Onshore oil and gas body UKOOG (United Kingdom Onshore Oil and Gas) has welcomed a report from a task force on Shale Gas which has assessed the impact on local environment.
It comes after Lord Chris Smith admitted his report on the local and health impacts of the industry revealed it still faces an "uphill struggle" for public acceptability.
A number of recommendations have been made around practices used by companies in the UK including seismic modelling, full chemical disclosure and the use of green completions at production.
Fracking faces an “uphill struggle” for public acceptability, Lord Chris Smith has admitted as his shale gas task force published a report on the local environment and health impacts of the industry.
The task force said shale gas extraction could be safe for the local environment and people’s health in the UK if provisions were in place and regulated to prevent larger earthquakes, water contamination, gas wells leaking and methane pollution.
The second interim report by the task force called for full disclosure to the public of the chemicals used in the process, to reassure people it is safe, and independent monitoring and regulation to make sure wells do not leak to prevent water contamination.
The UK faces a tighter energy crunch than last year, with more contingency measures needed to ensure the lights stay on, an assessment from National Grid has shown.
The gap between total electricity generating capacity and peak demand would fall to just 1.2% without measures in place such as paying moth-balled power plants to be ready to come online and paying factories to be prepared to power down if needed.
With those extra measures in place for times of peak demand, the capacity margin rises to 5.1%, the National Grid assessment shows.
Last year’s capacity margin was 4.1% without additional provisions, which raised the breathing space to 6.1%.
An emergency summit convened in the wake of Westminster’s decision to scrap a subsidy scheme for onshore wind farms was attended by more than 200 people, the Scottish Government said.
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing organised the talks after the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced it would end payments under the Renewables Obligation a year early.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and others in the Scottish Government have already spoken out against the decision, which industry leaders Scottish Renewables fears could put up to £3 billion of investment in Scotland at risk.
Solar power is set to supply 15% of the UK’s electricity needs early this afternoon, the industry said as its annual open day scheme begins.
As the UK basks in a heatwave, solar-powered homes, commercial rooftop schemes and solar farms will be open to the public today and tomorrow as part of “solar independence day”.
Locations ranging from a housing estate in Northumberland, a stately home in Aberdeenshire, a community-owned solar farm and a waste facility in Berkshire will be showing off their clean power installations.
The solar industry, whose analysis predicts the technology will be supplying 15% of UK power demand at 2pm today, has set out how it believes the Government can double the amount of solar and make it as cheap as fossil fuel electricity by 2020.
The Environment Secretary has been urged to apologise to communities facing fracking for “holding back” evidence of the risks of shale exploration in rural areas.
And campaigners have called for fracking to be put on hold in the UK while a “genuinely independent, qualified body” reviews all the risks associated with the controversial process of extracting gas and oil.
A draft report from the Environment Department (Defra) said fracking could reduce house prices, increase traffic, produce deafening noise for residents and damage the landscape in rural communities.
It is vital the country seizes the opportunity to “at least explore” the UK’s shale gas potential whilst maintaining the very highest safety and environmental standards, energy and climate change minister Andrea Leadsom has said.
A record 22.3% of electricity was generated by renewables such as wind, biomass and solar in the first three months of this year, figures show.
The share of UK power coming from renewables was 2.6 percentage points up on the first quarter of last year, and slightly higher than in the previous three months, the data from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) revealed.
The oil and gas industry will have the chance to give their view on plans for a city deal in Aberdeen.
Politicians, industry experts and businesses located in the energy capital of Europe have long called for investment to improve the infrastructure of the city.
Now the city deal will become the main focus of discussion at the closing session of Oil & Gas UK’s annual conference from June 17 – 18.
Oil & Gas UK and industry regulator the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) have both welcomed the energy bill announced earlier today.
The Government introduced its energy bill which included a raft of new measures aimed at increasing energy security and boosting domestic oil and gas production, including giving the OGA the powers to create a robust, independent regulator and enable it to maximise the economic recovery of oil and gas from UK waters.
The Conservatives also want to see a change in the law which will remove the need for the Energy Secretary to approve large wind farms of more than 50 megawatts (MW) in England and Wales.
Andy Samuel, Chief Executive of the Oil and Gas Authority said:“We welcome the Energy Bill announced at today’s State Opening of Parliament, which will give the Oil and Gas Authority the powers it needs to become a robust, independent and effective regulator, and enable it to maximise the economic recovery of oil and gas from the UK Continental Shelf.
A collaboration between Aberdeen Formation Evaluation Society (AFES), Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain (PESGB) and the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Aberdeen Section jointly organised the seminar ‘How can young professionals cope during a reduced oil price?’ during DEVEX 2015 last week.
The aim of the seminar was to provide young professionals working in the oil and gas industry in Scotland with the advice and guidance they require to professionally survive the current downturn.
A panel of leading industry, recruitment and political professionals, who all had been affected at a point in their careers by a low oil price, answered a series of questions asked by the young professionals present at the event.
Ashtead Technology has secured a deal with Neptune Oceanographics which will add underwater leak detection products to its rental fleet.
The company will now offer Neptune's leak detection systems and senors.
Tim Sheehan, commercial director of Ashtead Technology, said: “With billions invested in installing subsea infrastructure around the world, inspection, repair and maintenance of pipelines becomes increasingly important.
The UK aims to maximize domestic oil and gas production and curb the spread of onshore wind farms as the government leans toward maintaining energy security over cutting carbon emissions.
The measures form part of an Energy Bill announced by Queen Elizabeth II in a speech to Parliament in London on Wednesday that outlines the first legislative program of Prime Minister David Cameron’s majority Conservative government.
UK oil production was enough to meet about 56 percent of domestic demand last year, with a similar proportion for gas, according to the government.
There will be “no winners” if unions press ahead with industrial action in the North Sea, the new boss of the oil and gas industry’s trade body warned yesterday.
Deirdre Michie, who has taken over as chief executive of Oil & Gas UK, said over 5,000 jobs had been lost in the North Sea - mainly onshore jobs - with “more to come”.
But she added while the North Sea was mature and had produced over 43 billion barrels of oil, the body believes that there remains “still half again to go for” in the region if operators and the wider supply chain slim costs and the government provides more fiscal support.
BG Group has saved itself more than £18million after it agreed a new contract on a flotel damaged by North Sea gales.
Life boats on the Safe Bristolia were damaged last October when a huge wave lashed the vessel that was in place to offer accommodation to workers on BG’s North Everest platform.
The flotel’s owner, Prosafe, took the vessel back to a shipyard in Norway for repair. Last week, the Norwegian offshore accommodation specialist announced it had “rephased” the Safe Bristolia’s work programme with BG.
Oil & Gas UK has announced a number of appointments of member company representatives to its board.
Enquest’s president Neil McCulloch has also been named as vice chair representative for the operator community.
Meanwhile board member Terry Savage, corporate relationship director for Global Energy Group, has been named as his counterpart of vice chair, representing the contractor community.
I don’t know how many of you have noticed, but women are taking over at the top of the energy hierarchy in the UK.
Whilst I’m still waiting for a female to topple various of the male-dominated fiefdoms that still rule in the boardrooms of oil majors and independents active on the UK Continental Shelf, five key trade, regulatory and government positions are now held by women.
They are Amber Rudd ... newly appointed energy secretary, Susan MacKenzie (HSE), Maria McCaffery (RenewableUK), Dr Nina Skorupska (Renewable Energy Association) and Deirdre Michie (OGUK).
This could do more than anything that has ever gone before to finally get some balance into the boardrooms and executives of the UK energy industry ... both upstream oil & gas and power generation.
The shift should be welcomed. A bit less testosterone in the UK energy sector ought to be good for us all.
Election defeat for Energy Secretary Ed Davey means there is to be yet another whirl of the revolving-door at the ministry looking after oil and gas affairs.
The Kingston and Surbiton MP was one of the casualties of a disastrous night for the Liberal Democrats, and his departure from office leaves a vacancy in a key role affecting the UK Government’s relations with the offshore sector.
Industry chiefs have had to get used to sudden and frequent changes at the energy department over the years, with some of the ministers having the briefest of stays before moving on to other jobs.
The UK election has delivered an unexpected outcome, with Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron on course to stay in 10 Downing Street with a parliamentary majority.
That’s partly because the Tories defeated Liberal Democrat lawmakers in England. In Scotland, where Ed Miliband’s Labour opposition has been dominant for a generation, the Scottish National Party is set to win nearly all 59 House of Commons seats.
Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, lost the Twickenham district in southwest London he held since 1997. Tania Mathias, the Tory candidate, overcame a 12,140 majority to defeat Cable in one of the Liberal Democrats’ safest seats.
Offshore workers are being put on “zero-hours” contracts that are a threat to safety in the oil and gas industry and should be outlawed, a union boss said last night.
Jake Molloy, regional organiser for the RMT, was speaking after it emerged energy service firm Bilfinger Salamis UK was signing people up on terms he said were tantamount to controversial zero-hours deals.
But the company denied this was the case, saying its employees were paid even if there was no work available and that “technical variations” to contracts gave it more flexibility in the oil and gas downturn.
Optimism has continues to fall in the UK oil and gas industry according to the first quarter Oil & Gas UK Business Sentiment Index.
It shows confidence in the sector has dropped from minus 23 points to minus 31 on a -50/+50 scale.
The index measures a number of economic indicators including business confidence, activity levels, business revenue and investment and employment.
The UK Government has warned oil giant BP it would oppose any foreign takeovers bids for the company.
Shell’s recent takeover of BG has heightened speculation that BP could be the next company to be caught up in a wave of mergers since the oil price decline.
According to reports, ExxonMobil could make a move for BP.
Profits at British Gas are set to rise after the energy supplier revealed a boost in consumption following a colder than normal start to the year.
Owner Centrica added that British Gas had stemmed the flow of customers leaving the business, with the number of accounts on its books staying at 14.8 million following a 5% cut in gas tariffs from the end of February.
The FTSE 100 company reported improved profitability in its supply business in the first quarter of the year but said this was more than offset by lower commodity prices in its upstream production arm.
It also announced that it had set aside an additional £50 million over the next three years to improve customer service.
Politicians traded blows over the future of the North Sea oil and gas industry, changes to the tax regime for the sector and the potential for onshore fracking at an energy hustings in Aberdeen yesterday.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said he wants to see a continued “downward trajectory” in terms of the tax rate for the North Sea if his party is returned to Westminster.
But the Liberal Democrat, speaking at the event organised by industry body Oil and Gas UK, came under fire from SNP candidate for Gordon Alex Salmond for his role in the coalition’s infamous tax raid in 2011.
The UK Government has decided to revoke North Sea oil field licences owned by DEA, RWE's oil and gas unit bought last month by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's LetterOne, unless the licences change ownership, the energy ministry said today.
"The Secretary of State Ed Davey ... proposes to revoke DEA UK's North Sea petroleum licences unless LetterOne arranges for a further change of control of the DEA UK gas fields in the North Sea," the ministry said in a statement.
