Albacom signs aircraft deal with Saab
Electronic components specialist Albacom has secured a £340,000 contract with Saab to supply aircraft parts.
Other News
Sparrows adds to its Middle East presence
Aberdeen oil service firm Sparrows Group has expanded its reach in the Middle East after forming a local partnership with Zamil Group in Saudi Arabia.
Tianjin explosion residents demand compensation in protest
Around 100 people whose homes were damaged in a deadly explosion in the Chinese port of Tianjin have gathered for a protest to demand compensation from the government.
Stats Group adds to boardroom team and changes at the top at Viking SeaTech
Pipeline engineering firm Stats Group has appointed three new directors to strengthen its management team.
Norwegian energy foundation supports students on Nasa internship
The organisers of a Norwegian oil and gas show have underlined the link between technologies used in the space and energy industries by paying for two budding drilling engineers to spend time with Nasa. Stavanger-based ONS Foundation, which runs the annual Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) event and is supporting the internship programme, said knowledge transfer between the two sectors could pave the way for significant technological breakthroughs. The interns, Stavanger University students Fridtjof Wabakken and Saresh Mohamad, said their three-month stints at the Nasa Ames Research Centre in California had helped them fulfil their childhood dreams.
Helicopter pilots in “overwhelming support” for strike action ballot
Helicopter pilots have shown “overwhelming support” for a vote on strike action in a move that could cripple the struggling North Sea oil and gas industry. More than a third of pilots operating in the North Sea nailed their colours to the mast at a meeting convened by their representative body in Aberdeen late on Thursday. It came after two of the sector’s main offshore transport providers announced plans to axe dozens of jobs in response to low oil prices.
Tendeka adds to executive team
Completions systems specialist Tendeka has made additions to its executive team.
North Sea helicopter pilots to vote on strike action
A ballot is set to be held over whether North Sea helicopter pilots should strike after both Bristow and CHC announced jobs were at risk. The move comes after general secretary Jim McAuslan visited Aberdeen for a meeting with more than a third of helicopter pilots based in the city. Balpa said those who attended the meeting yesterday had "been appalled" by employers' "approach to the redundancies".
Petroineos fined £24,000 after worker injured
The operators of the Grangemouth oil refinery have been fined £24,000 for safety failings related to an incident in which a worker was injured at the plant. The decision came after a Petroineos employee was sprayed in the face by low pressure steam. The worker had been in regulation personal protective equipment including a hard hat and safety glasses at the time of the incident.
Maersk Oil hit with improvement notice from HSE
Maersk Oil has been issued with an improvement notice from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after deadlines overran for work on the Gryphon Floating, Storage and Production Offloading vessel in the North Sea. A number of work orders were found to have been overdue on the vessel, which is 175 miles north east of Aberdeen. A spokesman for Maersk Oil said it was “committed” to improving its safety performance.
Aberdeen to move away from ‘oil tourism’
Aberdeen is going through a “period of reinvention” to move away from a reliance on visitors linked to the oil and gas sector, a tourism expert said yesterday. Andrew Martin, director of the Scottish Centre of Tourism at Robert Gordon University’s Aberdeen Business School, said efforts were being made to develop hospitality niches in the north-east, such as golf tourism and the whisky and castle trails. Any hopes of replacing lost income from the energy industry were “un-realistic”, he added. Steve Harris, chief executive of tourism body Visit-Aberdeen, said the Granite City’s weekend visitor market was holding up well, with numbers higher “than before”, while plans to create a single marketing organisation for the north-east would boost them further. Mr Martin and Mr Harris were speaking after a new study revealed yet more hardship for hotels in Europe’s energy capital, as low oil prices drive custom away.
When the cowboys came to town
British war-time comedian Tommy Trinder is widely credited with coining the phrase – “over-fed, over-paid, over-sexed and over here” when referring to American GIs during World War Two.
Firefighter pulled from wreckage of China explosion after 32-hour ordeal
Rescuers have pulled out a firefighter trapped for 32 hours after responding to the massive explosions in Tianjin. Meanwhile authorities moved forward gingerly in dealing with a fire still smouldering amid potentially dangerous chemicals. The two explosions late on Wednesday at the Chinese port city - one of them the equivalent of 21 tons of TNT - killed at least 50 people and injured more than 700.
Greenpeace protestors could face fines over Shell stunt
Greenpeace protests who had tried to prevent a Shell oil ship from reaching Alaska could face fines of up to $5,000. According to reports, the Coast Guard has warned the protestors have 30 days to either pay the fines or contest the civil citations before a hearing officer. The environmental group has been ramping up its protest against the move in the past couple of months as Shell looks to resume its operations in the Arctic.
Images from scene of Nigeria helicopter crash
Four people have been killed and another two workers are also suspected to have been fatally injured in a helicopter crash. The incident happened as a Bristow helicopter flew back from an oil rig in Nigeria.
Statoil set to replace former board member
Statoil’s nomination committee has recommended a new member to be elected to its board. The company has put forward Wenche Agerup after Catherine Hughes withdrew from the board in April this year.
Oil majors’ $60 billion cuts don’t go far enough as crude slides
The $60 billion of oil-industry spending cuts this year won’t be enough as crude languishes near a six-year low. The world’s biggest producers will need to trim investments by a further $26 billion to meet sacrosanct dividend payments, according to Jefferies Group LLC. Capital spending will have to fall 10 percent next year, Banco Santander SA says. Oil companies are bracing for “lower for longer” prices as a global supply glut persists, dragging crude to the lowest close since March 2009 in New York on Tuesday. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which has reduced spending 20 percent this year, has “more levers to pull” should the market weaken further, according to Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden.
Piper Alpha memorial trust receives industry funding to maintain garden of remembrance
Funds to help pay for the ongoing maintenance of the North Sea Memorial Garden in Aberdeen that pays tribute to the 167 men who lost their lives in the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster are being handed over today.
North Atlantic Drilling parts company with finance chief
North Atlantic Drilling's chief financial officer Ragnvald Kavli, is to step down later this month.
Video: Explosion hits Chinese port leaving at least 17 dead
Huge explosions in an industrial area have sent up massive fireballs that killed at least 17 people and injured hundreds in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. China’s state broadcaster CCTV said 32 people among the 300-400 taken to hospital were in a critical condition. The Beijing News newspaper said on its website that nine firefighters were among the dead. The blasts, originating at a warehouse for hazardous material, blew doors off buildings in the area and shattered windows up to several miles away.
Statoil hit with improvement notice over ignition risk on platform
Statoil has been given a deadline by the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) in Norway over a number of non-conformities and improvement points on the Heidmal gas processing platform in the North Sea. The list also includes the risk of ignition from the platform. The company has until August 24th to report on improvements it has made since the routine audit took place in June.
Islamic State group in Egypt alleged to have killed Croatian oil worker
It is the first such killing of a foreign captive in Egypt since the extremists set up a branch here. The killing of the 30-year-old oil and gas sector surveyor likely will rattle companies with expatriate workers in Egypt and cast a cloud over President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s attempts to boost international investment to revive the economy, battered by years of turmoil. The still image, shared by IS sympathisers on social media, appeared to show the body of Tomislav Salopek, a married, father of two, wearing a beige jumpsuit looking like the one he had worn in a previous video. A black flag used by IS and a knife were planted in the sand next to him.
Family of Aberdeen oilman raises £15,000 in his memory
The widow of a north-east oilman who died of a rare cancer has collected thousands of pounds for the hospice that looked after him in his final days.
BP’s Indiana refinery outage ripples through US oil market
For want of a refinery unit in Indiana, oil is tumbling in Oklahoma and Alberta while gasoline in the Midwest is soaring. Leaking tubes on a piece of equipment forced BP Plc to shut the largest crude unit at its refinery near Chicago over the weekend, according to a person familiar with operations there. It could be down for at least a month. The shutdown of the most important unit in the biggest plant in the Midwest has disrupted markets throughout the region. It puts extra oil onto an already-oversupplied market and cuts the supply of gasoline to the Midwest in the middle of peak summer demand. That’s helped push heavy Canadian crude to trade at the lowest level in a year and propelled wholesale gasoline in Chicago to the highest level since 2013.
Drop in oil and gas prices leads to hotel revenue fall
Low oil and gas prices steered Aberdeen hotels to double-digit percentage falls in both occupancy and revenue for the second month on the trot, a new report says. And there is uncertainty as to whether hotel prices will be ratcheted up for next month’s Offshore Europe conference, a common practice in the Granite City. Aberdeen hotel rooms generated £52.45 a night on average in May, down an alarming 30% year-on-year, according to accountancy network BDO’s survey of three and four star establishments. Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness all experienced strong increases in revenue, though the Scottish capital was the only location to enjoy a rise in occupancy.