Europa Oil & Gas has been awarded a licence in the southern North Sea as part of the UK 28th licensing round.
The company said the conditional award of a promote licence over Block 41/24 was given by the OGA (Oil and Gas Authority) as part of a joint venture with Arenite Petroleum Limited.
A total of 41 new licences were awarded in the latest round and the second tranche of successful bids follows the 134 bids confirmed last year, totalling up to 175 licences covering 353 blocks.
This short clip shows the topside being installed on BP's £4.5million North Sea Clair Ridge project.
The footage comes after the oil major revealed three huge topside modules had been installed on the "quarters and utilties" (QU) platform following their long journey from a shipyard in South Korea.
BP and its project partners - ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Shell - aim to produce 640million barrels of oil over 40 years from the field.
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 Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) is expected to confirm the remaining licences of the 28th offshore round today.
The final tally will bring a close to one of the most active bids in 50 years.
DNV GL has launched a JIP (Joint Industry Project) in a bid to establish a new international standard for offshore oil and gas projects which could cut costs by 15%.
The move is in a bid to curb the challenges presented by varying owners, operators and regulators during both engineering and construction phases in South Korean yards.
A number of companies are involved with the initiative including Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Company, as well as Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries.
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.
The UK’s new energy industry regulator, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), yesterday insisted it was ready to become an executive agency on April 1 as planned.
Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) chief executive Malcolm Webb had earlier suggested the fledgling watchdog had decided to delay the move, which will let it start fulfilling its role formally, for some months.
The establishment of a strong and well-funded regulator was one of the recommendations made in last year’s Wood Review, which made a series of proposals aimed at maximising the recovery of UK fossil fuels.
Industry experts have given their perspective on what is happening in the sector, the price of oil, and the current challenges and opportunities there could be.
It follows the announcement by a number of companies, including BP and Schlumberger, that job redundancies would be made across their global and North Sea operations.
Graham Stewart, chief executive of Faroe Petroleum, said it would be the companies "with good growth prospect, strong balace sheets and good hedges in place who will ride this storm most effectively."
Wood Group PSN has been awarded a five year contract from BP worth an estimated $750million.
The contract will deliver engineering, procurement and construction services to six UKCS offshore upstream assets and the FPS (Forties Pipeline System) onshore midstream facilities in Grangemouth.
The contract win will create 150 new jobs and secure more than 700 existing positions.
The oil and gas sector is vital to Scotland and it is important we have the skilled workforce required to strengthen our overall ambition as a major centre for energy activity.
The oil and gas UK study highlights the need for the UK Government to continue to put in place measures to sustain long-term investment in the UKCS and for industry to work with our colleges and universities to ensure they are delivering the skilled workforce they need and deliver the best value out of the public investment that we provide for the training of the current and future workforce.
But unfortunately the Autumn Statement last week failed to provide the oil and gas industry with the tax measures it both requires and deserves.
We watched yesterday's Autumn Statement from the Chancellor George Osborne, with feelings of hope and trepidation.
We understand the economic constraints under which today’s Autumn Statement is delivered and there’s consensus in our offices this afternoon that the immediate reduction of two percentage points in its tax rate is an important first step towards improving the fiscal competitiveness of the UK North Sea – but, without question, more needs to be done.
