With oil prices continuing to hover below $50 a barrel, the release today of Oil & Gas UK’s 2016 Economic Report, has served to remind us of the significant challenges currently facing the UK North Sea.
As the OPEC oil cartel prepares for its informal meeting in Algeria this week, media speculation and oil price fluctuations are rife in response to the possibility of an oil production freeze agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC countries. But these permutations beg one important question: haven’t we heard it all before?
It would have been hard to imagine at the height of the drama around the Ineos petrochemical plant in late 2013 that US shale gas imports would be arriving by boat three years later.
There’s a moratorium on fracking here in Scotland because of the huge public opposition to it.
From upstream to downstream activities, the oil and gas sector is at high risk of modern slavery, a broad concept covering slavery, servitude, bonded and forced labour and human trafficking.
There is little doubt that the North Sea oil and gas industry is about to enter an intense period of decommissioning. As exploration off the Aberdeen coast diminishes, it could represent a life-line and future export business for supply chain companies. However, for both operators and government, decommissioning will involve eye-watering levels of investment.
As Iran’s natural resources markets newly open to foreign participation, international oil, gas, and mining companies are considering whether and how to participate. In particular, those in the exploration and production services sectors, especially those experienced in applying advanced technologies to extracting natural resources, are eager to find their way into this new market.
Technology innovation is going to play a critical role in the next chapter of oil and gas recovery from the UK continental shelf (UKCS) and in driving export growth in our UK-based supply chain.
“If leaders of the energy industry want to keep a seat at the negotiating table as society changes around us then......we need to engage radically”
Dubai is a city with ambition and a reputation for breaking records. While the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become synonymous with oil, much of Dubai’s growth has, in fact, been driven by large investments in construction and real estate. The city built the world's largest artificial islands, the world’s tallest hotel and recently announced plans to build a new tower in Dubai to surpass the world's current tallest building. It has even announced plans to construct the world’s first 3-D printed building. With this in mind, it’s perhaps no surprise that when Dubai turned its attention to the renewables sector, its ambitions were never going to be modest.
When in Aberdeen last weekend, I walked through Golden Square for the first time this year. I was shocked to see the number of empty buildings with ‘To Let’ signs on them in this once busy part of town. I knew things were hard in Aberdeen, but this really drove it home.
The digital age is transforming the way in which businesses operate. Thanks to technological advancements over the past decade, economies and industries across the world are operating faster and more efficiently than ever before. But with this improvement comes a major risk: the growth and increasing complexity of cyber-related attacks.
The Government’s decision to press ahead with Hinkley Point C yesterday is good news for consumers, the environment, UK industry and the economy.
Generations to come will grow to loathe Britain’s love affair with nuclear power ... an infatuation that started in the 1950s and which hangs over these islands like a curse.
At the suggestion of a friend I listened to a recent edition of the BBC Radio 4 series “Costing the Earth”. The programme was entitled “Big Oil, Big Trouble”. After listening to it, I was minded to write a strong letter of complaint and objection to the BBC. However, I then reflected that this would only make my objections known to a few people at the BBC, who would, most likely, immediately dismiss them as coming from a biased source, particularly as, although today I am retired and have no involvement with the industry, I did spend almost all of my working life in it. So I thought it would be better to “go public” with my criticisms and corrections and let people draw their own conclusions – and who better to approach for help on that but the editor of the UK’s best oil and gas news channel, namely Energy Voice. Hence this piece.
Yesterday’s figures on oil and gas, for the first time in a long time, gave the sector some positive news.
Our oil and gas industry is a significant asset for Scotland.
While the word diamond usually conjures up thoughts of expensive rings and show-stopping necklaces, we at GE have other ideas. Deep inside GE’s Global Research Center, our scientists have been developing a revolutionary new material, which we anticipate will have extraordinary benefits for the solar industry.
Earlier this month, Norway announced it had suffered its first quarterly budget deficit in 20 years.
Operators are increasingly revisiting long standing contracts with the supply chain, to identify instances where financial provisions in the arrangement designed to save them money have not been properly enforced in the past.
Like many of my colleagues on the EUW Advisory Board, I was happy to take part in a short survey recently canvassing our views on the new energy future and how we, as an industry, could make that future a reality.
When an individual as astute as Lord Browne of Madingley is prepared to stand up at one of the world’s leading oil & gas conferences and basically tell Big Oil that the time has come to evolve from petroleum to energy by taking on the low carbon challenge, it really is time that Aberdeen woke up.
While the North American sentiment is more positive there is still some way to go before a meaningful recovery will take place in international markets
The 1st October marks a pivotal date for the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) as we transition into a Government Owned Company, or GovCo, a step designed to reinforce our independence and our ability to act in the interests of the Maximising Economic Recovery (MER) UK Strategy. Since the OGA began we have made clear we believe strongly that the industry is best served by a successful “tripartite” approach bringing together the OGA, industry and the government to collaborate and help create the conditions for a successful next phase of the UKCS.
Vladimir Putin appears to have joined Lewis Carroll's Alice on her trip through Wonderland, where nothing is quite what it seems, at least as far as talk of an oil output freeze is concerned.