Stephen Hawking famously said that “intelligence is the ability to adapt to change”. Covid-19 has undoubtedly forced significant change on the world we live and work in, but it has also been a catalyst for innovation, collaboration and flexibility.
There is a saying: “To err is human.” We make mistakes and this can lead to difficulties, even disaster.
The rapid global spread of Covid-19 has eclipsed other recent epidemics and market crises in size and scope.
Since the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak and oil price crash, huge amounts of pressure have been heaped on directors of oilfield service (OFS) businesses.
As we start to unlock and the shift of focus starts to turn to the economy, Sarah Baillie, Planning and Infrastructure Consenting Partner, at Addleshaw Goddard LLP, discusses what lessons we can learn from lockdown if we want to transition towards a greener, net zero and sustainable economy.
The media and scientific papers are awash with reports on the transition to net zero energy supply options – hydrogen, CCUS, solar, wind, tide etc.
Against the backdrop of current circumstances in the oil market, it is increasingly hard to predict what the future holds for the decommissioning industry. The oil price will have a significant effect on depleted and marginal fields and may push already conservative profit-making operations into the red. This, combined with COVID-19, has created more of an impasse for the market than arguably seen before.
The starting gun has been fired for investors and developers seeking new offshore wind opportunities in Scottish waters with the launch of the ScotWind Leasing programme.
The coronavirus pandemic, together with a global collapse in oil price, has seen the offshore industry experience hugely turbulent times during the first half of 2020.
According to the Energy Saving Trust the average pence/kWhr charges for gas and electricity (standard rate) are 4.17 and 16.36 respectively. We either burn natural gas in our households or we burn natural gas to make electricity to use in our households.
It has been another eventful couple of weeks in the global energy sector. The COVID-19 situation continues to create havoc across the world, as countries deal with the fall-out of the health crisis and associated economic impact.
Sustainable Recovery may be the most significant report ever produced by the IEA and the reason why is that the agency was partnered by the International Monetary Fund.
At the start of June, Seagreen Wind Energy Limited, a 114-turbine offshore wind farm than 27km off the Angus coast, got the greenlight to help kick-start Scotland’s green recovery.
Ukraine’s energy sector is undergoing one of the most profound crises in its history. It is no surprise therefore that solving this crisis is a priority for officials and industry. In doing so, they will have to take a fundamental decision; whether to pursue a pragmatic or a populist approach to policy and regulatory change.
Hydrogen is ubiquitous in the energy media with most articles hailing its virtues. When combusted there are no carbon emissions and it can be stored for future use. Both these features are ideal qualities in the transition to net zero.
BP’s announcement that it is going to write down the value of its exploration assets by $8-10 billion (56-70%) shows the accounting impact of its energy transition strategy.
The Scottish Government have declared a climate emergency and have a Net Zero target by 2045. How does this fit with a country that has a significant oil and gas industry?
Sir Ian Wood, chair of economic development body Opportunity North East (ONE), comments on the Energy Transition Fund announcement from the Scottish Government.
We particularly welcome the launch of Crown Estate Scotland’s offshore wind leasing round at this time.
The apocryphal Chinese curse ‘may you live in interesting times’ could well apply to the current situation within the oil and gas sector.
A recent report published by the Ecological Society of America – Forecasting the legacy of offshore oil and gas platforms on fish community structure andproductivity caught my eye. The report presented a model for forecasting fish communities surrounding offshore southern California installations following a series of decommissioning alternatives.
Six months on from the passage of the IMO 2020 initiative – the International Maritime Organisation ruling that required the marine sector to reduce sulphur emissions by over 80% – how has the market responded to the new position, asks Andy Laven, COO of Sahara Energy Resources DMCC
With the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK Government now has a unique opportunity to take action and lead the world in its response to climate change through this period.
We are seeing the first green shoots of the economic recovery we can make along Scotland’s east coast through new offshore wind projects.
It’s too soon to know with any certainty how Covid-19 will affect our lives in the weeks, months and even years to come. The true scale of the impact of the pandemic and the measures needed to save lives remains to be seen.