The former head of BP’s Aberdeen-based North Sea operation warned yesterday the UK oil and gas industry is facing an early death unless there is swift political action to prevent it.
Dave Blackwood, who retired from BP in 2009 and is currently a non-executive director with Granite-based energy service firm Expro Group, was speaking as reports in Saudi Arabia said the kingdom was prepared to increase its oil output and claim a bigger global market share, potentially putting further pressure on the UK industry after the oil price slump of recent months.
Adding his voice to widespread calls for swift tax cuts for North Sea operators, Mr Blackwood said: “Nothing less than radical change will prevent the premature demise of the basin, let alone maximise economic recovery.”
Aberdeen firm Craig Group said ongoing investment in tonnage and new international bases helped drive a big jump in both profits and turnover during the year to April 30.
The privately owned, family-run shipping and energy service company has just filed accounts showing pre-tax profits increased to £20.5million, from £17.3million, while turnover grew by more than £30million to £177.7million.
They also highlight almost £30million of capital expenditure during the year, of which £23.3million was spent on the continued modernisation of the group’s growing fleet of emergency response and rescue vessels.
The SNP has been accused of “deceiving” voters in September’s referendum after analysis suggested an independent Scotland would have received only a fifth of the party’s oil revenue estimates.
According to reports projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which take into account plummeting prices put oil revenues at £1.25 billion in 2016/17 - the first year of independence had Scotland voted Yes - instead of the £6.9 billion predicted by the Nationalists during the campaign.
Meanwhile oil giant Shell confirmed it is to sell its share in the Sean gas field in the southern North Sea.
BP and SOCAR (The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) have signed a new production sharing agreement to explore shallow water prospects in the Absheron Peninsula.
The agreement is part of the government’s plan to ensure that all of Azerbaijan’s offshore areas are fully explored.
A deal was signed by Rovnag Abdullayev, president of SOCAR, on behalf of the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Gordon Birrell, BP’s regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
Mr Birrell said: “BP is proud to embark on this new era of exploration in the Caspian together with SOCAR.
Libya’s oil output fell below its own consumption as fighting spread to Mellitah, a region that hosts the country’s fourth largest oil port, the state petroleum company said.
National Oil Corp. already this month declared force majeure at two export terminals, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, after an attempt by Islamist militias to capture them.
Force majeure is a legal status that protects a company from liability when it can’t fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control.
Gulfsands Petroleum is one step closer to finding its first gas in Morocco as work progresses on operations.
Production has started on the Dardara Southeast 1 (DRC-1) Rharb Centre Permit in Northern Morocco using the COFOR SAS Cabot 750 rig.
The DRC-1 well is the second well to be drilled based on the interpretation of 3D seismic survey data shot by Gulfsands on the Rharb Centre Permit in 2013.
Oil and gas exploration company Circle Oil has confirmed a discovery in Morocco.
The Middle East and North Africa focused firm has found oil in the KSR-12 well in the Sebou Permit.
The well is located about 1.2 kilometres to the south-west of the KSR gas gathering station. It was drilled to a total depth of 1,980 metres measured depth.
OAO Rosneft (ROSN) repaid $7 billion in debt and said it is generating enough dollars to meet the obligations taken on to buy TNK-BP last year and become the world’s largest traded oil producer.
The state-led company, hit by sanctions on Russia from the US and European Union limiting access to capital markets, said it has settled $24 billion this year in line with credit agreements.
Rosneft has sufficient foreign currency to cover debt, Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said in a statement.
Oil producer Afren has seen a boost in its shares following a preliminary offer from Seplat Petroleum Development.
The company’s shares rose 10.5% on the London Stock Exchange to 50.82pence.
The company’s shares rose 10.5% on the London Stock Exchange to 50.82pence.
The Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said he will attend a North Sea oil summit organised by Aberdeen City Council.
The meeting has been called by Aberdeen City Council in response to a plunge in oil prices to just above $62 a barrel, from more than $100 in the summer. Scottish Labour pledged to send its leader, Jim Murphy, and urged both Mr Cameron and Ms Sturgeon to attend.
Alistair Carmichael will attend the summit as well as the Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie.
CNOOC’s Nexen unit has shutdown its operations at an oilfield in Yemen due to a security threat.
The company made the move because of safety fears related to terrorist group Al Qaeda.
Premier Oil has completed transactions in two of its asset sales worth a combined $147.5million.
The company previously revealed it would be selling off its non-operated interests in the producing Scott, Telford and Rochelle fields to MOL Group for $130million before interim period adjustments.
Energy specialist Munro’s Travel reports strong interest from UK companies keen to attend and exhibit at the world’s top oil show.
Next year’s Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in the US oil capital of Houston is being held from Monday, May 4, to Thursday, May 7.
Executives and experts from leading oil companies will be attending this important event, which attracted a show record of more than 108,000 people last year.
The boom that adorned Gulf Arab monarchies with glittering towers, swelled their sovereign funds and kept unrest largely at bay may be over after oil prices dropped by almost 50% in the last six months.
The sheikhdoms have used the oil wealth to remake their region.
Landmarks include man-made islands on reclaimed land, as well as financial centers, airports and ports that turned the Arabian desert into a banking and travel hub.
The money was also deployed to ward off social unrest that spread through the Middle East during the Arab Spring.
Prime Minister David Cameron and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon were last night urged to attend an emergency oil and gas “summit” in Aberdeen and help save jobs as the North Sea industry struggles with low crude prices.
The meeting has been called by Aberdeen City Council in response to a plunge in oil prices to just above $62 a barrel, from more than $100 in the summer. Scottish Labour pledged to send its leader, Jim Murphy, and urged both Mr Cameron and Ms Sturgeon to attend.
But trade body Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) said there was no need for a knee-jerk reaction to the low oil prices, adding it was probably enough to “reflect” on them after Christmas.
The world’s top oil producer said yesterday it had no intention of cutting output to prop up oil prices.
Saudi Arabia also blamed commodity market speculators for driving down the price of a barrel of crude to its lowest level in years.
Ali Al-Naimi, the Middle East country’s oil minister, said he was “100% not pleased" with prices but they would improve, although it was unclear when.
The comments came at the 10th Arab Energy Conference in Abu Dhabi as the global oil and gas industry grapples with a plunge in oil prices to about $62 per barrel from well over $100 in the summer.
Nabors Industries Limited (NBR) Chief Executive Officer Tony Petrello, the best-paid oil executive in the US, and his finance chief are getting salary cuts as the world’s biggest land-rig contractor confronts an industry downturn.
Petrello’s base salary for the first half of next year will be pegged to an annual rate of $1.53 million, a 10% cut from the current $1.7 million.
Chief Financial Officer William Restrepo is also getting a 10 percent cut in his annualized base salary, to $585,000, over the same period, the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company said today in a federal filing.
A summit which aims to bring together governments, trade unions and industry bodies to save jobs in Scotland’s oil capital has been announced.
Jenny Laing, leader of Aberdeen City Council, has called on the Scottish and UK Governments to attend the summit on the North Sea oil industry which is struggling under plummeting oil prices.
Labour has pledged to send its leader Jim Murphy and has urged First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Prime Minister David Cameron to attend.
Crude prices surged from the lowest closing levels since May 2009 as comments from Saudi Arabia’s oil minister yesterday added to the most volatile market in three years.
West Texas Intermediate climbed 4.5% in New York, the biggest gain since August 2012. Both WTI and Brent rose more than 5 percent during the session.
A measure of expected WTI futures movements and a gauge of options value was at the highest level since October 2011, data shows.
Balmoral Group chairman and managing director Jim Milne is toasting “another year of positive growth in turnover and profitability”.
He was speaking after the Aberdeen engineering firm reported turnover growth of more than 25% to £79.06million in the year to March 31.
Pre-tax profits were up by more than 13% to £4.56million, with Balmoral highlighting a 53% increase in operating profits to £6.18million.
Offshore union RMT has called for a “crisis management” plan to rescue British jobs and infrastructure in the wake of the oil price slump.
It has “major concerns” about the impact of cost-cutting across the sector with workers from Total, Apache, Shell and others complaining that terms and conditions are to be cut and shift patterns altered.
Major redevelopment and refurbishment projects will be “delayed indefinitely as investment dries up”, the Health & Safety Executive “will be stretched to maximum capacity trying to deal with the introduction of the new EU Offshore Safety Directive”, the sustainability of production is “at risk”, and the UK taxpayer faces a bill of up to £30 billion for decommissioning, it said.
Norwegian Energy Company ASA (Noreco) said production at the Huntington field has been granted temporary approval to resume.
Earlier this week the company said production would be further delayed.
Work had been due to resume at the beginning of the month.
Australian Energy company Senex Energy has secured a floor cost for its oil revenues bid to protect them the against recent drop in prices.
The move was carried out through a combination of put options and zero cost collars.
BP has selected Jacobs Engineering to hold its role as strategic supplier of mid-cap work on a global basis.
The contract value has not been disclosed, but it replaces a similar contract that has been in place since 2002.
The US owner of Aberdeen firm International Tubular Services (ITS) says the business will not face criminal prosecution after its admission of bribery and corruption.
As revealed on Energy Voice yesterday, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s civil recovery unit recovered £172,200 under proceeds of crime legislation from ITS after it benefited from unlawful conduct.
ITS admitted it had benefited from corrupt payments made by a former Kazakhstan-based employee. The payments were made to secure extra contracts from a customer in the country.
