Campaigners have set up a protest camp near the site of the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. They have established a camp on a roundabout at the gates of the development in west Somerset as the president of China, Xi Jinping, arrives for a four-day state visit to the UK.
Statoil’s new managing director of production in the UK has taken over her new position with the Norwegian operator. Tove Stuhr Sjoblom will head up the firm’s offices in Aberdeen with responsibility for upstream development and production activities in the UK and Ireland. Sjoblom replaces Gunnar Breivik who will now head up Statoil’s corporate investigation unit.
British spies are expected to scrutinise computer systems at new nuclear plants built by Chinese firms to address national security fears. Listening post GCHQ will be responsible for ensuring the country’s energy network is not made vulnerable to cyber attacks, according to The Times. The safeguard emerged as President Xi Jinping arrives for a four-day state visit hailed by David Cameron as a symbol of a “golden era” in relations with Beijing.
Two of the North Sea’s biggest oil explorers have warned there could be a further 10,000 jobs losses in the oil and gas industry. Both Amjad Bseisu, chief executive of EnQuest, and Premier Oil’s chief executive Tony Durrant said the industry was making the expectation as the decline in oil price continues. Industry body Oil & Gas UK has reported up to 5,500 jobs have been affected in the last year.
Seadrill has moved to distance itself from the Petrobas corruption scandal which has embroiled Sevan, in which it has a controlling stake.
Offshore accommodation operator Prosafe has said its Regalia, Safe Bristolia, Safe Concordia and Safe Boreas units were fully contracted in the North Sea during the third quarter of 2015.
EDF said its hopes to announce a deal with Chinese investors to build a nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in the coming days. The French company’s chief executive Jean Bernard Levy said it was in the final negotiations with its Chinese partners. However he said he did not want to anticipate what would happen later this week as China’s President Xi Jingping to Britain.
The US State of California has shut down 33 oilfield wells which were allegedly improperly permitted to inject into federally protected water supplies. The move was put into effect late last week affecting oilfield injection wells in the state’s Kern County.
The steel industry is braced for fresh job losses amid a continuing crisis in the sector which has already led to the closure of a giant plant.
Dozens of people have been killed in a series of bombings in Nigeria. At least 18 people were killed early today when four women suicide bombers were challenged by soldiers as they tried to enter Maiduguri, according to the National Emergency Management Agency. The explosions happened just hours after two blasts near a mosque in the city killed at least 30 people.
Oil major BP’s head of crude, dubbed in the industry as “The King of Cushing” is set to retire from the company. David Porteous, in his early 40s, is known as one of the world’s most powerful and best-paid oil traders. BP has one of the biggest oil trading desks in the work and Porteous has made hundreds of millions of dollars for the company, according to reports.
Oil major Shell said two drill vessels it had been using before it pulled out of its Arctic operation have safely departed from Alaska. The Noble Discoverer is on its way to Washington State along with the Polar Pioneer after both received a Coast Guard inspection and refuel. Shell said the next destinations for both vessels have not yet been decided upon.
A senior executive of fracking company Ineos has said he is “not too concerned” about a motion at the SNP conference that could result in a further clampdown on the controversial practice. Party members meeting in Aberdeen will today be asked to back a move that would place tighter restrictions on the party’s moratorium on shale gas extraction. The Scottish Government has already halted any fracking until 2017.
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has rejected claims the renewables sector is under attack from the UK Government. The Conservatives have been criticised by the industry for the early closure of the Renewables Obligation (RO) subsidy amid warnings it will deter investment and risk thousands of jobs. Concerns have also been raised that ending the scheme from April – a year earlier than expected – will increase carbon emissions significantly.
The oiliest county in Texas has seen its new natural gas production capacity more than double as drillers home in on their most profitable acreage. The peak output rate from new gas wells in Karnes County has surged 134 percent since January, estimates from Drillinginfo show. The only other county in Texas’s Eagle Ford shale patch where new gas capacity’s gaining is Live Oak, about 50 miles southwest of Karnes, the Austin-based energy data provider said. Gas producers are focusing on the most prolific parts of their plays as they grapple with the worst price collapse since 2008, and Karnes County has long been a sweet spot in Texas’s Eagle Ford formation. The 20,000-square-mile shale play supplies about one-sixth of the nation’s crude.
Callum McCaig has branded the Labour Party “shameful” amid claims the SNP failed to act to protect North Sea oil and gas jobs. The Aberdeen South MP told a packed conference hall he would have “appreciated some help” from other MPs in his efforts to protect the “vital industry”. Mr McCaig was responding to comments from Kezia Dugdale reported in Energy Voice's sister publication the Press and Journal.
Experts have expressed concern about the prospect of Chinese investment in the UK nuclear power sector, with claims the move could threaten national security. A final investment decision on the new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point, Somerset, could be announced during Chinese president Xi Jinping’s state visit. Chancellor George Osborne has already announced a £2 billion Government guarantee to secure Chinese funding for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station set to be built by French firm EDF, and indicated that the next step may be a Chinese-designed, Chinese-built nuclear plant at Bradwell in Essex.
Blue-chip companies, including Shell and BP, have given their strong support for the adoption of a new global climate agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference this December in Paris.
Delighted watch collector Jamie Gray was right on time yesterday when he visited leading Aberdeen jeweller Finnies the Jewellers to collect his fabulous prize in our competition to win a Breitling Superocean 42.
A group of Aberdeen pupils have learned about the wide range of career opportunities in the oil and gas industry following a visit to EnQuest’s city centre offices.
The Government is calling for the release of a British pensioner described by his family as “one of the oldest and loneliest prisoners in Iran”.
Aberdeen International Airport (AIA) was hit by a double-digit drop in helicopter passenger numbers last month as the offshore sector’s malaise continued.
Scrabster Harbour has there is no room for complacency at the Caithness port despite enjoying a huge increase in energy-related activity in the first half of its financial year.
More than 75,000 people have signed a petition urging the release of a British grandfather who reportedly faces 350 lashes after breaking the law in Saudi Arabia when he was caught with home-made wine.
Rig worker, Richard Stanway, has become an internet star after a video of him performing a heart-felt rendition of an Oasis track went viral.