The topside for Marathon Oil’s new Alba B3 platform is getting ready for a sail away to its next stop as the platform moves towards completion. The preparations for a sail away to the Heerema Vlissingen yard are in full swing from its current location at the Heerema Zwijndrecht yard in the Netherlands.
David Cameron will host talks with Xi Jinping at Downing Street as he seeks to cement multi-billion trade deals during the Chinese president’s four-day state visit to the UK. Investment by Beijing in Britain’s first UK nuclear power plant in a generation is expected to be confirmed as part of what the Government hopes will amount altogether to £30 billion of agreements. But the lavish welcome given to the president was attacked as a “national humiliation” by a former close adviser to the Prime Minister, who is under pressure to raise concerns about human rights and “dumped” cheap steel blamed for the loss of thousands of British jobs.
ROVOP has strengthened its team with the appointment of a new commercial director to its senior executive team and board. Euan Tait will join the company from professional services firm KPMG having spent his career in a number of roles within corporate finance and oil and gas. Steven Gray, ROVOP chief executive, said: “Euan brings more than 10 years of commercial experience to ROVOP. His network, knowledge of the industry and blend of energy and structured thinking will undoubtedly strengthen our senior team and add value for our clients."
Subsea 7 is to downsize its Aberdeenshire office as it looks to streamline costs during the oil price decline. The company, which announced it would be making headcount reductions earlier this year, said it would “optimise” its other buildings. Subsea 7 currently has its east and west complex as well as its workshop and sports centre based in Westhill.
Engineering is in Ollie Folayan’s DNA. His father considers himself to be number 23 in a long line of engineers. It meant a career in engineering was a natural choice for Mr Folayan, who loved tinkering with gadgets as a youngster. Mr Folayan, who is now the Aberdeen-based chairman of the Association for Black and minority ethnic Engineers (AFBE-UK), said: “When I was younger I always tended to break everything electronic. I tried to figure out how it worked. It could be as simple as trying to get the aerial to work on the TV to trying to understand cars.” Mr Folayan, 41, moved into a full-time engineering job at Babcock after earning his doctorate in fuels and combustion at Leeds University.
China should not be made a “scapegoat” for the collapse of the UK’s steel industry, Sir Vince Cable has said, accusing the Treasury of holding back with financial assistance that could help relieve pressures. The Liberal Democrat former business secretary said David Cameron should urge action from Beijing to curb production and noted there was a technical question to be examined over whether China was guilty of illegal “dumping”. But he insisted there had been “endless problems with steel” unrelated to China while he was in government that ministers had some power to alleviate.
A pressure group for the unconventional oil and gas industry in the UK has hailed the appointment of a leading science educator to spearhead efforts to reassure communities that fracking is safe. Ukoog, which also represents the interests of other uncoventional onshore oil and gas plays, has appointed Professor Averil Macdonald as its chair. Professor Macdonald is Emeritus Professor of Science Engagement at the University of Reading and a board member of WISE (Women in Science and Engineering), consultant director of Highbury College, and was chair of the Expert Group for Women in Science until 2015.
Energy supplier SSE will re-open a mothballed gas plant in England to ensure the lights stay on in the UK this winter. SSE said the 735MW gas-fired power station at Keadby in North Lincolnshire will re-open from Monday 9th November. This follows announcements earlier this year of its intent for the plant to return to service.
Plans for the next phase of a major expansion of a north port will go on show to the public in December. The Port of Cromarty Firth hope to attract more huge cruise ships and jobs to the area with the expansion. It would be the fourth phase of the multi-million pound expansion plans at the Invergordon port, with the proposals including reclaiming an additional 17 acres of land. The plans are still in the process of being firmed up and public opinion is to be gathered in advance of the two public shows in December.
The White House said the new Canadian Government could do more to address climate change ahead of international negotiations on the issue in Paris. The issue is a top priority for President Barack Obama in his last 15 months in office. A white House spokesman hinted climate change would form part of a phone call from Obama to the newly elected Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau.
Oasis Petroleum said crews have successfully plugged an oil well in North Dakota which had been spewing oil and saltwater for a number of days. The Houston-based oil company said the well had been put under control after problems began at the weekend.
The Government remains “as committed as ever” to meeting emissions reduction targets, Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom insisted, as she faced a grilling on cuts to renewables subsidies.
Maersk Drilling will welcome back Lene Reitzel as its new head of Human Resources after two years working with Maersk Tankers.
ACE Winches said it has completed an order for Statoil for their subsea line modification project designed for use on the Troll B platform offshore Norway. The Norwegian operator had required a rental Pull in Winch System including wire rope and HPU. The rental package supplied incorporated a compact design and weight optimized linear winch, designed for use in land based shore pulls and offshore wire rope deployment and recovery operations.
Energy companies are finally starting to come back into favor. After enduring the longest oil-price collapse in more than a decade, crashing profits and an investor exodus, Europe’s biggest producers are regaining fans as analysts bet earnings bottomed last quarter and will now start to recover. While Total SA, the region’s second-biggest oil company, will probably post the worst quarterly performance since 2009, it also has the highest proportion of buy ratings in a year, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Despite similarly bleak forecasts, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s No. 1, has the biggest share of buy recommendations since mid-2012 while BP Plc has the most since February.
Japan is said to have acknowledged the first possible casualty from radiation at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The worker was diagnosed with cancer after the crisis broke out four years ago forcing more than 160,000 people from their homes after the meltdown at the plant following an earthquake and tsunami. The incident was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years previously.
The European Union says its emissions fell 4% last year, meaning the 28-nation bloc has already surpassed its target for 2020. A report by the EU’s environment agency said 2014 emissions were 23% lower than in 1990. The EU is the world’s third largest greenhouse gas polluter.
Offshore catering staff are to protest at the offices across Aberdeen tomorrow over a pay dispute. Offshore catering staff are to protest at the offices across Aberdeen tomorrow over a pay dispute. Unite members will head to the premises of Entier, Aramark, Sodexo, ESS and Trinity following the cancellation of a two-year pay deal. Earlier this year COTA (Catering Offshore Trade Association) had said it wouldn’t pay the second year of the deal which would see a 1.3% rise in wages.
Fears about fresh job losses in the steel industry have been confirmed after Tata announced plans to cut 1,200 posts. Around 900 jobs will be cut from the firm’s giant plant in Scunthorpe, with 270 in Scotland and a small number in other sites. The firm said the cuts were in response to a shift in market conditions caused by a “flood” of cheap imports, particularly from China, a strong pound and high electricity prices.
A giant of the oil industry has arrived in the Cromarty Firth to take shelter for the winter. At 35,500 tonnes, the West Phoenix rig is the largest by gross tonnage ever to berth in the firth. It will shelter in the deep waters over the winter before embarking on a new contract in March off the west coast of Shetland.
An SNP MP claims Danny Alexander should have secured major reform of the electricity market while he was in office. Ian Blackford spoke out after Mr Alexander suggested the Highlands were being “let down” by a Tory majority government and “impotent” Nationalist MPs in opposition. Mr Alexander, former Inverness MP and chief secretary to the Treasury, was furious when the UK Government shelved a scheme he led to cut power bills in the north. The chancellor announced in the March Budget that ministers would consult on a plan to reduce electricity prices for families in the area by an average £30 a year. But it is understood the consultation was not carried out and officials now intend to look at the issue as part of a regular review of a subsidy scheme instead.
More steel jobs are set to be axed, plunging the industry into further crisis.
The Environment Agency is cutting its pension fund investments in fossil fuels to bring it in line with efforts to prevent dangerous climate change. Under the plans the Environment Agency Pension Fund (EAPF) will invest 15% of its £2.7 billion fund in low carbon and energy efficient technology and reduce investment in coal by 90% and oil and gas by half, in terms of carbon emissions, by 2020. The change by the Government agency aims to make sure its investments are compatible with international agreement to keep global temperature rises to 2C - seen as the threshold beyond which dangerous impacts of climate change will occur.
Oil giant Saudi Aramco said an attempted fraud which allegedly targeted its trading unit as well has India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has been foiled.
Canadian Oil Sands has asked its shareholders to reject an offer by Suncor Energy. The company said the bid “substantially undervalued” its ownership in Syncrude and was “entirely opportunistic”.