With pressure from net-zero obligations now mounting, coupled with a growing awareness that it has a valuable energy transition role to play, the North Sea oil and gas industry would at last appear to be taking electrification of UKCS infrastructure seriously.
At the start of last month, Scotlandโs Just Transition Commission generated domestic headlines after criticising the Scottish Governmentโs handling of the BiFab crisis.
Trundling around this yearโs Offshore Europe has, believe it or not, put me in a reasonably positive mood. The fact that the foundations for the European Wind Deployment Centre are now being installed offshore just a few miles up the coast from the AECC serves as valuable reinforcement.
At last Novemberโs Oil & Gas UK share, BP stated clearly that it could do business in UK waters at $50 a barrel, significantly boost production and hit the exploration trail. Six months later, that strategy holds firm, as the majorโs North Sea president, Mark Thomas, explained to Jeremy Cresswell.
As I write this, parliamentary candidates of all hues are going hammer and tongs at one another in what has become a vicious battle for political supremacy in the UK.
It may be HQโd in Reading and internationally owned, but many regard Expro Group as an Aberdeen company and one of the townโs bellwether offshore businesses. Jeremy Cresswell checks out the current state of play with its CEO Mike Jardon.
Energy industries advanced inspection and asset integrity service company Sonomatic has built a new ยฃ4million North Sea HQ in Aberdeen and says its expansion drive could generate as many as 200 more jobs.
Aross literally decades we at the P&J have time and again revisited the relationships between operators, main contractors and the rest of the supply chain.
It was during the 2016 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston that Energy broke the news that M2 Subsea was being put together to compete in the ROV (remotely operated vehicle) and related services marketplace.
Schlumbergerโs chairman and CEO, Paal Kibsgaard, is predicting a โmulti-yearโ up-cycle starting this year and warns that spare production capacity is now wafer thin.
As UKCS capital investment continues to collapse โ the 2017 forecast is ยฃ5.7billion โ and backlogs evaporate, pressure on the subsea community remains intense. Jeremy Cresswell caught up with Subsea UKโs CEO Neil Gordon.
Make no mistake, the North Sea isnโt out of the woods yet. However, Oil & Gas UKโs CEO Deirdre Michie is quietly optimistic that the tide of adversity is turning for our offshore industry.
Make no mistake, the public do not like Big Oil. It is in the eyes of most, a rapacious machine that will trample over anyone and anything to get what it wants.
As 2016 draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on what the future holds for us all and how increasingly urgent it is that we must adapt if, as a species, we are to remain viable.
Iโm old enough to remember the amazing Brent advertising in the Sunday colour supplements of the mid-1970s that likened the challenge of developing this first generation North Sea oil giant to Nasaโs moon shots.