Anti-fracking campaigners have lost a High Court bid to block planning consent for further work connected to oil and gas exploration in their village.
Permission was granted in May this year and affects Lower Stumble in Balcombe, West Sussex, which has been at the centre of high-profile protests over the use of hydraulic fracturing to extract shale gas.
The Frack Free Balcombe Residents Association (FFBRA) asked Mr Justice Gilbart, sitting in London, to quash the permission granted by West Sussex County Council to energy firm Cuadrilla.
Statoil has extended the suspension period for a number of rigs due to overcapacity in its portfolio.
The Norwegian company said it meant the the COSL Pioneer, Scarabeo 5 and Songa Trym postponement period would now be longer.
The rigs were initially suspended until the end of the year.
Ophir Energy has signed a production sharing contract with the Myanmar Ministry of Energy.
The move finalises the award of Block AD-03 offshore Myanmar, which the company has a 95% interest in.
Halliburton has appointed its chief financial officer (CFO) as chief integration officer to lead its merger with Baker Hughes.
Mark McCollum will serve as head of the joint integration team the two companies are assembling.
It comes after they revealed plans to merge last month in a $34.6billion deal.
Brent extended losses from a four-year low as Saudi Arabia offered customers in Asia record discounts on its crude, bolstering speculation it’s defending market share.
West Texas Intermediate dropped in New York.
Futures fell as much as 0.8% in London and are headed for a second weekly decline. State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. cut its differential for Arab Light sales to Asia next month to $2 a barrel below a regional benchmark, according to a company statement.
French oil company Total has finally admitted its new £800million Shetland gas plant will not be completed this year.
A company spokesman said it was likely to be ready during the first three months of the 2015, about nine months behind schedule.
Following months of denial and a profit warning from main contractor Petrofac last month, Total issued a short statement yesterday.
Collapsing crude prices have given oil producers a new argument for ending a 39-year-old US ban on exports.
With US output at a 31-year high and imports at the lowest level since 1995, producers seeking the best possible price for crude are straining at having to keep sales at home.
Removing the ban could erase an imbalance between US and foreign crude prices by expanding the market for shale oil.
CHC Helicopter is set to invest millions of pounds to transform its facilities in Aberdeen.
The company plans to deliver the expansion of its hangar capacity, passenger terminal and provide for a new operations centre.
The development will be delivered in two phases.
North American oil and gas firm Dejour Energy has contracted Ensign Drilling Partnership to drill wells at its Woodrush complex.
The two wells will target the Halfway oil and Gething gas pools known to be productive at Woodrush at depths between 3500-4000.
The objectives of the project are to expand current field production and company reserve values.
General Electric (GE) and Heirs Holdings (HH) have agreed to expand their business relationship and pursue opportunities in Nigeria's oil and gas sector.
The pair have identified an opening in the country's upstream sector and domestic demand for oil and gas in the country.
The firms' collaboration was initially focused on the Nigerian power sector and the expansion of Transcorp Ughelli, Nigeria's biggest power station.
Whiting Petroleum stockholders have approved the acquisition of Kodiak Oil & Gas.
Around 78.5% of Whiting common stock voted for the issuance of common stock to acquire Kodiak.
The company said 98.8% of outstanding shares also voted in favour.
Europe moved a step back towards a plan to stigmatise Canada's tar sands as highly polluting on Wednesday, despite years of Ottawa's lobbying the EU bloc as part of its export drive.
European Parliament lawmakers put the plans back on the agenda by voting against the EU executive's proposal to abandon the scheme.
The veto vote was passed at committee level, meaning it still has to get through a full session of the European Parliament in the coming weeks in order to force the European Commission to come up with a new proposal. Getting plenary agreement would be much harder than clearing a committee.
Not only is OPEC refraining from cutting oil output to stem the five-month plunge in prices, it’s adding to the supply glut.
Just five days after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to maintain production levels, Iraq, the group’s second-biggest member, inked an export deal with the Kurds that may add about 300,000 barrels a day to world supplies.
In a global market that neighboring Kuwait estimates is facing a daily oversupply of 1.8 million barrels, the accord stands to deepen crude’s 39% plunge since late June.
Aberdeen firm Hydro Group has been chosen to carry out cable repairs and to design and develop undersea infrastructure for Canada’s Department of National Defence.
The Bridge of Don company did not reveal exactly how much its latest contract was worth but it is a six-figure sum.
Hydro Group, which designs and manufactures cables and connectors for subsea and onshore use, has previously carried out work for Canada’s armed forces.
Energy North's chief executive is to stand down.
Ian Couper, who has held the position for eight years, plans to leave in May 2015.
Mr Couper's role at the energy trade body saw him turn the firm from a 30-member to 220 member group.
Brazilian energy firm Petrobas has made the first ever gas discovery in Columbian Caribbean deep waters.
The Rio de Janeiro-quartered company said natural gas was found just off the coast of La Guajira.
The plunging oil price is giving an unexpected lift to Europe’s crisis-battered southern periphery as decreasing fuel costs help spur demand.
Spain, Europe’s fourth-largest economy, could add as much as 1 percent to annual growth with oil prices between $80-90 a barrel, the government said. Italy, which is in its fourth year of recession, stands to boost GDP 0.3% points with a sustained $10 oil price drop, according to BNP Paribas SA.
“There’s no doubt lower oil prices will act as a stimulus to growth in the region,” Frederik Ducrozet, a Paris-based economist at Credit Agricole, said. “Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy would be clear beneficiaries.”
Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said the recent fall in the value of oil means that if Scotland had voted to leave the UK it could have been facing a spending gap about the same size as the entire budget for the health service north of the border.
He was speaking ahead of George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, during which the Chancellor is expected to announce more funding for the NHS along with the expected devolution of corporation tax to Northern Ireland, but not to Scotland.
The SNP has called on Mr Osborne to use his statement to pledge early action to implement the recommendations of the Smith Commission on further devolution.
The Commission, which was set up by the UK Government immediately after the independence referendum, last week called for Holyrood to get powers to set income tax rates and bands, along with new powers over benefits.
Eyebrows were raised after it emerged that the incoming chairman of the new oil and gas regulator would enjoy a £100,000 pay packet for a job that requires just 2.5 days a week work.
The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), formed on the recommendation of the Wood Review, is on the hunt for a chairman or woman after it recruited former BG Group boss Andy Samuel as its new chief executive.
Mr Samuel, who takes up his new job on January 1, will be paid £250,000 per year.
The UK oil and gas industry is missing out on a government funding pot worth more than £7billion because it has failed to sufficiently organise itself, a business leader warned yesterday.
Paul Warwick, boss of oil operator Talisman and a member of the government and industry-led Technology Leadership Board (TLB), said the sector has missed out on financial support for technology development from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (Bis) because it was “too complicated”.
He added that, until recently, the industry had not needed the help from government.
The Russian government has acknowledged that the country will fall into recession next year, battered by the combination of Western sanctions and a plunge in the price of its oil exports.
The news caused the stock market to drop and pushed the ruble to a fresh record low against the dollar.
The economic development ministry today revised its GDP forecast for 2015 from growth of 1.2% to a drop of 0.8%. Russian households are expected to take hit, with disposable income seen declining by 2.8% against the previously expected 0.4% growth.
It is now abundantly clear the offshore drilling markets have slithered into a serious downturn, according to offshore research analysts at RS Platou.
In a nutshell, they warn that around 120 rigs need to be scrapped to prevent a prolonged downturn in the fortunes of drilling contractors.
They say: “Our current estimates point to active utilisations for jack-ups moving to 82% and even lower for floaters (75%) by 2016.
Toronto-based MCW Energy Group claims it will begin producing cleaner, cheaper oil from oil sands next year at a newly built processing plant in northeastern Utah.
It said that a new system that dispenses with the use of water is behind the claim.
MCW said the system will enable oil sands to be produced cleanly “without creating the toxic wastelands that have resulted from oil sands projects in Western Canada."
Oil major Chevron has begun production from its Jack and St Malo deepwater project in the Gulf of Mexico.
The company said the delivery is a key part of its upstream work with plans to reach 3.1 million barrels per day by 2017.
The fields are among the largest in the Gulf of Mexico and were discovered in 2004 and 2003.
