Sedco 714, Transocean John Shaw, Transocean Prospect, GSF Arctic III and JW McLean. While the company has pressed ahead with creating the subsidiary, plans for full separation have been sunk by the slump in oil prices and the impact of that on its performance.
I don’t particularly like Boris Johnson and I certainly don’t support his politics. I also resent his constant lobbying for London which, incidentally, I don’t really like much either. The museums are great but you can keep the rest of it. I’m a country boy at heart. However, something Boris Johnson wrote last year I have to say I do agree with completely although I’d prefer you didn’t spread it around too much as it might damage my reputation. Commenting on what he called the UK’s “sterile debate” over Europe he said that if it culminated in our leaving the EU then it would quickly discover “that most of our problems are not caused by Brussels, but by chronic British short-termism, inadequate management, sloth, low skills and a culture of easy gratification and under-investment”.
Maven Capital Partners has sold its stake in an Aberdeen firm it backed in a £10million deal five years ago. A group of private investors has bought out Maven's stake in oil and gas control systems firm, EFC Group. The sum was undisclosed but Maven said it generated a 3.8x multiple return for its client funds on the deal.
West Texas Intermediate tumbled below $65 a barrel to the lowest level since July 2009 amid speculation prices have further to drop before OPEC’s decision to maintain output slows US shale supply. Benchmark futures in New York and London slumped more than 3% after capping their biggest monthly loss in about six years as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries signaled the group will leave it to the market to reduce a global glut. Current prices are no guarantee of a significant decline in US shale output, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on November 28. Oil has collapsed into a bear market as the US pumps crude at the fastest rate in three decades while global demand growth slows. OPEC last week resisted calls from members including Venezuela, Iran and Iraq to reduce its production target of 30 million barrels a day at a meeting in Vienna.
A drone has been used to capture a bird's eye view of a platform in the Mediterranean Sea. The remotely operated vehicle moves from land to air and across bright blue waters to capture the platform for the sky above.
Jupiter Energy is considering legal action over a delay in one of its licence extension applications in Kazakhstan. The company applied for a number of production licences to be continued and has been granted all but one. Its application for an extension on licence J-50 is being held by the Kazakh Committee of Geology, pending resolution for the allocation of reserves within the well.
The crew of the West Phoenix rig have created a Christmas video to cheer themselves up whilst working during the holidays.
OPEC left its oil-output target unchanged, resisting calls from Venezuela for action to halt this year’s plunge in prices. The group maintained its collective ceiling of 30 million barrels a day, Ali Al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, said today after the 12-member producer group gathered for talks at its headquarters in Vienna. Brent crude fell below $75 a barrel after the decision, for the first time since September 2010.
The Smith Commission said Westminster should remain in charge of licensing for all offshore oil and has extraction but Holyrood could get power to determine onshore oil and gas extraction. Holyrood is to be handed new responsibilities over income tax and welfare as part of a deal on devolution drawn up in the aftermath of the Scottish independence referendum. The Smith Commission, which was set up to examine what further powers could be transferred to Edinburgh, has recommended that the Scottish Parliament should be able to set its own income tax rates, with all of the cash earned staying north of the border.
Hawkley Oil and Gas has been investigating the rapid decline in production from a well in its Sorochynska licence in Ukraine. The company said Well 201 had already been experiencing a measured decline in production in line with expected performance.
The NFUS (National Farmers Union Scotland) has been informing its members about what fracking could mean for its industry. A meeting was held for 80 members from parts central Scotland where drilling for unconventional gas could occur in the next few years. Speakers from potential fracking developers including Ineos and environmental regulator SEPA spoke at the event.