A marine engineering firm has set sail for the South Pole to undertake what is thought to be the first underwater welding project of its kind inside the Antarctic Circle.
Shetland and Aberdeen-based Ocean Kinetics has teamed up with civil engineers, Arch Henderson, to fix a quay thought to have been damaged by in iceberg at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Rothera Research Station.
The OGA (Oil and Gas Authority) has strengthened its board with the appointment of three new non-executive directors.
Sir Patrick Brown, the chairman of the industry regulator, has approved Frances Morris-Jones, Robert Armour and Mary Hardy in the roles.
Last month the OGA revealed it had completed the first phase of a £20million seismic campaign in the UKCS.
A watchdog group has sued a California coastal agency as it looks to overturn its decision to allow 1,632 tonnes of radioactive waste from a close nuclear power plant to be buried in containers not far from a beach.
Citizen Oversight has asked a San Diego Superior Court to reverse an October ruling by the California Coastal Commission that Southern California Edison could bury uranium fuel rod assemblies in steel casks on the property of the San Onofore Nuclear Generating Station.
The facility had closed in 2012 after unexpected equipment failures.
A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit over a disputed cargo of Iraqi Kurdish crude oil which showed up last year off the shore of Texas.
The incident prompted months of legal wrangling as Iraq sought to block the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from directly exporting oil.
The case has now been dismissed by US District Court Judge Gray Miller because the vessel which carried the crude had sailed away after the US buyer had balked at taking delivery because of the legal fight.
The Alba B3 jacket has been loaded onto its seagoing barge as preparations get underway for sail away to Equatorial Guinea.
Earlier this year Energy Voice revealed footage showing the Alba B3 topside being moved at the Heerema Zwijndrecht yard in the Netherlands.
A cargo plane has crashed near the international airport in the South Sudanese capital of Juba, killing at least 23 people.
Some of the victims were children, according to an Associated Press reporter near the scene, who said wreckage was strewn over the east side of the River Nile.
Petrol prices have fallen for a fourth consecutive month, according to new data.
The average price of unleaded at the end of October was 107.8p, compared to 109.5p at the start of the month, the RAC Fuel Watch found.
This is equivalent to a saving of 90p on the cost of filling up an average 55-litre family car.
Securing 40 trade deals with Kazakhstan worth £3 billion was “not bad for one afternoon’s work”, David Cameron declared after talks with the country’s president.
The Prime Minister said he saw Britain and the oil and mineral-rich central Asian state as “partners in prosperity and partners in progress” as he oversaw a signing ceremony at the Foreign Office alongside Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Downing Street said Mr Cameron raised the issue of human rights with his counterpart, who was recently re-elected with 97.75% of the vote and is regarded by critics as an autocrat.
Mr Nazarbayev insisted he was committed to widespread reforms including ending corruption, improving the justice system and ensuring “an open, liberal government that is accountable to the people”.
NOV (National Oilwell Varco) said one of its directors has resigned from the company.
Robert Beauchamp will be replace din his role by William Thomas who has been serving as chief executive of EOG Resources.
He previously held other leadership positions with the company including senior executive vice president.
A World Bank tribunal has reduced the amount Ecuador must pay Occidental Petroleum to around $1billion.
The payment is in compensation for the seizing of the US company’s assets.
Three years ago the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes awared Occidental $1.77billion.
RenewableUK will launch a new accord which will allows its member companies to demonstrate their commitment to health and safety standards in wind, wave and tidal energy.
Companies which sign up will be committing themselves publicly to supporting a common set of shared values and principles in health and safety.
These include taking a pro-active lead on health and safety matters as well as ensuring the right training is in place.
Entergy Corporation will close a nuclear power plant in New York which employs more than 600 workers within the next year.
The company said its decision to close the James A Fitzpatrick plant in Scriba was based on the “continued deteriorating” economics of the facility.
Entergy said the key drives behind the move include significantly reduced plant revenues due to lower gas prices.
A Nepalese Buddhist monk who raised thousands of pounds in the aftermath of the huge earthquake in his homeland this year has turned his attention to struggling former oil workers in the north-east.
Venerable Sujan, who operates the Varaunya Meditation Centre in Aberdeen’s Constitution Street, said he had been so impressed with the generosity of people in the region that he wanted to help those affected by the offshore industry downturn.
The Nepal earthquake killed more than 9,000 people and left more than 23,000 injured when it struck the country in April.
Forum Subsea Rental has strengthened its senior management team with the promotion of one of its team to global business director.
Nicki Nicholls will take up with new role where she will be responsible for managing and developing ambitious long-term growth plans for the company’s rental product lines.
It will take 28 years to eradicate fuel poverty if spending on energy efficiency measures continues at the current rate, according to the Scottish Greens.
Britons face longer commutes, more expensive energy bills and soaring housing costs because of the failure by successive governments to modernise the UK’s creaking infrastructure, George Osborne has admitted.
The Chancellor will use next month’s Autumn Statement to set out plans to sell off billions of pounds’ worth of public assets to help fund major projects and will commit to invest £100 billion in infrastructure by 2020.
Mr Osborne formally launched the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), under the chairmanship of former Labour cabinet minister Lord Adonis, which he said would “hold our feet to the fire” with regards to progress on major projects.
Pledges made by countries to cut greenhouse gases up to 2030 make it possible to avoid dangerous climate change, but only with much bigger and expensive action in the future, a report suggests.
National climate plans put forward by scores of countries to cut emissions over the next 10 to 15 years, ahead of crucial UN talks in Paris on a new climate deal, “begin to make a significant dent” in the growth of greenhouse gases, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said.
But campaigners warned the promises are not bold enough, in the face of the dangerous climate change expected with global temperature rises of more than 2C, and countries will need to urgently ramp up ambition.
Failure to address Scotland’s relatively poor productivity could cost 11,000 jobs and £400 million in taxes by 2025, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned.
Scotland has a long-standing gap in productivity - the measure of the amount of goods and services created - between the rest of the UK and is a long way behind European competitors, Ms
Sturgeon said.
She told business leaders Scotland faces “deep-seated challenges”, particularly in the oil and gas sector, in an address to a Business in Parliament conference at Holyrood.
Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was a heavy faller in the London market after revealing a sharp fall in third-quarter pre-tax profit.
The lender said its pre-tax profit before one-time items and restructuring costs came in at £842 million for the quarter, compared to £2.05 billion a year earlier.
The FTSE 100 Index opened 15.8 points down at 6379.8, following a fall of more than 40 points in the previous session.
A billionaire oil tycoon has been rescued after he was allegedly held hostage for more than a month in a £6million ransom deal.
Wong Yuk-kwan, the chairman of Pearl Oriental Oil Limited, had been found in an avandoned cottage in rural western Taiwan.
It’s believed the oil boss, worth an estimated £1.7billion, was abducted in September.
Administrators of UK oil explorer Afren have raised more than £300,000 from the sale of African artwork owned by the company.
The array of Nigerian artwork was put up for auction at Bonhams after the company began experiencing trouble earlier this year.
Two months ago the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it had cancelled trading shares from the company on the London Stock Exchange.
Argentina’s president Cristina Fernandez praised her government’s achievements in her first public comments since her party’s lacklustre election performance.
She urged voters Argentines to defend them in the presidential run-off election next month.
Ms Fernandez used a late night speech to remind Argentines of steps taken by her left-of-centre administration.
This included the nationalisation of Aerolineas Argentinas and the YPF oil company, social welfare programmes for the poor and free education in public universities.
David Cameron has been accused of failing to give an international lead in tackling air pollution and climate change.
Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott warned the Lords it was “crazy” to cut subsidies for renewable energy.
He said the Government was doing “absolutely nothing” to tackle emissions from cars, adding: “It’s green crap according to our Prime Minister.”
Icelandic volcanoes could be providing power to British homes, under plans to be announced by David Cameron.
The Prime Minister, attending the Northern Future Forum in Reykjavik, is expected to say that the UK and Iceland are to look at establishing an electricity pipeline between the two countries.
The multi-billion pound “interconnector” - involving 750 miles of undersea cabling - would enable the direct export of hydro and geothermal-generated electricity to be exported directly to Britain.