The UK Government is providing £750 million a year in tax breaks to North Sea oil and gas, despite a pledge five years ago to end fossil fuel subsidies, campaigners said.
A further £414 million in public money is going into fossil fuel exploration overseas from Siberia in Russia to Brazil, India and Nigeria, a report by the Overseas Development Institute and Oil Change International said.
The organisations accused the UK Government of providing a total of £1.2 billion in subsidies a year despite signing up to a pledge by G20 countries in 2009 to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.
Since then, generous tax breaks have been provided to international energy giants to explore in riskier, deep-water fields in the North Sea, they said.
British power and gas company E.ON is considering the use of gas injection at its Huntington field after restrictions were imposed by the Central Area Transmission System (CATS).
In a production update for the month by Norwegian energy company, Noreco, they said production from the field had been reduced “significantly” as a result.
The company said in the short-term gas injection was being considered this month.
Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) has made changes to its board of directors.
Mehdi Varzi will retire from the North Sea focused company as chairman and director.
Prosafe said a lower demand for accommodation vessels in the North Sea region has seen a number of projects postponed or made smaller.
The company posted its third quarter results with an operating profit of $93million.
Talisman Energy has seen its cash flow drop by 11% from the last quarter.
The firm dipped oil prices and lower liquid volumes fro the fall.
Talisman said its North Sea production averaged at 12,000BOED, which was down 37% from the previous quarter and 43% year-over-year.
The dip in production was a result of planned turnarounds at Claymore, Piper, Buchan and the Bleoholm FPSO.
“If you look at the assets that we’ve held the longest, like Thistle, the Dons where we have the (FPSO) Northern Producer, and Heather, we’re having a very good year,” says Enquest’s North Sea president, Neil McCulloch.
“We’re doing well on the regulatory side of things too; had inspections around our facilities this year . . . some of the oldest in the North Sea.
“While you never get an entirely clean bill of health, we’ve done very well with no prohibition notices, no improvement notices; just some support for the way we go about our business. It’s about doing simple things very well, repeatedly. And that’s a core value at Enquest.
The Danish Energy Agency (DEA)has received a record number of applications in its seventh licensing round for oil and gas in the North Sea.
Applications have been made by several companies who have previously not held licences in Denmark.
A North Sea gas field is set to create 1,500 Scottish jobs and boost the UK economy £1.3billion, it has been announced.
Oxford University has released a report into the huge Cygnus gas project, which started drilling at its North Sea site yesterday.
The chief executive of oil and gas facilitator ITF said techniques used in deepwater could also be beneficial to the oil and gas industry in the North Sea.
Dr Patrick O’Brien spoke on the final day of Deep Offshore Technology International 2014 (DOT) about the potential techniques which could be used to find more energy sources in the UKCS.
Independent explorer Enegi has discovered oil bearing sands at one of its wells in the Central North Sea.
The company said the find was contained in a simple four way dip structure at the 22/12a-12 appraisal well at its Phoenix discovery.
Calls have been made for a safety review after a blaze on a cargo ship carrying radioactive waste forced the evacuation of a North Sea oil platform.
The Danish ship, MV Parida, suffered a fire in one of its funnels on Tuesday evening and the crew shut down the engines as they tried to carry out repairs.
Heerema-AF Consortium has been awarded a contract to assist with the decommissioning of a North Sea platform.
CNR International (CNRI) have signed a contract with the company for the removal and disposal of the Murchison platform.
An international energy logistics group has been boosted by growth in its North Sea revenues.
Peterson Offshore Group BV has announced its consolidated results for the 12 months ending December 31, 2013.
Almost 52,000 offshore workers have been trained to use a mandatory new emergency breathing system (EBS) as new rules on their use come into for today, the industry safety body has revealed.
Four top bosses have been sacked by Dana Petroleum in a brutal restructure which has staff fearing for their jobs.
The oil and gas firm confirmed last night that it has “removed” four managing directors, including Paul Griffin, chief of its UK operations.
Netherlands boss Nick Dancer, Egypt boss Paul Barnett and Africa boss John Downie have also gone.
North Sea operator Premier Oil says it is preparing for a busy year of exploration with plans to sanction three new fields and drill 13 new exploration and appraisal wells in 2014.
