Energy North will bring together around 200 representatives from the oil and gas and renewables industries when it holds its second annual conference in Inverness next month.
The event will focus on supply-chain development as well as infrastructure and skills and will feature presentations covering a number of company’s including Wood Group PSN and Infinergy.
It will also welcome the newly appointed chair of energy at the University of the Highlands and Islands, Professor Ben Wilson, who will deliver his inaugural lecture on marine mammal ecology in industrialised seas as the key note presentation.
UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) has signed an alliance and consulting services agreement with US-based NUTECH Energy Alliance.
The companies will work together to maximise the potential value of the Horse Hill area licences in England.
NUTECH have previously analysed thousands of wells for oil majors in around 80 countries and last year completed a detailed analysis of the conventional potential of 381 UK onshore wells.
Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) has approved an application by Woodside Energy for a 25 year natural gas export licence.
The export point would be in British Columbia and it would have a licence with a maximum term quantity of 807billion cubic metres.
Sadly, there has been political talk and expert commentary that safety will suffer as a result of the industry’s current ‘crisis’. And that we shouldn't be under any illusions that we don’t need to make some difficult decisions.
So where does safety sit in the unholy trinity of safety, cost and production?
Firstly, we need to look at what we say and what we do.
As we are well aware, the UK oil and gas industry has been hitting the headlines. Right now the focus is on the impact of the falling oil price, a cause for concern in terms of investment and jobs.
Underneath the current headlines, however, are the serious problems our industry has been facing for a number of years including a dramatic decline in exploration, rising operational costs and a substantial drop in production efficiency.
While the rapid fall in oil price has exacerbated these existing problems, we believe there is significant potential for maximising economic recovery of oil and gas from the UK continental shelf (UKCS) through collaborative work between the industry, HM Treasury and the new regulator, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).
Economic growth in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude producer, is projected to slow to 5.5% this year after oil prices plunged, the statistics office said.
Gross domestic product growth is set to decelerate from an estimated 6.2% last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a report on its website.
The economy is forecast to expand 5.8% in 2016 and 5.8% in 2017.
Phillips 66, the largest US refiner by market value, said profit from the sale of gasoline and other fuels tripled in the fourth quarter as prices fell to a five-year low.
Net income rose to $1.15 billion, or $2.05 a share, from $826 million, or $1.37, a year earlier, the Houston-based company said in a statement.
Excluding one-time items, per-share profit exceeded the $1.41 average of 16 analysts’ estimates compiled.
Blackstone Group LP, the biggest alternative-asset manager, is “scrambling” to invest more than $10 billion in energy companies after the price of oil plunged, the firm’s president said.
“Our people are scrambling and trying to come up for air,” Tony James said on a call with reporters today discussing Blackstone’s fourth-quarter earnings.
“Everything just got hammered at once. There’s clearly some very interesting values in the credit markets just buying debt at big discounts to face and getting equity-like returns.”
Wood Mackenzie said it expects gas demand will recover in one to two years as the key drivers of slower growth are mainly cyclical but power, coal and diesel demand will see their outlook change notably over the long-term due to major structural changes in the economy and policy.
Global energy sector will need to identify which changes are structural or cyclical in to determine future demand patterns and opportunities.
China’s GDP grew by 7.4% in 2014 compared to 7.7% in 2013.
Global Petroleum has extended its Namibian exploration licence until the end of this year.
At its annual general meeting in Brisbane in November 2014, it was agreed with the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy that the licence for the work program will now be valid until December.
The news comes amid the fall in oil price, which Global Petroleum has "vindicated the its strategy of being selective in adding to its portfolio".
ConocoPhillips has reported a quarterly loss of $39milion in its fourth quarter results last year, compared to a profit of $2.5billion in the same period of 2013.
The company has cut its expenditure for 2015 following a trend set by a number of other oil majors such as BP.
Last year, ConocoPhillips announced plans to cut spending by 20%, saying it expected to spend $13.5billion.
Environmentalists have hit out at Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic this year.
The oil giant said it wanted to pursue Arctic oil exploration if it gets the right permits, as it announced it was cutting global spending over the next three years by almost £10 billion.
The new bid to drill in the Alaskan Arctic comes despite previous problems culminating in its drill vessel the Kulluk running aground as it was being towed across the Gulf of Alaska in 2012.
An energy minister has refused to rule out a rise in fuel duties following a drop in oil prices.
Baroness Verma, the Department for Energy and Climate Change minister in the House of Lords, said green issues had to be considered.
Her comments came after Tory Lord Howell of Guildford, the father-in-law of Chancellor George Osborne, urged her to rule out any hikes.
Oil major Chevron has joined forces with BP and ConcoPhillips to explore and appraise 24 jointly-held leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
The companies will combine their efforts on moving two Paleogene discoveries closer to development and provide expanded exploration into the emerging market.
Under the agreement, BP will sell to Chevron half of its current equity interest in the Gila and Tiber fields.
Oil traded near the lowest price in almost six years in New York after US crude stockpiles climbed to the highest level since at least 1982.
West Texas Intermediate futures were little changed following Wednesday’s 3.9 %drop.
Crude inventories in the US, the world’s biggest oil consumer, expanded by 8.87 million barrels to 406.7 million last week, the Energy Information Administration reported.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it will cut $15 billion of spending over the next three years.
BP will be reducing its headcount in Houston as it makes job reductions throughout its global operations.
The oil major, which has already announced redundancies in the North Sea and Azerbaijan, has not revealed how many jobs will be lost.
According to reports a number of employees were informed this week there jobs would be lost.
Total has signed a new 40 year onshore concession agreement with the Supreme Petroleum Council of the Emirates of Abu Dhabi (UAE) and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).
The deal will give the French company a 10% participating interest in the concession, which covers the 15 principal onshore oil fields of the region and represents more than half of the Emirate's production.
Weaker-than-expected profits from Royal Dutch Shell triggered a sell off for oil stocks and left the FTSE 100 Index sharply lower today.
The oil giant’s shares were down by more than 3% - off 77.5p to 2170.5p - despite a 12% rise in underlying profits to $3.26 billion (£2.15 billion) for the final quarter of 2014.
The company, which has been hit by a sharp fall in Brent crude prices since last summer, also said it planned to cut spending by 15 billion US dollars (£9.9 billion) over the next three years.
A taskforce formed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to deal with job losses in the North Sea will meet every month, it was announced yesterday.
Industry and public sector leaders met with taskforce chairwoman Lena Wilson in a secret meeting at Aberdeen’s Ardoe House hotel yesterday to discuss job cuts which could affect thousands of North Sea workers.
The location of the meeting was kept quiet in an effort to ensure the proceedings remained private. The Scottish Government has not revealed who the members of the task force panel are, although a list of companies including BP, Aker, Petrofac and Wood Group are said to have provided representatives.
Oil major Shell will cut its spending by $15billion over the next three years.
The move was made on the back of falling oil prices during the last six months.
Despite this, Shell had posted an increase in profits for the last three months of 2014, which jumped from $2.2billion in the same period a year earlier to $4.2billion.
GE Oil and Gas are set to collaborate on more environmentally and cost efficient energy solutions.
The companies said the joint technology focused programme would be aimed at driving an industrial response to some of the challenges facing global oil production including flaring, CO2 and methane emissions.
It will focus on creating the right format for oil and shale gas production while reducing emissions.
The Obama administration proposed opening to offshore drilling an area from Virginia to Georgia in a policy shift sought by energy companies but opposed by environmentalists worried about resorts such as the Outer Banks or Myrtle Beach.
The offshore plan for 2017-2022 marks the second time President Barack Obama has recommended unlocking areas in the US Atlantic for oil drilling, and it drew a swift retort from allies who say the payoff doesn’t justify the risk of a spill along the populated coast.
The agency said Atlantic leases won’t be auctioned for at least six years and drilling wouldn’t start for several more years.
Petrochemicals group Sasol said it would delay its $8.1billion investment in a GTL (Gas-to-liquid) plant in the US as a result of falling oil prices.
The company said it would also be identifying other opportunities to reduce its costs over the next few years.
Oil major BP has reduced its workforce in Azerbaijan by 8% following the global drop in crude prices.
The company said around 225 jobs would go as it looks to streamline its business in the “challenging market environment”.
Last year the company announced it would be making cuts of $1billion to its operational costs.
Malaysian company Yinson has signed an agreement with Eni to supply an FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) vessel in Ghana.
The deal is for a firm charter period of 15 years with five yearly extension options exercisable by Eni Ghana.
The FPSO will process oil and gas from the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) block which is located in the Tano Basin.
