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.
Oil and gas contractor Saipem said it was not given formal notice the South Stream Offshore Pipeline contract would be scrapped.
Russia said the 40 billion euro pipeline link to Europe was to be dropped due to tension between the European Union and Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin said Russia scrapped a proposed $45 billion Black Sea pipeline to carry gas to Europe, the latest sign economic ties with the European Union are breaking down as the Ukraine crisis persists.
Shelving the South Stream project ensures pipelines through Ukraine will remain vital supply links to Europe for years to come.
The route under the Black Sea would have offered Russia’s OAO Gazprom a more direct path to feed the continent’s gas needs, a plan the EU objected to because it would reduce Ukraine’s leverage against its neighbor.
Caza Oil and Gas has seen an increase in its proved developed producing reserves this year as a result of its drilling program in the Bone Spring play.
PDP reserves increased 37.3% to 1,893.6 Mboe while total proved reserves decreased slightly to 4,483.4 Mboe from April 30, 2014.
The high profits are said to be largely from the Bone Spring play development program in New Mexico, which has 28 production wells.
Andes Energia has seen a successful intervention operation on a well in the Vaca Formation in Argentina.
The VG x-1 well on the Vega Grande oilfield in the Neuqen basin is producing oil at a rate of 80 barrels per day, without being stimulated thought hydraulic fracturing.
Operations consisted of an intervention with a pressure draw-down and build-up tests performed in the interval of between 2612 and 2617 metres below ground level.
Atlantic Petroleum has made a gas discovery in its Ivory exploration well in the Norwegian Sea.
The company said the 6707/10-3S well tested the westernmost segment of the Ivory structure.
It is one of several prospects within the PL528 B license.
Genel Energy has been given a $30million payment from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for oil exported through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline.
The company, which is headed by former BP chief executive officer Tony Hayward, said the Taq Taq field partners had received the initial award, which it described as an important “first step”.
It followed months of delays which were prompted partly by Islamic State incursions into the region.
The UK oil industry, after chafing at suggestions it’s subsidized by the state, wants Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to help save it from the market’s crashing prices.
Osborne’s Autumn statement tomorrow, setting out tax and spending policies, is a chance for the more than 500 companies represented by Britain’s oil lobby to press for what it says is a fairer deal. In a letter sent to the chancellor last month, Oil & Gas UK said the collapse in prices comes on top of a 26% jump in unit costs for the industry last year alone.
“Expect news on how the government will look to shore up investment in the North Sea,” said Sanjeev Bahl, Numis Securities Ltd.’s director of oil and gas equity research.
Ennsub has been awarded a £2million contract to build a portable Launch and Recovery System (LARS4).
It has been created on behalf of Benthic to allow for further deployment capability in deep and ultra deepwater conditions and harsh environments.
The LARS4 will allow mobilisation of Benthic's Portable Remotely Operated Drills (PRODs) on a wider range of vessels.
An offshore worker was airlifted to hospital last night after falling on a North Sea platform.
The 64-year-old man is believed to have fallen from a ladder aboard TAQA's Eider platform, 112 miles north-east of Shetland, at 10pm.
Lord Smith of Kelvin, chair of the Smith Commission on Scottish Devolution, will appear before Holyrood’s newly-convened Devolution (Further Powers) Committee.
His report recommended the UK government would remain in charge of licensing for all offshore oil and gas extraction under the proposals but Holyrood could get the power to determine if fracking goes ahead in Scotland.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell, trimming the biggest rally since August 2012 as investors weighed OPEC’s decision to let the market curb a global supply glut. Brent slid in London.
Futures dropped 0.7% in New York, decreasing for the fifth time in six days. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may hold an emergency meeting in the first quarter of next year, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez said in an interview.
The group’s failure to cut output at a gathering last week bodes well for US producers, according to billionaire wildcatter Harold Hamm, a founding father of the nation’s shale boom.
North Sea production and investment will face dramatic declines if oil prices remain at current lows, a new report has warned.
More than three billion barrels of oil and investment of over £80billion could be lost over the next 45 years if oil stays around the $70-a barrel price.
Oil fell to a five year low - below $68 - yesterday but rebounded to just over $72 as Professor Alex Kemp and Linda Stephen of the University of Aberdeen unveiled their latest evaluation of the impact of falling oil prices on the North Sea.
Unions have warned of “radical” changes in the energy industry over the next few years, leading to job losses after German giant E.ON announced re-structuring of its business.
The firm said it will focus on renewables, including wind and solar, along with distribution networks and its customer business.
E.ON, one of the Big Six energy firms, said it wanted to respond to the “dramatically altered global energy markets”.
Marathon oil has made a discovery at its Harir Block in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
The company said it had hit oil and gas in its Jisik-1 exploration well.
The site, 40 miles northeast of Erbil, was drilled to a total depth of 15,000 feet and oil and gas was noted in an extensive gross interval in both the Jurassic and Triassic reservoirs.
The decline in oil prices could have a substantial adverse effect on the oil and gas industry in the UKCS (UK continental shelf) a leading industry expert has warned.
Research by Professor Alex Kemp and Linda Stephen from the Aberdeen University has found that if the current drop in price continues, there will be reduced investment and production.
Using economic modelling, the pair highlighted two scenarios which reflect investment screening prices.
An Austrian energy group has drawn its first oil from a drilling campaign in New Zealand.
OMV said that well MR-8A, which is part of the Maari redevelopment drilling campaign, has an estimated production capacity of 4,500 barrels of oil per day.
The firm will invest €205million in the campaign which has five drills producing new reservoirs.
According to CanOils’ new report The Canadian Oil Sands Outlook 2015 the Canadian oil sands industry looks set to have capacity to produce over 3million barrels per day by the end of next year, with production likely to approach 2.5million bpd.
Of these figures, a higher portion than ever will be controlled by non-Canadian operators, with the trend of greater influence year-on-year by internationally-held companies continuing into the coming year.
Assuming all scheduled new projects and expansions actually come onstream by December 31, next year will see a 16.6% increase in overall production capacity compared with this year.
CNOOC has started production from gas fields in the South China sea.
CNOOC said its Panyu 34-1/35-1/35-2 project, which is located in the Pearl River Mouth Basin of the South China Sea, was producing 21 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.
The project consists of the three gas fields with a water depth in the range of between 195-338 meters.
Dragon Oil has ditched its £492million takeover bid for Petroceltic.
The move would have seen the company potentially benefit from Petroceltic assets in North Africa and Kurdistan.
However, Dragon Oil said it no longer intends to make an offer on the back of “prevailing market conditions”.
