More than 5,500 jobs in the North Sea oil and gas industry have been lost since the oil price decline, according to new estimates.
The figure comes as companies including BP, Shell and Total have reduced their headcount in a bid to save costs.
Companies have also been in consultation over a move to three on, three off shift patterns for workers.
Industry body Oil & Gas UK said the figure put forward could be conservative, while trade union Unite said the number could actually be around 4,000.
The first well has been spudded on the Gina Krog field in the Norwegian North Sea.
Statoil said drilling began earlier this week using the Maersk Integrator rig, which will now be in use until 2019.
The milestone is one of many for the company on the Gina Krog development project.
Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA is claiming as much as 20 million barrels more of the Johan Sverdrup oil field as it appeals a government decision that reduced its stake in the giant deposit offshore Norway.
The Trondheim-based company asked the government to raise its stake to 12.23 percent from the 11.57 percent it was awarded in a July 1 ruling by the Petroleum and Energy Ministry, according to an appeal letter dated Tuesday obtained by Bloomberg. The field holds as much as 3 billion barrels of oil, meaning a successful appeal may result in an increase of 20 million barrels.
“Det Norske asserts that the decision is invalid,” it said in the appeal. The ministry has misinterpreted the petroleum act and hasn’t provided sufficient justification for its decision, which constitutes a process error, the company said.
Statoil has made a gas discovery in the Julius prospect in the North Sea alongside its partner Total of between 15 and 75 million barrels of recoverable oil.
Well 2/4-23S was drilled by the Maersk Gallant in the King Lear area and proved gas and condensate in the Ula formation.
The Norwegian operator said the well was aimed at appraising the King Lear gas and condensate discovery made by the PL146/PL333 partnership in 2012.
A topside has set sail on a journey to the largest new gas field to be discovered in the southern North Sea for 25 years.
The Cygnus accommodation module, which weighs 4,600 tonnes, has left the Burntisland Fabrication’s Methil yard towards its final destination off the Lincolnshire coast.
Gas is expected to start flowing from the Cygnus field later this year.
The field is expected to meet the needs of 1.5million homes and will be the UK’s second largest production site of natural gas.
The oil and gas downturn is holding back Scotland’s economy against a background of continued overall growth, a new report says.
According to the Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC), which reveals the findings of its latest Quarterly Economic Indicator today, business trends were mostly positive in the three months to June 30.
SCC says the construction sector “appears to be continuing to enjoy the buoyant trade that it has experienced throughout 2014 and into this year”.
An offshore worker has been airlifted to hospital after injuring himself on a vessel near BP’s Schiehallion oil field, west of Shetland.
The man was working on the North Sea Atlantic supply ship, run by Technip UK, when the incident took place at around 3.15pm.
Edison Norge's first exploration well for its North Sea licence has come up dry.
The company said the wildcat well 2/11-11 was drilled about seven kilometres southwest of the Valhall field and about five kilometres west of the Hod field.
The Ministry of Defence is relying on fishing vessels and social media users to safeguard national security in the North Sea due to a lack of armed patrols in the area, according to the SNP.
Angus Robertson, the party’s defence spokesman, has called for a permanent maritime patrol base on the Clyde and a dedicated Scottish airbase amid “increasing foreign military operations close to UK territorial waters and airspace”.
In a speech to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London ahead of publication of the strategic defence and security review (SDSR), Mr Robertson said: “As we approach publication of the strategic defence and security review it should be acknowledged that the UK has not taken northern regional security seriously enough and this must change with the new SDSR.
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.
New guidelines have been set by Oil and Gas UK for well abandonment in a bid to increase cross-industry understanding of issues surrounding the process.
The industry body has made the move in a bid to continue improving safety and performance across the UKCS (UK Continental Shelf).
The first guidelines were set just over 20 years ago with input from member companies and stakeholders.
Oil firms trying to sell off ageing North Sea fields are said to be considering shouldering hundreds of millions of dollars in potential dismantling costs in a bid to find buyers.
According to reports, the decrease in spending brought on by the oil price decline, has triggered companies to increase efficiencies and sell or shut down assets which are no longer profitable.
However despite a number of assets going up for sale in recent months, few deals have been completed.
Shetland’s busy oil airport at Scatsta is set to cut staff by almost a third in response to the offshore industry contracting its North Sea operations in the wake of the oil price decline.
Airport operators Serco have confirmed they are looking to reduce their headcount by between 25% and 35% by the end of the year.
The move comes after Bristow Helicopters announced it was in consultation with staff over jobs earlier this month.
Investment company Cluff Natural Resources (CLNR) has agreed a deal with oilfield services giant Halliburton to deliver and accelerate development of its Southern North Sea gas and underground coal-gasification (UCG) assets in the UK.
The oil and gas industry downturn is a chance to revolutionise health and safety services, Stirling Group managing director Angus Neil said yesterday.
But firms must not use the lower oil prices as an excuse to relax their commitment to high safety standards offshore, he warned.
He added: “Training, for example, is an easy target in a downturn but companies must take the potential impact on safety and risk into their cost-cutting considerations.
“Oil and gas companies simply cannot afford to cut corners in safety critical areas.”
Oil and gas contractors are facing a triple tax blow under a stealth £3billion tax raid by George Osborne.
As the dust settles on the first Tory budget in nearly 20 years, details of a three-pronged attack on the North Sea's self-employed workforce are now emerging.
Contractors - who have already bore the burnt of the job cuts which have plagued the industry since the turn of the year - look certain to lose out on thousands of pounds of income due to changes in Fividend Tax next year.
Oil major Shell is expected to move to a three on, three off shift pattern at the start of 2016.
The company previously revealed it was in consultation with staff over the move, which is in line with a number of companies including Chevron and EnQuest.
Scotland’s oil and gas industry has a vibrant future.
Yes, there’s a sharp reduction in investment, in jobs and in projects but the strength of skills and experience built up over the decades will sustain the industry and ensure it remains a significant contributor to the Scottish economy for decades to come.
It’s now six months since the First Minister announced the creation of an Energy Jobs Taskforce to help support Scotland’s oil and gas sector through the current challenging period.
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.
A call has been made by BALPA (The British Airline Pilots' Association) for the government to hold a summit on North Sea jobs.
The plea comes after Bristow launched a consultation with staff over 130 positions.
Bristow Helicopters told staff the global decline in oil price has prompted the decision, with up to 66 helicopter pilots and 64 other workers likely to be made redundant.
Offshore union boss Jake Molloy said lay-offs at Bristow were "desperately sad", but were also "inevitable" given the thousands of jobs cut already in the North Sea.
Bristow Helicopters has launched a consultation with North Sea staff over job reductions.
The total number of workers facing potential job losses stands at 130 - including up to 66 pilots, in jobs
