Once the details of the summit are announced, Aberdeenshire Council will make sure it is fully involved.
The oil and gas industry is incredibly important, not only to the North East economy, but to the economy of Scotland and the rest of the UK.
We have established good working relationships with the private sector over many years and understand the challenges facing the energy industry today.
The area benefits when oil prices are high, but this also brings challenges impacting on house prices and affecting the local recruitment market. It’s important that we consider the impact of falling oil prices, the likely effect on the economy and steps we can collectively take to support the industry.
BG Group has entered into a $460million agreement with GasLog Ltd to acquire two modern tri-fuel diesel electric LNG carriers.
The company will charter back the two vessels, the Methane Becki Anne and Methane Julia Louise for nine and 11 years respectively.
A spokesman said the transactions would provide BG Group with flexibility in managing its future fleet requirements, and as the ships are currently managed by GasLog, day to day operations will be largely unchanged.
Ithaca Energy has appointed a new chief operations officer.
Roy Buchan will take up his new role in January and his appointment follows the announcement John Woods will step down from his role as chief development officer.
Mr Buchan has more than 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry and has held many technical and senior management positions in the North Sea for Shell and BG Group.
The offshore union RMT welcomes the announcement of a North Sea oil summit by Aberdeen City Council. As a representative industry body there are a number of areas we feel need to be addressed in the current climate:
People - RMT has major concerns about the impact of cost-cutting across the sector. We are hearing from workers with several different operators (Total, Apache, Shell and others) that terms and conditions are to be slashed in an effort to reduce costs.
The most worrying element of these cuts are the proposed changes to working patterns which could see workers currently working 2-weeks on, 3-weeks off, being altered to either two-on, two-off or three-on, three-off. These changes if pushed through will see significant redundancies and a loss of experience and 'corporate memory'.
Score Group has unveiled plans to spend around £80million on new headquarters and other buildings in its home town of Peterhead.
But a further plunge in oil prices could kill off the project, the company’s owner has warned.
The proposals are at an early stage and no approach has been made to Aberdeenshire Council for planning approval.
The pre-Christmas rally for the FTSE 100 Index continued today despite the impact of lower oil prices on heavyweight energy stocks.
The price of Brent crude fell back to 60 US dollars a barrel amid signs that Saudi Arabia is focused on maintaining its market share rather than cutting back production.
Exploration firm BG Group was the biggest faller in the top flight, with a decline of 2% or 15.9p to 870.2p. Tullow Oil was off 0.8p at 406.2p.
Oil workers have been evacuated from a North Sea rig after a power outage.
Operator Marathon Oil said all non-essential personnel on the Brae Alpha and Bravo rigs were transferred yesterday.
The field is located 155 miles north-east of Aberdeen.
Fighting in Libya that’s pushed oil production below consumption in the holder of Africa’s largest reserves is a reminder that not all OPEC members are in a position to defend market share by maintaining output.
As Iraq plans to boost supplies next year amid repeated pledges by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to keep pumping the same amount of crude, Libya’s National Oil Corp. said output has dropped to a “very low point.”
Conflict between the government and Islamist militias has spread to the region of Mellitah, where the country’s fourth-largest oil port is located, after disrupting two other export terminals, according to the state-run company.
Morgan Stanley’s failure to complete the sale of its oil storage, trading and transport unit shows the chilling effect US sanctions are having on Russian companies including OAO Rosneft.
The US bank and Rosneft, the Russian state-owned oil giant, said Monday that their deal, for an undisclosed amount, had expired after the companies failed to win regulatory approval.
Morgan Stanley had warned in October that the agreement might not be completed.
As Leader of Aberdeen City Council I felt it was important to try and take a lead on how politicians interact with the Oil and Gas Industry.
Aberdeen is a global city that has achieved so much success thanks to the Oil and Gas industry being on our doorstep.
It concern us all that the price of oil has dropped so heavily in such a short space of time and whilst we accept there will always be fluctuations in the price of oil I believe the time is now right for the industry and governments at all levels to work together to maintain confidence in the North Sea.
Aberdeen firm Craig Group said ongoing investment in tonnage and new international bases helped drive a big jump in both profits and turnover during the year to April 30.
The privately owned, family-run shipping and energy service company has just filed accounts showing pre-tax profits increased to £20.5million, from £17.3million, while turnover grew by more than £30million to £177.7million.
They also highlight almost £30million of capital expenditure during the year, of which £23.3million was spent on the continued modernisation of the group’s growing fleet of emergency response and rescue vessels.
At a difficult time for the oil and gas industry when we are addressing a range of challenges including the rapid, steep drop in oil price, we can fully appreciate why Aberdeen City Council has called for an oil and gas summit.
We are well aware of the concerns across the region regarding jobs and the future for businesses in the area and recognise that a summit, which involves the participation of such a wide cross-section of politicians, industry representatives, and trade unions, will focus minds and join effort on what needs to be done to sustain Aberdeen's position as the oil capital of Europe.
We welcome this positive and collaborative approach, but it is also important to acknowledge the truly constructive work being undertaken by the industry and the Government on a number of fronts to help secure the next phase of development on the UK continental shelf (UKCS).
The SNP has been accused of “deceiving” voters in September’s referendum after analysis suggested an independent Scotland would have received only a fifth of the party’s oil revenue estimates.
According to reports projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which take into account plummeting prices put oil revenues at £1.25 billion in 2016/17 - the first year of independence had Scotland voted Yes - instead of the £6.9 billion predicted by the Nationalists during the campaign.
Meanwhile oil giant Shell confirmed it is to sell its share in the Sean gas field in the southern North Sea.
BP and SOCAR (The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) have signed a new production sharing agreement to explore shallow water prospects in the Absheron Peninsula.
The agreement is part of the government’s plan to ensure that all of Azerbaijan’s offshore areas are fully explored.
A deal was signed by Rovnag Abdullayev, president of SOCAR, on behalf of the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Gordon Birrell, BP’s regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
Mr Birrell said: “BP is proud to embark on this new era of exploration in the Caspian together with SOCAR.
Libya’s oil output fell below its own consumption as fighting spread to Mellitah, a region that hosts the country’s fourth largest oil port, the state petroleum company said.
National Oil Corp. already this month declared force majeure at two export terminals, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, after an attempt by Islamist militias to capture them.
Force majeure is a legal status that protects a company from liability when it can’t fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control.
Russia has bailed out a mid-sized bank to save it from bankruptcy - a clear sign that the slide in the value of the rouble in the wake of falling oil prices is straining the banking system.
The Central Bank said it will give Trust Bank 30 billion roubles (£350 million) that will allow it to continue operating as normal.
It will also place Trust Bank under its own supervision until it finds an investor. Major Russian banks said they had no interest in acquiring Trust, a top 30 Russian bank with about £3.2 billion in assets.
It goes without saying that if you work offshore, you work in a physically demanding and hazardous environment. So when the European Court of Justice rules that obesity can constitute a disability, then of course safety must come into the discussion.
Before we get into things, we must remember that the EU’s judgement states that obesity is only classed as a disability in certain circumstances, not in every circumstance. It’s only a disability if the person has a long-term impairment that has been induced by their weight.
OAO Rosneft (ROSN) repaid $7 billion in debt and said it is generating enough dollars to meet the obligations taken on to buy TNK-BP last year and become the world’s largest traded oil producer.
The state-led company, hit by sanctions on Russia from the US and European Union limiting access to capital markets, said it has settled $24 billion this year in line with credit agreements.
Rosneft has sufficient foreign currency to cover debt, Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said in a statement.
Oil producer Afren has seen a boost in its shares following a preliminary offer from Seplat Petroleum Development.
The company’s shares rose 10.5% on the London Stock Exchange to 50.82pence.
The company’s shares rose 10.5% on the London Stock Exchange to 50.82pence.
The Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said he will attend a North Sea oil summit organised by Aberdeen City Council.
The meeting has been called by Aberdeen City Council in response to a plunge in oil prices to just above $62 a barrel, from more than $100 in the summer. Scottish Labour pledged to send its leader, Jim Murphy, and urged both Mr Cameron and Ms Sturgeon to attend.
Alistair Carmichael will attend the summit as well as the Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie.
CNOOC’s Nexen unit has shutdown its operations at an oilfield in Yemen due to a security threat.
The company made the move because of safety fears related to terrorist group Al Qaeda.
Oil and gas explorer Providence Resources has won a case related to claims made against it by firm Transocean Drilling UK.
A ruling was made in its favour at the commercial court in London.
The case related to costs made by Transocean against Providence regarding the use of the Arctic III mid-water semi-submersible rig in 2011 and 2012 on its Barryroe oilfield offshore Ireland.
Premier Oil has completed transactions in two of its asset sales worth a combined $147.5million.
The company previously revealed it would be selling off its non-operated interests in the producing Scott, Telford and Rochelle fields to MOL Group for $130million before interim period adjustments.
A new appointment has been made to the board of LGO.
Fergus Jenkins will join the board after two years as the company’s chief operating officer.
Mr Jenkins is a chartered engineer with more than 20 years’ experience working initially in mining before moving into petroleum.
Energy specialist Munro’s Travel reports strong interest from UK companies keen to attend and exhibit at the world’s top oil show.
Next year’s Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in the US oil capital of Houston is being held from Monday, May 4, to Thursday, May 7.
Executives and experts from leading oil companies will be attending this important event, which attracted a show record of more than 108,000 people last year.
