The COVID-19 pandemic has provided significant challenges, but it also presents a wealth of opportunities with regards to sustainability and our global energy footprint. Although the dramatic reduction of CO2 emissions this pandemic has brought about is welcome, there is still a lot of work to be done in changing hearts and minds with regards to sustainability.
Global energy sector leader Jan Egil Brændeland explains the complexities of global energy provision and how oil and gas are far from dead
After a truly challenging 2020, hopefully 2021 will offer something to look forward to.
In January 2021, OGUK and Deloitte will launch the latest edition of the UKCS upstream supply chain collaboration review and index. The index is developed from supply chain and operator company feedback and provides an understanding of how effectively industry is working together in what continues to be challenging times for us all.
Whether dealing with failure of a major project, reacting to crises at counterparties or weighed down by oil price weakness, many companies in the oil sector will have to undertake financial restructuring in 2021.
Disruption can bring opportunities, and those businesses which have a mindset of accepting opportunities thrown up from the unwelcome disruption caused by Covid-19 will survive and thrive, while new businesses will emerge to capitalise on these opportunities.
The Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once spoke of being told by a writing tutor that a plot she had written of a middle-class African family was inauthentic. She was met with disbelief when she revealed the story was autobiographical.
As reported by Energy Voice on Monday 11th Jan, Kwasi Kwarteng (Minister of State for Energy) in a Westminster Energy Forum interview stated:
Technology never stands still. In the almost 40 years that we’ve been extracting oil and gas from the North Sea, technology has constantly evolved to solve increasingly complex challenges.
Given the appalling mess called Brexit and the Covid-19 crisis that beset all of us, it is quite a surprise that the Scottish Government actually found the resource to cobble together and publish just before Christmas an outline of its £100 million over five years hydrogen industry stimulus dream.
Hydrogen is the new Holy Grail. The UK Government’s Energy White Paper gives it 175 references, three times the number for offshore wind and 10 times more than new nuclear.
Wow, what a 12 months that was. The last article I wrote for Energy Voice was in June and looking back now, it shows how little was understood about the impact Covid-19 would have on our lives. I suggested in that article that we were emerging from the crisis then. How wrong could I be?
The world’s eyes will be on Scotland in November when global leaders are set to meet in Glasgow for the COP26 summit, a year later than originally planned.
That’s what we are all asking as we approach the New Year. We are all hoping that the advent of vaccines will mean 2021 is more “normal” than 2020. However, the pandemic has also coincided with, and possibly accelerated, a more fundamental change in our society – our response to the climate crisis, so the new “normal” will be different to the old “normal”.
It is a fact of life that if you want to achieve net zero you need the technology that can make it happen. You can play around with what you think are smart economic wheezes such as contracts for difference and carbon tax but if you don’t have the technology to enable you to stop burning hydrocarbons then ultimately, they’re of no benefit whatsoever.
Iman Hill, recently appointed as the new executive director of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) writes for Energy Voice on the current "litmus test" for the sector.
Crown Estate Scotland is set to launch a rather interesting mini-study.
Energy Voice, and numerous other media outlets, covered the Scottish Government’s Hydrogen Policy Statement issued on the 21st December. The policy statement was informed by the Scottish hydrogen: assessment report issued on the same day.
With the dramatic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fluctuating price of oil, 2020 has been a difficult year for us all and particularly our industry. During this time, we experienced a period of dramatic change, leading to a very “different” future.
“The child gold-diggers”. That was the title of a recent Sunday Times feature, which tracked illegally mined gold from the child miners of Ghana to the “clean” gold markets of Europe, via the Dubai gold souk.
ABIS Energy is passionate about Guyana. We have been engaged with the Guyana economy for the past 4 years and foresee a bright future.
Women-led SMEs across the continent depend on reliable and affordable energy but often lose out because of grid and centralised power problems. Instead of waiting for grid power, Salma Okonkwo argues, off-grid solar projects and mini grids offer a way forward.
History may never repeat itself exactly, but it can teach us a lot about achieving a successfully managed, fair and inclusive energy transition to a net-zero carbon future and green recovery in the UK.
With the oil industry facing the twin crisis of demand destruction and a climate emergency, and society grappling with a pandemic you could be forgiven for asking how much of a priority should diversity & inclusion be right now?
As we endure these challenging times, the climate emergency persists, and the planet continues to be threatened. Without a strong and stable economy, the funds to invest in a greener, cleaner future simply won’t be there. Even with the fall in carbon emissions, our modelling shows that the pandemic will only reduce demand through to 2050 by 8%.1