WITH hundreds of billions of euros forecast to be spent on maritime renewables in European waters over the next decade and more, huge business opportunities that barely existed five years ago are opening up.
Premier has been part of the North Sea since 1971 but has never had offices in Aberdeen, or at least until now. The $500million purchase of the assets of Oilexco North Sea, which was concluded in May, changed that.
What does it take to work offshore and thrive in that sometimes harsh environment? You need to be able to get along with your colleagues as you'll be working and living in close proximity.
FIVE mobile units and a platform rig are currently active on E&A drilling on the UKCS. The decline since last month reflects recent rig departures from the sector - semi-submersible Byford Dolphin departing for Norway and drillship Stena Carron to Canadian Atlantic waters.
ABERDEEN-BASED deepwater drilling consultancy Exceed has secured a performance improvement contract worth up to $1million with Tullow Oil to support the massive Jubilee oilfield development offshore Ghana.
NEWLY completed ultra-deepwater drillship Petrobras 10000 has started work in Angola for Petrobras under a 10-year contract. The vessel is to drill a series of exploration wells - rumoured to be up to nine at present - in Angola's deepwater blocks 16 and 18/6 in the Benguela sub-basin of the Kwanza Basin, an area that has so far not been tested with the drillbit. Miocene and Oligocene sands are the main targets as they display seismic anomalies that are thought to be large turbidite plays.
TAQA Bratani Limited, the UK arm of the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, sponsored the Lord Provost's Variety Show at His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, which raised £23,000 for charity.
ABOUT 400 guests attended the Oil & Gas UK Awards ceremony, which was held at Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre last month.
TECHNIP and Schlumberger have forged a global co-operation agreement aimed at jointly developing subsea integrity and surveillance solutions for flexible pipes used in deep offshore oil&gas production.
KBR is expected to decide the fate of the Nigg yard on the Cromarty Firth this month.
ONE of the world's most advanced rescue submersibles has just been put through its paces in water depths to 15m, including simulated rescues, at The Underwater Centre in Fort William.
A NORTH Sea high-pressure and temperature (HP/HT) well drilled by the UK unit of GDF Suez has achieved best in class under the Rushmore benchmark process.
A KEY part of the UK's future is to have a successful green-tech revolution, but other than setting targets (the UK is way behind with those) and implementing some incentives such as ROCs (renewables obligation certificates), there is a view that Britain is trailing behind and that, somehow, the market will provide.
GREAT store is being placed on coal-fired plant, not just in the UK, but also in other countries such as the US and China.
ESCAPE, a Scottish IT firm with a strong oil&gas focus, played a key role in helping Austrian energy group OMV prepare for what turned out to be a successful exploration well drilled West of Shetland a few weeks ago.
MEDIA headlines in the UK have been full of nuclear in recent months because of the extensive new-builds programme planned for England and Wales, but rejected by Scotland.
There is one energy-generation technology in which Scotland is right up there with the best in the world. We have universities bristling with research activity and companies eager and able to play their part in the supply chain, creating thousands of jobs.
Here we are again. Only a few more shopping days to go before Christmas and, as usual, I still can't make up my mind as to what presents I want or, indeed, what I'm going to buy for everyone else.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) is holding a major conference on climate change and global warming in Copenhagen on December 7-18 that up to 20,000 people are expected to attend.
Sooner or later, I suppose, I had to join the media chatterati gabbling on about the banks and how horrible they all are. So what better way to end 2009 than by scribbling my tuppence worth about RBS & Co? For month after month, it seems, we have been bombarded with news about Scrooge banks.
Weatherford is marking 10 years of expanded sand screens manufacture with a significant further expansion of dedicated manufacturing facilities in Europe.
OPERATORS of subsea fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf - indeed any offshore province where there is deep water - spend vast amounts of money on keeping harmful ice-like crystals under control.
UK oil&gas skills standards could soon become the norm around the world thanks to a bold initiative by North Sea training body OPITO - The Oil & Gas Academy.
The world is awash with idle jack-up rigs, with more than 100 units stacked, plus a further 60 new ones under construction/on order.
Subsea contractors seem to be riding out the oil-price downturn and impacts of recession relatively well, judging from views garnered from two first-division players with quite a different approach to financing their future ambitions.