China’s once-feared security boss Zhou Yongkang has been formally charged with corruption and leaking of state secrets.
The move sets the stage for him to become the highest-level politician to stand trial in China in more than three decades.
The long-expected indictment, announced by the country’s procuratorate, followed a lengthy investigation that also had scrutinised Zhou’s former allies in government and the oil industry.
Zhou, a former member of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, had been under investigation since late 2013.
Global oilfield service company Forum Energy Technologies yesterday said it has made 12 employees redundant following the closure of its workshop in Lybster, Caithness.
The Houston-based firm’s statement adds it to an ever-growing list of oil and gas companies that have been forced to lay off staff due to low crude prices and rising costs.
Last week oil giant Shell said it would make 250 of its North Sea workforce redundant, while Taqa revealed plans to reduce its headcount by 100.
BP earlier announced it would cut 200 full-time onshore positions and 100 contractor roles from its 4,000-strong North Sea workforce.
Forum yesterday said that the company’s operations at Lybster, which focused on the manufacture of oil well drilling equipment, will be shifted to one of its other facilities.
Three workers are missing following the huge blaze on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico that killed four workers and burned for hours.
Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said it became aware of the missing workers when it recounted personnel after Wednesday’s fire on the Abkatun-A Permanente shallow-water platform in the Campeche Sound.
One of the missing workers was from Pemex and the other two were employed by contractor Cotemar, the company said.
Iran and world powers took their biggest step toward ending a decade-old nuclear standoff, saying they agreed on the main outlines of an accord after more than a week of grueling talks.
The deal announced in Lausanne, Switzerland on Thursday doesn’t commit either side to immediate action, and leaves three more months for diplomats to fill in details.
But by outlining areas of consensus, from a timetable for lifting sanctions to the repurposing of Iranian nuclear facilities, it brings the Islamic Republic closer than at any time since the 1979 revolution to international normalcy.
President Barack Obama called it an “historic understanding,” and the International Atomic Energy Agency said it was ready to verify Iran’s actions.
There were early signs, though, that the next steps won’t be easy.
Shell has a new boss at the helm of its UK North Sea business after Glen Cayley, who was the oil and gas giant’s upstream director for the region, left to join the new Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).
Paul Goodfellow took over as Shell’s upstream vice-president for the UK and Ireland last month in a low-profile change.
One of his first tasks was to oversee last week’s announcement of 250 job cuts and changes to offshore shift patterns.
Mr Goodfellow was previously unconventionals vice-president, US and Canada, for Shell’s upstream business in the Americas.
Before that, he was onshore development vice-president in the Americas upstream operations, with responsibility for field development planning, technical and technology functions.
A fire on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving four workers dead, was the most read story on Energy Voice this week.
The incident happened on Wednesday, as 302 workers were evacuated and dozens were taken to hospital to be treated.
Mexican state-owned Pemex said the fire on the Abkatun Permanente platform in the Bay of Campeche had since been put out.
One of the workers killed was from Pemex, while another was a contractor working for services firm Cotemar.
Two others killed in the fire have yet to be identified.
Pemex has denied reports one of its platforms had collapsed following a fire which killed four people.
The state-owned Mexican company published an image taken of the Abkatun Permanente platform in the Bay of Campeche less than 24 hours after the incident which showed the extent of the damge caused.
It comes after photos appeared on social media reporting to show the platform had collapsed following the blaze.
Equatorial Guinea has ratified a production sharing contract (PSC) with ExxonMobil to explore an oil and gas block off Bioko Island.
The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy said the contract was signed early this year.
Block EG-06 is located offshore Bioko Island.
Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, Minister of Mines for Industry and Energy, said: 'The Ratification of the new PSC signifies the start of a new adventure between old acquaintances and is expected to be as successful as the first one.
E.ON is to hand £7.75 million to Citizens Advice after the energy company was found to have overcharged customers in the wake of price rises.
The package of help for vulnerable customers is in addition to the £400,000 E.ON has already paid back to potentially affected customers.
Regulator Ofgem said the penalty reflected E.ON’s “repeated failing” on billing rules after the company incorrectly imposed exit fees and overcharged customers following price rises in January 2013 and January 2014.
The regulator said E.ON's errors meant customers who took the chance to switch suppliers after the bill rises were wrongly charged.
Companies are not supposed to apply exit fees if a customer signals their intention to move supplier within the standard 30-day notice period of a price rise. This is the case even if the switch occurs after the price rise.
The world’s biggest oil companies lost more than a billion barrels of known reserves last year as the “big five” energy majors struggled to stem the decline in new discoveries, a report has found.
Analysis by brokers Morgan Stanley found that BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and Total saw proved reserves shrink to 78.6billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in 2014 from over 80billion the prior year – the steepest drop since 2008.
A Banchory-based engineering firm is making its work in the renewable energy industry pay after diversifying from the oil and gas sector.
Ecosse Subsea Systems (ESS) said more than half of its projects are now in renewables. Yesterday it confirmed that the decision to branch out into the sector has played a big part in tripling the firm’s profits.
ESS, which performs seabed clearance, trenching and cable laying work, said revenues hit £15million for the year ending March 2014, an 88% increase, while operating profits went up to £3.4million from £1million.
Oil heir Andrew Getty had been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm and had not been eating or sleeping well in the days before his death, the mother of his girlfriend said.
Marilynne DeJonge told The Associated Press she has not spoken to her daughter Lanessa DeJonge since Saturday and is worried about her.
She said Lanessa DeJonge met Mr Getty seven years ago and depended on him for housing, and she does not have a phone.
Approved renewable energy projects with the potential to double Scotland’s wind power capacity are under threat following a legal ruling, according to legal experts.
A new taskforce met for the first time yesterday to explore ways to spread the benefits of Scotland's buoyant oil and gas industry beyond its traditional heartland.
The business process management software consultancy BusinessPort has appointed a new health, safety and environmental systems director to its Aberdeen headquarters.
Max Petroleum is set for casing and testing of two appraisal wells following positive finds in its Eskene North and Uytas fields, the company announced.
Turkmenistan-focused Dragon Oil says production on its Cheleken contract area has risen 7% year on year after a rush of activity in the last three months.
