Exploiting our potential – Scotland’s Final Frontier
A few weeks ago, Holyrood Sources – a podcast producer – held a live meeting in Aberdeen with three politicians and some 300 people from the energy sector.
A few weeks ago, Holyrood Sources – a podcast producer – held a live meeting in Aberdeen with three politicians and some 300 people from the energy sector.
If those countries which have declared the aim of achieving “Net Zero” are to ever actually achieve it then I have news for them: they won’t do it by diktat, threats or bullying.
The development of offshore wind around the UK whether using fixed foundations or floating has been hailed as a great success.
To be honest, I’ve never been overly positive about the whole Scottish decommissioning sector.
Diversity and Inclusion are topics that frankly, I have a real struggle getting my head around, primarily because I was brought up by a progressive Cornish rebel of a mother in such a way that I had no need to include either word in my vocabulary. I just learnt to accept that regardless of any differences everyone was of equal importance and value to society.
Columnist Dick Winchester questions what is in store for SPE Offshore Europe following its 50th anniversary.
Some time back I wrote that despite its self-appointed title as the oil and gas capital of Europe Aberdeen didn’t actually manufacture much of the sector critical technology.
The Titan sub situation is very rare, but swift action must be taken to ensure nothing like it happens again, writes a former subsea engineer.
There are really two options for dealing with carbon emissions. You either avoid them by stopping the burning of hydrocarbons and using something else or, try to collect them as you produce them and hide them away somewhere in the hope they won’t escape. The latter being CCS - carbon capture and storage.
Starmer's North Sea plan is a threat to the north-east Scotland economy, writes Dick Winchester, but radical action could get us better prepared.
An analyst has given his verdict on items which may have cut Apollo’s appetite in taking over Aberdeen engineering group Wood (LON: WG) - namely growth market exposure.
Scotland’s friends in Europe are now surging ahead with their support for hydrogen and especially green hydrogen.
The IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research) issued a statement recently accusing the UK Government of “neglecting green investment and risking the country’s position in the global race to develop and deploy green technologies.”
One of my old friends, a Norwegian by the name of Reidar Niemi who ran Stolt Nielsen’s subsea business in Aberdeen in the early 80s once asked me “what the hell is the matter with your (expletive deleted) Scottish banks?”.
If the Russian invasion of Ukraine has taught us anything it’s that war isn’t now so much a matter of slugging it out hand to hand on the battlefield and firing big lumps of metal at each other, although sadly that still happens, but increasingly about making far greater use of remote controlled and autonomous or semi autonomous weaponry.
Without putting too fine a point on it 2022 has been a disaster for pretty much everyone who didn’t run a hedge fund, is a shareholder in an oil and gas or other energy company or works in a bank and is due a bonus.
A new pact on hydrogen between Scotland and Germany has been branded “extremely bad news” for the domestic supply chain.
What brought that on? My anger with one of the latest “Scotland is now” claims. Issued by Scottish Development International as a Tweet it claims, and I quote: “From wind to wave and hydrogen to solar, Scotland is a global leader in renewable energy”. The associated video itself then goes on to claim that “Scotland’s a leader in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies”.
I spent nearly ten very happy and rewarding years working offshore with a great bunch of people operating deep water manned submersibles and ROVs mainly in the N Sea.
It’s very difficult for me as a supporter of Scottish independence to write about Norway – or Denmark and some other small countries for that matter – without becoming extremely hot under the collar.
It’s not often an entire train of thought is triggered by a report on an unusual event in the world of ornithology.
During a recent visit to the USA the First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon gave a speech at the Brooking Institute in which she expressed extensive support for the proposition that hydrogen will be an essential part of the move away from fossil fuels.
My eldest son is an aerospace engineer and lives and works in Seattle on the US West coast. He’s built a career in an industry which nowadays offers few opportunities in Scotland nor many in other parts of the UK.
Work for a trio of giant floating wind projects off the coast of Scotland have gone to the UAE fabricator Lamprell, sparking outcry.
The war in Ukraine has jolted European politicians into finally understanding that overdependence on imported energy can carry extreme risks. What they haven’t understand yet though is that you can’t just turn off one set of taps and turn on another.