GE Oil & Gas and Enpro Subsea have signed an agreement to jointly market and provide fluid intervention services offering oil and gas operators a cost-effective way to improve production rates in producing wells.
The companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly market, sell and operate technology and services related to fluid intervention.
The non-exclusive partnership is already in operation in key strategic regions, including West Africa.
Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded a seven-year contract by Fusion For Energy (F4E) for the development and delivery of the Natural Beam Cell Remote Handling System on the ITER fusion reactor in the South of France.
The framework contract, which is worth up to €70million over the next seven years, is the largest nuclear robotics contract awarded by F4E to a UK company.
Clive White, President of Amec Foster Wheeler’s Clean Energy Business said: “This contract demonstrates our leading expertise in nuclear remote handling and robotics.
Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s largest oil exporter, is planning to spend between $70 billion and $80 billion on overseas acquisitions and investments during the next five years, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
The investment is part of the state-owned company’s target of spending $150 billion at home and internationally through 2019, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.
Saudi Aramco, as the company is known, will focus on Asia, particularly China and Korea, they said.
Election defeat for Energy Secretary Ed Davey means there is to be yet another whirl of the revolving-door at the ministry looking after oil and gas affairs.
The Kingston and Surbiton MP was one of the casualties of a disastrous night for the Liberal Democrats, and his departure from office leaves a vacancy in a key role affecting the UK Government’s relations with the offshore sector.
Industry chiefs have had to get used to sudden and frequent changes at the energy department over the years, with some of the ministers having the briefest of stays before moving on to other jobs.
The Energy 2050 survey finds a roughly even split between those who see oil back over $100 per barrel by 2020, and those who see it trading in the (albeit rather wide) range of $60-100 per barrel.
Less than 10% of respondents expect prices to track under $60 per barrel.
Not unsurprisingly in the current environment much of the focus is on managing through the next five years, rather than the long-term dynamics of the industry.
A particular challenge remains for the higher-cost and mature areas like the North Sea where there is a clear need to address the cost, technology and ownership dynamics, but where confidence in the medium-term pricing environment is key to making the additional investments that are required to take advantage of the opportunities that still exist.
“You can no longer solve the energy problem by ignoring the environment or solve the environment by ignoring energy.”
This was the sentiment of Business Opportunity Manager Bill Spence from Shell Upstream International as he spoke about the oil major’s
CCS (Carbon Capture Storage) project at All-Energy 2015.
He said there could be “no silver bullet” but that both the UK and Scotland – where the Peterhead Carbon Capture Storage project would be based – had begun to take an important lead.
Once completed, it would be the first full-scale CCS project on a gas-based power station.
International oil service firm Vertech is planning rapid growth at its new Aberdeen office in the next five years, with the aim of achieving £40million annual turnover from the base.
The Granite City arm of the Australian company is only a few months old, yet is already experiencing success in its targeted inspection, maintenance and construction markets.
Its growth plans were revealed yesterday by UK managing director John Marsden as millions of pounds worth of new equipment for the business arrived in Aberdeen.
A renewables group focused on encouraging more women into the sector is looking for further funding options.
WiRES (Women in Renewables Energy Scotland) is looking at its next steps after funding from Close the Gap came to an end.
Dr Abbe Brown, from the Centre for Energy Law, the University of Aberdeen said more needed to be done to encourage women and people generally to take up STEM (Science, Technology Engineering and Maths) subjects and close the skills gap within the industry.
Oil and gas firms must show they are capable of doing more than just cutting costs if they are to secure the North Sea’s long-term future and save jobs, a top UK energy industry official said.
The sector is in the grip of a downturn brought on by low oil prices and spiralling operating costs – a self-made crisis, in the words of many industry leaders.
About 4,000 jobs have been lost in the UK, according to media reports, and only five exploration wells have been drilled in British waters so far this year – way below what the basin can support when business is booming.
Flexlife has been awarded a contract by Apache Corporation for work on the Aviat gas development and other operations in the Central North Sea.
The subsea project management and engineering support contract also includes work on the Ness/Nevis tie in and general subsea operations support.
As if to spice debate at this year’s OTC (Offshore Technology Conference), the US Department of the Interior has told the oil companies and their supply chain that it’s about to get tough on well control.
The decision wasn’t unexpected, but the timing is neat, especially given the Mexican offshore tragedy on April Fool’s day in which four workers perished and more than 40 were injured as a result of a platform, part of the Abkatun-Pol-Chuc offshore field complex, blowing up.
While the cause is not yet clear, it would appear that it is not well-related as operator Pemex restored production in large part from the field within days, recovering some 80% of output shortly thereafter.
Nonetheless, the very fact that there has been another dangerous offshore incident within the Gulf of Mexico region, moreover one originating from a company with a poor safety track record, suggests that the US will now be ultra-twitchy about the HSE record of any oil & gas installation or its operator in waters adjacent to its own patch.
The Centre for Energy Policy (CEP) is set to officially launch this week in Glasgow on the same week All-Energy 2015 arrives in Glasgow.
The University of Strathclyde said the new facility will have the remit of challenging and informing policy analysis and decision-making in Scotland and globally.
The launch, on Tuesday, May 5, will take place within the Technology and Innovation Centre - which as seen £89million worth of investment.
Most Energy Voice readers are almost certainly too young to remember the former Prime Minister Harold Wilson or the famous speech he made at a conference in 1963 in which he effectively warned that if the country was to prosper, a “new Britain" would need to be forged in the “white heat" of the so-called “scientific revolution" that was perceived to be taking place at the time.
Wilson was right and that era certainly saw some dramatic technological developments of which the ones that stick in my mind are Concorde as well as other aircraft like the TSR2 and of course the beautiful E Type Jaguar car.
At that stage the country was seen as a global technological leader alongside the US and had even developed its own successful rocket – the Black Arrow – for satellite launching.
Sadly, of course, none of this lasted. Wilson’s aspirations were effectively killed off on the back of neoliberal economics ideology and any lead the UK had along with its huge talent were squandered.
Campaigners are calling for more homes and businesses to make use of solar power after figures showed there was enough sunshine last month to power electricity supplies.
Around 35,000 homes and 600 business premises in Scotland currently have solar panels.
Data from WeatherEnergy showed that sunshine in Edinburgh in April generated more electricity than is used in an average home - 113% - while in Aberdeen the figure was 111%, 106% in Glasgow and 104% in Inverness.
For homes fitted with solar hot water panels, there was enough sunshine in the cities to cover average usage.
The launch of a new battery for homes that can store solar power for use in the evenings is “another nail in the coffin of conventional utilities”, it has been claimed.
Tesla announced it was launching the wall-mounted lithium ion rechargeable storage units, based on the batteries used in the company’s electric vehicles, at an event in California.
Chief executive Elon Musk said: “Our goal here is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy”, as he launched the new “powerwall” batteries, which are little bigger than a conventional boiler.
The technology will cost between 3,000 and 3,500 US dollars (£2,000 - £2,300) and will start shipping in the US in the summer.
Max Petroleum said its operations are continuing despite suspension of its trading in ordinary shares two months ago.
The company said positive discussions have been taking place in respect of appropriate debt restructuring with Aberbank and an equity investment from AGR Energy.
A spokesman said in addition to a debt restructuring and equity investment, the company also requires bridge financing to ensure it remains viable for the period until the regulatory and other approvals can be put in place.
Tidal devices for the Meygen project in the Pentland Firth are to be built and tested at Nigg Energy Park in Easter Ross.
Meygen owner Atlantis Resources said the decision to locate a new dedicated turbine assembly facility at the energy park – owned by Inverness and Aberdeen-based Global Energy Group – was the result of it agreeing to buy English firm Marine Current Turbines (MCT).
MCT, currently owned by German conglomerate Siemens, is a company specialising in tidal-energy technology.
Industry experts have been urged to step forward and voice their concerns over the challenges currently facing the sector as a result of the falling oil price.
Subsea UK has made its last call for papers for its annual ROV conference.
The event, which is now in its third year, will be held at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre during the final day of the Offshore Europe conference on Friday, September 11 and will debate key industry issues across the globe.
Topics under the spotlight include deepwater construction, operational efficiencies, ROV development, and technological advancements.
Ireland’s top energy company, ESB, has struck a deal with a developer to bring another nine onshore windfarms to the UK.
The nine projects being developed by Dublin’s ESB and Berkshire-based Coriolis Energy will have a capacity of 400megawatts, enough to power 225,000 homes.
Plans have been tabled for a £2billion power link between Aberdeenshire and Scandinavia which could create 200 jobs.
The NorthConnect scheme would carry electricity generated in Scotland and Norway to both nations to meet demand.
The consortium involved wants to build an onshore converter station in the village of Boddam, south of Peterhead.
Cheap hotel prices in Glasgow in early May highlight one of the reasons why the organisers of the UK’s largest green-energy show were so keen to move it from Aberdeen this year.
But it could be back in Europe’s energy capital within a few years, thanks to current hotel projects and a major new venue in the city, north-east MSP Lewis Macdonald told the Press & Journal.
A check yesterday on a well-known booking website showed rooms in three-star hotels in Glasgow on Tuesday May 5, the eve of All-Energy 2015, and Wednesday, May 6 are available from £45 a night.
For those people still needing a room after the event ends on Thursday, May 7, three-star budget accommodation is available for only £35.
Independent offshore infrastructure owners should be subject to normal corporation tax to stimulate the growth of these companies, according to an oil and gas expert at law firm Bond Dickinson.
Uisdean Vass, oil and gas partner for Bond Dickinson in Aberdeen, told an audience of North Sea oil and gas bosses at a business gathering in the Granite City last night the current taxation model for independent offshore infrastructure owners was unfair and counter-productive to the needs of not just the industry, but also the UK economy.
Last year’s Wood Review encouraged the emergence of a class of independent infrastructure owners and Mr Vass said fiscal changes were one effective way of supporting this aim.
Energy consultant Adil said yesterday it aimed to arrest declining interest in North Sea brownfield projects and potentially unlock 250million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
The Aberdeen company announced it had refocused its specialist brownfield project management team to help operators drive improved efficiency in “this challenging sector”.
Adil has put a set of guidelines together to help the industry learn from its experience of what characterises successful projects.
A combination of cost-cutting measures by oil and gas firms and Opec’s decision not to curb output is laying the foundations for the next crude price surge, former BP chief executive Tony Hayward said yesterday.
A slump in crude prices from summer highs of more than $100 per barrel to less than $50 at the turn of the year has made life miserable for energy companies, many of which have had to mothball projects and offload staff.
The price drop was caused by the build-up of a massive supply glut, which was brought about by a stand-off between Opec and US shale producers.
Opec was bent on pumping out so much oil that the price would be driven down to the point that US shale producers would no longer be able to make a profit, forcing them to shut down.
Mr Hayward said the tactic is paying off and that Opec, whose leading nations can produce oil cheaply, will ultimately regain market share.
