Energy firm GE Oil and Gas today announced plans to cut jobs at its facility in Peterhead due to low oil prices. GE employs about 130 people at the base, where components used in the oil and gas industry are made. The firm, which also has operations in Aberdeen and Montrose, did not specify the exact number of staff members it intends to lay off, or the amount of money it expects to save as a result of the measure.
Plans have been tabled for a £2billion power link between Aberdeenshire and Scandinavia which could create 200 jobs. The NorthConnect scheme would carry electricity generated in Scotland and Norway to both nations to meet demand. The consortium involved wants to build an onshore converter station in the village of Boddam, south of Peterhead.
Offshore giant Shell has been accused of breaking safety rules at its site at the huge St Fergus gas terminal. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued an improvement notice for the second time in just over a year after it emerged not enough was being done to prevent “major accidents” at the complex north of Peterhead. The HSE accused Shell of failing to take “all measures necessary” to identify tasks which had the potential to cause a “critical” situation.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney has called for reform of the UK’s “fundamentally flawed” transmission charging regime after it was announced that Longannet power station is likely to close early next year. Operator Scottish Power said yesterday that the coal-fired plant in Fife will “in all likelihood” close by March 2016 after losing out on a short-term National Grid contract. Neil Clitheroe, chief executive of Scottish Power retail and generation, said the current transmission charging regime was a “major barrier” to any future investment in thermal power generation in Scotland.
Scottish Power will likely close its coal-fired power station at Longannet in Fife next year. The announcement comes after the energy firm lost out on a contract from National Grid. A Peterhead gas-fired power station owned and operated by SSE was selected to provide voltage support services to National Grid between April 2016 and September 2017. About 270 people are currently employed at Longannet.
A pioneering clean-energy project in Peterhead is “developing very well” and investment decisions will be taken this year, according to the UK energy secretary. Ed Davey defended the rate of progress at Britain’s two leading carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Aberdeen and Yorkshire. Shell plans for to fit CCS technology to Peterhead Power Station, enabling harmful emissions to be caught before the enter the atmosphere, and stored in the North Sea.
Score Group has unveiled plans to spend around £80million on new headquarters and other buildings in its home town of Peterhead. But a further plunge in oil prices could kill off the project, the company’s owner has warned. The proposals are at an early stage and no approach has been made to Aberdeenshire Council for planning approval.