The future of Britain’s shale gas industry hangs on a small exploration company that’s been stymied by protests, earth tremors and bureaucracy convincing the government to give it another chance to drill a giant deposit near England’s biggest tourist resort.
Nearly two thirds of people think local councils, not the Government, should decide if fracking goes ahead in their area, a poll suggests. The survey of 1,055 people for Greenpeace which found that 62% of people were in favour of the decision being made locally comes as a public inquiry begins into whether the go-ahead should be given for shale gas exploration at two sites in Lancashire.
Greenpeace has erected a life-like drilling rig outside the Houses of Parliament in London.
Start-up from the £3.5billion Laggan-Tormore gas development west of Shetland paves the way for £690million of investment in the area over the next 10 years.
The Scottish Greens have launched their election campaign with pledges to deliver more than 200,000 “clean green” jobs, reform land ownership and ban fracking.
A public hearing is expected to begin tomorrow examining two applications by Caudrilla Resources to drill as many as eight exploratory wells in the Bowland shale formation.
Our national broadcaster ran a headline recently that said “UK car manufacturing hits 10-year high in 2015”. Other outlets said similar things and one included some comment about the fact that Jaguar Land Rover was now outperforming Nissan.
The announcement last week that £504million of public sector money will be invested in support of the Aberdeen City Region Deal is very welcome news for the north-east of Scotland.
Scotland's energy minister has called for unity in the battle to put the oil and gas sector on the road to a bright future - and insisted now is not a time for political point-scoring. Fergus Ewing said everyone with an interest in the North Sea industry should pull out all the stops to help it through a crisis caused by the cocktail of rising costs, the collapse in oil prices and a tax regime in need of an overhaul.
A proposed tariff of 1.65% on some Chinese steel products brought into Europe has been slammed as a “slap in the face” for the crisis-hit UK industry. The European Commission published the provisional figure after a nine-month investigation into imports of reinforced steel bar.
Energy giant EDF has leased offices to provide a base for a large part of the project team working on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
The £250million Aberdeen City Region Deal underlines the UK Government's determination to help the North Sea oil and gas industry through its crisis. At least that was the message from Scottish Secretary David Mundell during a visit to subsea services firm Bibby Offshore in Westhill yesterday.
The Scottish Government will continue to press the UK Government to offer more financial support to Scotland’s north east, after “inviting” David Cameron to match its own £379 million contribution, the First Minister has said. Nicola Sturgeon also told MSPs she will visit Aberdeen on Monday to announce further commitments to support the oil and gas industry.
Worldwide M&A activity in the power and renewable sector almost doubled last year, according to a new report. PwC’s annual findings show momentum is expected to continue throughout 2016.
Shadow energy minister Clive Lewis has branded the new oil and gas regulator an “insolvency practitioner”. His characterisation of the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) prompted criticism from the SNP’s Callum McCaig and energy minister Andrea Leadsom.
Scotland’s First Minister has called on the UK Government to lower taxes on the oil and gas industry in the forthcoming March Budget. Nicola Sturgeon said Chancellor George Osborne should take “urgent action” to protect jobs in the North Sea as she convened a special session of the Scottish Cabinet in Edinburgh. Ms Sturgeon said Finance Secretary John Swinney would seek an urgent meeting with the Chancellor to set out the Scottish Government’s view.
The shale gas industry offers “one of those rare opportunities” to create a new demand for steel, offering a potential boost to Britain’s troubled steel industry, a Labour MP has suggested. Angela Smith described the opportunities the shale gas industry could create for steel manufacturing as the “most exciting prospect”, adding it could offer a “new sense of hope therefore for a positive future for what is one of our foundation industries”.
Air Energi and Swift Worldwide Resources have merged to form a new company bringing together the two recruitment firms. The newly formed firm, Airswift, will create a $1.2billion turnover specialising in global workforce solutions for the energy, process and infrastructure services.
Union Jack Oil has entered into an agreement with Egdon Resources to farm-in to the conventional prospects of PEDL209 containing the Laughton Prospect. The company said under the terms of the agreement, it will pay 16.67% of the costs of the Laughton-1 well.
Prosafe said its fleet utilisation rate in the final quarter of 2015 rose by 62%.
The founder of an Aberdeen corrosion company has joined forces with a larger Norwegian group as part of a global expansion plan. Allan Durham, the owner and managing director of Corrosion Solutions (CSL) has completed the sale of the business he founded in 1998 to Stavanger-based Presserv. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.
ConocoPhillips has admitted to three charges relating to an incident on the Lincolnshire Offshore Gas Gathering System platform in 2012. Lincoln Crown Court was told a “very serious international-level incident” could have caused an explosion at the platform.
Dulas has completed work on the second phase of a 2.4MW solar project which will provide energy for Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water’s Five Fords waste water treatment works in Wrexham.
A former oil worker has started a petition calling for a rescue package for the UK oil and gas industry. Uchenna Nnamani, 36, worked in the sector until last year, when he was made redundant.
The “devastating” impact of the crisis gripping the steel industry has been revealed in figures showing how difficult it is for workers to find other jobs. A government report showed that over half of SSI steel workers in Redcar are still looking for work four months after the plant closed.