Gallery: The oil and gas sector’s best read stories
Sparking interest with Energy Voice readers this week was the news of Centrica's former chief executive joining up with the Carlyle Group and CVC Capital Partners.
Special Features
Gallery: The oil and gas sector’s best read stories
This week's most read story on Energy Voice was Bob Keiller's editorial discussing the future of oil price alongside another penned by Jeremy Cresswell.
Gallery: The energy sector’s best read stories
The most read story on Energy Voice this week was the news of BG Group's new contract on a flotel damaged by North Sea gales.
Gallery: The energy sector’s best read stories
The story which sparked the most interest with Energy Voice readers this week was the news of BP placing North Sea operation staff on an equal time rota. The oil giant will now move to a three on, three off shift pattern. The move, which is also being considered by a number of other companies including Talisman and EnQuest, was announced to employees earlier this week.
Gallery: This week’s most read stories
This week Subsea 7 revealed it would be reducing its headcount by 2,500 in total in the next year. The move will see initial changes in both Aberdeen, London and Norway. With 410 positions are expected to go in the UK. Meanwhile in Norway up to 210 positions will go.
Infographic: The cost of petrol versus income worldwide
This infographic shows the price of a tank of petrol versus the average salary worldwide. The data reveals both North America, the UK and Scandinavian countries fair the best when it comes to cost whereas regions including Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Egypt suffer from a small margin between income and petrol cost.
Gallery: This week’s top industry stories
The story which sparked the most interest with Energy Voice readers this week was the news of a renewables boost for Global’s Nigg Energy Park. Tidal devices for the Meygen project in the Pentland Firth will built and tested at the site in Easter Ross.
Gallery: This week’s top stories
This week's most read story on Energy Voice was the news Wood Group was in consultation with its staff over a number of positions. The company said almost 100 jobs were at risk at the service giant. A consultation has been launched with around 380 staff, with 80 workers expected to lose their jobs. It is anticipated a further 12 roles will go in the company’s Wood Group Kenny subsidiary.
Gallery: This week’s top five industry stories
This week's most read story on Energy Voice was Loren Steffy's discussion on the news that Shell is to buy BG Group for £47million. In his editorial he reflects on what could have been should Shell have decided to snap up BP instead. The news of the sale initially began circulating earlier this month.
Data shows every oil and gas site worldwide
This graphic shows every oil and gas site around the world. The data, collected by the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway, gives a mapped visualisation.
Gallery: This week’s top five industry stories
The story which sparked an interest with Energy Voice this week was Wood Group PSN's five-year contract award from EnQuest to provide engineering, design, construction, procurement and commissioning services in the North Sea. The work will be carried out on the Thistle, Heather and Northern Producer offshore assets and the deal includes extension options for up to five further years.
Gallery: This week’s top industry stories
This week's most read story on Energy Voice was the news of the decline in Brent for the fifth day in a row before slowly rebounding.
Gallery: Offshore worker captures beautiful pictures of life at sea
The offshore workplace does not often make for thoughts of blue skies, idyllic sunsets or striking charcoal and grey blended waves. Those outside the oil and gas sector are perhaps more to prone to imagining industry life as dreary or bleak.
Industry Trailblazers: From Greek tragedy to triumph
Mathios Rigas isn’t afraid of a stacked deck. He doesn’t flinch when the odds are so glaringly against him even the dealer thinks he should cut his losses and run. Mathios Rigas isn’t afraid of a stacked deck, because he once took that bet and lived to tell the tale.
Scottish Secretary: Independence oil figures out by £15.5billion
The Scottish Government’s oil revenue forecast for the first three years of independence is now out by £15.5 billion, according to the Scottish Secretary. Alistair Carmichael said the latest UK Government analysis showed that 100 days after the referendum, an independent Scotland would have been facing the shortfall following a drop in oil prices. He said “serious questions” now needed to be asked about how the SNP administration “got this so badly wrong”.
The Journey: Wood Group’s Robin Watson
Robin Watson’s career boils down to two things - adventure and family. Growing up on the west coast of Scotland, his appetite for adventure was shaped by the wide expanse of the neighbouring sea. He quickly joined the merchant navy before later transiting into the oil and gas sector. In the midst of his career climb he met and married his wife. And according to Wood Group’s new chief operating officer, his business success is a credit to his firm family foundation. For him, one could not exist without the other. Energy Voice sat down with the newly promoted executive for its latest instalment of The Journey. He discusses how he manages risk, making tough industry firsts, the challenges the service sector currently faces and what it was like to take up the reins at one of the biggest service companies in the global sector. Watch the full interview below or browse our highlight clips based on topic.
Student scoops design accolade for Offshore Achievement Awards trophy competition
Robert Gordon University (RGU) student Alexandra Pate, 20, has won the competition to design a trophy for this year’s Offshore Achievement Awards (OCA). The design brief was to capture the awards’ key themes of “innovation, creativity and out-of-the box thinking”. Miss Pate’s winning entry has already led to a prototype, which will be developed into a final version – made of steel and granite – for winners of the OCAs at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre on Thursday, March 12.
Shell acts on industry’s skills crisis
Amid the growing need for skilled workers in the engineering industry, Shell has confirmed its investment in a programme aimed to inspire the next generation. Tomorrow's Engineers, run by Engineering UK, aims to tackle the skills crisis by encouraging and inspiring more students to study, and pursue, a career in science, technology, engineering or maths.
Shell invests £1million to bridge skills gap
Oil giant Shell has invested £1million in a programme aimed at helping address the UK’s critical shortage of scientists and engineers. The Perkins Review of Engineering Skills, published last year, called for urgent action from employers to address this shortage. Shell’s three-year funding, which has been invested in the Tomorrow’s Engineer’s Programme, will enable the programme to expand into more than 500 new schools across the UK.
Industry Trailblazers: Siberia’s calling
Speeding down the runway at 160mph, Divya Reddy was leaving everything she ever knew – her family, her home, the only country she had ever lived in. At an age when most young women are off fulfilling gap years or just starting to consider which career path they should embark upon, Divya was on her way to one of the most remote parts of the world to work long hours in unforgiving conditions. For the India native, the assignment wasn’t forced. Instead the young Shell engineer graduate volunteered for the post in Siberia, hoping it would give her the kind of industry exposure she could only dream of. It was a move that would later see her scoop the Young Asian Woman of Achievement award and become one of Shell’s youngest ever subsurface field leads.
15 killed as Iraqi officials recapture Sunni oil town
A series of bomb attacks which targeted markets near Baghdad have killed at least 15 people, Iraqi officials said as security forces recaptured parts of a strategic Sunni oil town north of the capital from Islamic State militants. Iraq is embroiled in its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops in the wake of a blitz this year by the Sunni militant Islamic State group, which has seized a third of the country’s territory. After heavy fighting overnight, Iraqi security forces backed by Shiite volunteers managed to push into the strategic oil town of Beiji today, taking control of some of the town’s southern districts, according to officials.
Calling all ‘Young Energy’ students
Oil and gas students have one final chance to enter into an industry wide competition and meet Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing and more than 150 senior representative from across the industry. In the run up to skills week Opito has been engaging with people across the industry by giving them the chance to submit a photo with the caption #Iamoilandgas when posting a photo on Facebook or Twitter.
Super Puma makes emergency landing
A Super Puma helicopter has made an emergency landing on a North Sea platform.
Opinion: MP Louise Ellman – Wrong signal on safety critical question
Ministers have rejected the Transport Committee’s call for a full, independent, public inquiry into the safety of helicopters used in the offshore industry. Louise Ellman MP, chair of the committee explains their disappointment. Just over a year ago four passengers died when a helicopter crashed off the coast of Sumburgh, Shetland – the fifth such accident since 2009 involving the transfer of oil and gas industry personnel to or from offshore installations in the North Sea.
RMT leader says helicopter decision sends out ‘negative signal’
Mick Cash, general secretary of offshore union RMT, said the refusal to hold an inquiry sends out a “negative signal” to offshore workers.