By Legal director Maren Strandevold and partner Marton Eorsi at Addleshaw Goddard
Innovation and new technology is central to a successful energy transition, but working out who bears the financial risk posed by largely untested tech can see proposed projects fail to get off the ground.
It is time developing countries take a page from the Willie Sutton play book and look to the oil industry for funding their energy transition – that’s where the money is.
By Mark Stewart, partner - Corporate Finance and Head of Energy, Infrastructure and Sustainability - Johnston Carmichael.
If anyone was in any doubt that the lack of a coherent and long-term energy strategy is thwarting our net-zero ambitions, the events and news in recent months, have brought this into sharp focus.
Several years ago, it seemed that some leading environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had started to concede UK Big Oil’s claim that a managed transition away from high- to low-carbon energy might be strategically more effective as a means of reaching Net Zero by 2050 than the slam-dunk kill demanded by Just Stop Oil.
One of the many sub-plots in the saga of two uncompleted Caledonian MacBrayne ferries at the Ferguson yard in Port Glasgow involves the proposed use of Liquefied Natural Gas to part-fuel them.
As an industry, we’ve made good progress in mental health support, but we need to do more. According to a study by the International SOS Foundation, which looked at the mental health vulnerabilities for remote and rotational workers, 40% of respondents experience suicidal thoughts while on duty.
By Jenny Curtis, Managing Director of Vattenfall Heat UK
No more public money should go into hydrogen for domestic heating because electrification is the only viable means of decarbonising heating and hot water in UK homes, writes Jenny Curtis, managing director of Vattenfall Heat UK.
"Emerging energies – such as offshore wind – must work with and learn from the oil and gas decommissioning sector," says Ricky Thomson, decommissioning manager for OEUK.
By By Grant Morrison, head of oil and gas, RSM Aberdeen and Jasper Van Heesch, private equity sector senior analyst & director, RSM UK
A 2020 study by McKinsey stated, ‘The oil and gas industry accounts for 42% of global emissions…in addition, it produces the fuels that create another 33% of global emissions.’
By Legal director Suzanne Caveney, partner Julia Woodward-Carlton, and associate Emily Beighton at Eversheds Sutherland
Recent warnings from the UK’s competition watchdog shows why the energy industry should be more careful than ever when sharing information and experiences with each other.
By Sam Rose, Ian Matheson & Shaun Walker, Subsea & Pipelines Team at Kent
Instead, a combination of barriers can be employed, where each additional mitigation draws the net a little tighter in one area, making it harder for the perpetrator to get through the armour.
By Mark Dixon, co-founder and director, Cerulean Winds
In spite of the multiple pressures facing the North Sea, or possibly because of them, the need to decarbonise oil and gas production remains paramount.
The UK government has made several serious commitments towards the country’s quest for energy independence. In addition to issuing hundreds of new North Sea oil and gas licences this past summer and more to come this autumn, the country also continues its renewables strategy, albeit acknowledging that by 2050 a quarter of UK’s energy needs will still come from oil and gas.
The most recent Decommissioning Cost and Performance Report published by the North Sea Transition Authority (“NSTA”) on 9 August 2023 showed that the total cost estimate for decommissioning remaining oil and gas infrastructure on the UK Continental Shelf ("UKCS") is over £40 billion.
And so it came to pass …. I was writing here last month when the announcement on the latest Contract for Difference round was imminent and it appeared a distinct possibility that offshore developers would give it the cold shoulder. As indeed they did.
With COP 28 just around the corner and as pressure builds across the globe to slash carbon emissions, increasingly powerful calls and commitments designed to accelerate the pace of green energy change are on the table.
Diversity and Inclusion are topics that frankly, I have a real struggle getting my head around, primarily because I was brought up by a progressive Cornish rebel of a mother in such a way that I had no need to include either word in my vocabulary. I just learnt to accept that regardless of any differences everyone was of equal importance and value to society.
As an offshore worker, it can seem particularly hard to talk about mental health, especially with the "manly" attitudes and stigma that can come with it.