UK Green Investment Bank has joined Siemens Financial Services, Macquarie Capital and project developer RWE Innogy as 25% joint equity partners in the £1.5billion Galloper offshore windfarm.
Norwegian operator Statoil has made its first into South Africa after striking a deal with ExxonMobil Exploration and Production. The company has completed a farm-in transaction to acquire a share in the Tugela South Exploration Right. Statoil said the move represented access into a “frontier basin”.
Fred Olsen Energy (FOE) has cancelled a construction contract for a newbuild rig with Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea, as well as ending an agreement with Chevron in the UK North Sea. The company’s subsidiary, Bollsta Dolphin, said it had exercised its contractual termination right as a result of the rig’s delay.
Union Jack Oil has raised £800,000 through a placing of 470,588,235 new ordinary shares at 0.17p.
Oil major BP’s profits in the third quarter of the year have dropped by 40%. The company, which announced its third quarter results today, said its underlying profits came in at $1.8billion compared with more than $3billion a year ago. The lower results, BP said, were primarily due to the effect of lower oil and gas prices. In its downstream business the operator continued to see a strong performance which saw an increase in profit from $1.5billion last year to $2.3billion.
A freedom of information request (FOI) by environmental group Greenpeace has shown the amount of investment by energy companies at some UK universities topping more than £20million.
Protesters say they have shut down an opencast coal mine on land belonging to Conservative peer and climate sceptic Viscount Ridley. Campaigners calling themselves “Matt Ridley’s Conscience” have occupied one of the diggers at Shotton surface mine, in Cramlington, Northumberland on Viscount Ridley’s Blagdon Estate. The group, a mix of local campaigners and protesters from across the UK, have also formed a protest blocking the road, locking their arms into red arm tubes as part of a protest calling for an end to coal mining to protect the climate.
Thousands more steel jobs could be lost if action is not taken to tackle the threats facing the industry’s “vulnerable” supply chain, the Government is being warned. The International Steel Trade Association (Ista) said scores of medium sized firms were at risk if the crisis gripping the industry escalates. Thousands of job losses have been announced in recent weeks by Tata Steel and SSI in Redcar, Scunthorpe and Scotland, with cheap imports and high energy costs being blamed.
Stork said the UK market “continues to be tough” amid the challenging oil price decline as it revealed its third quarter results. The company said its order book was down from €1.2billion to just over €1billion for the quarter, impacted by deferrals of contract extensions as well as negative exchange rates. Meanwhile revenue has increased by 5.2% while organic growth has also increased by 4.6%.
Centrica Energy is drilling a new well at the York field in the North Sea that could tap into an additional 20billion cubic feet of gas. The company said work has begun to unlock the new gas reserves and boost production following £80million worth of investment. The York gas field, 20 miles off the Lincolnshire coast, already produces enough gas every day to heat all the homes in Hull and both north and north east Lincolnshire combined.
Offshore wind schemes could be built without subsidies in a decade with clear support from the UK Government, the head of Europe’s biggest renewables company has said. The most recent awards of clean power subsidies saw guaranteed payments for offshore wind of £114 to £120 for each megawatt hour of electricity generated, more than double the wholesale electricity price and much more expensive than onshore wind farms.
Campaigners are calling on householders to help elderly friends and relatives find cheaper energy deals after finding that almost nine in 10 bill payers did not switch in the last year. The new figure from Ofgem, based on data from household meters, found that 88% of energy customers have not switched in the last year despite widespread advice that doing so can save hundreds of pounds. A separate poll for Big Energy Saving Week, a joint campaign with Energy Saving Trust, Department of Energy and Climate Change and Citizens Advice, found 45% of people did not believe they could save money by switching and 75% of people who did thought it would be £100 or less.
The new chairwoman of UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG) has claimed women are opposed to fracking because they “don’t understand” it. Averil Macdonald made the remarks after research showed men are nearly twice as likely to support fracking. According to reports in the Times, the leading scientist said women were more likely to form their opinions on a “gut reaction”.
The UK Government made a loss from North Sea oil and gas in the first six months of this year, according to reports. According to The Herald, the revenues were more than cancelled out by repayments to producers between the months of April and September. While a total of £248million was collected from the industry in both corporation tax and petroleum revenue tax (PRT) around£287million was handed out in rebates following the downturn.
An agreement between EDF and its Chinese partner China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) will create a infrastructure "fit for the 21st century" according to the UK Energy secretary. Conservative politician Amber Rudd said the government was tackling a legacy of under-investment in the UK. The deal was signed amid a landmark visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping where he has met with both politicians and dignitaries.
Volkswagen said it may set aside more than $7billion to cover the costs of the recent emissions scandal if car sales suffer, according to its chief executive.
Aker Solutions has recruited an upstream manager from oil major BP to lead its maintenance, modifications and operations (MMO) business in the UK. Craig Wiggins, who will be based in Aberdeen, will have responsibility for the company's brownfield engineering capability in the region. His most recent role had seen him focussed on delivering efficiencies within BP's global upstream business.
Britain could have six times the power- generation capacity for the same money by investing in wind turbines instead of the 24.5 billion-pound ($37.9 billion) Hinkley Point nuclear reactor. That’s the conclusion of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a London-based researcher that estimates the cost of power from renewables in the U.K. are rivaling fossil fuels even without subsidy. Wind easily beats the more expensive nuclear plant that Electricite de France SA is building with the support of investment from China. The findings highlights the trade-offs Prime Minister David Cameron weighed in his decision to support EDF’s bid to build the first new reactors in the UK in more than two decades. In backing nuclear and maneuvering to draw Chinese funds in a deal due on Wednesday, Cameron prioritized reliability of supply and the impact on rural landscapes over cost.
David Cameron will host talks with Xi Jinping at Downing Street as he seeks to cement multi-billion trade deals during the Chinese president’s four-day state visit to the UK. Investment by Beijing in Britain’s first UK nuclear power plant in a generation is expected to be confirmed as part of what the Government hopes will amount altogether to £30 billion of agreements. But the lavish welcome given to the president was attacked as a “national humiliation” by a former close adviser to the Prime Minister, who is under pressure to raise concerns about human rights and “dumped” cheap steel blamed for the loss of thousands of British jobs.
UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) said it has received an oil in place (OIP) evaluation from US specialist Nutech which shows more than 15 billion barrels of oil could lie within the Weald basin area. The company said it had asked Nutech to conduct its study over eight of the licence area in which it has interest in Southern England. Nutech estimated 15.7billion barrels could lie within three Jurassic shale and interbedded limestone tight oil plays underlying the eight licence areas in the Weald basin.
A pressure group for the unconventional oil and gas industry in the UK has hailed the appointment of a leading science educator to spearhead efforts to reassure communities that fracking is safe. Ukoog, which also represents the interests of other uncoventional onshore oil and gas plays, has appointed Professor Averil Macdonald as its chair. Professor Macdonald is Emeritus Professor of Science Engagement at the University of Reading and a board member of WISE (Women in Science and Engineering), consultant director of Highbury College, and was chair of the Expert Group for Women in Science until 2015.
The Environment Agency is cutting its pension fund investments in fossil fuels to bring it in line with efforts to prevent dangerous climate change. Under the plans the Environment Agency Pension Fund (EAPF) will invest 15% of its £2.7 billion fund in low carbon and energy efficient technology and reduce investment in coal by 90% and oil and gas by half, in terms of carbon emissions, by 2020. The change by the Government agency aims to make sure its investments are compatible with international agreement to keep global temperature rises to 2C - seen as the threshold beyond which dangerous impacts of climate change will occur.
Campaigners have set up a protest camp near the site of the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. They have established a camp on a roundabout at the gates of the development in west Somerset as the president of China, Xi Jinping, arrives for a four-day state visit to the UK.
Statoil’s new managing director of production in the UK has taken over her new position with the Norwegian operator. Tove Stuhr Sjoblom will head up the firm’s offices in Aberdeen with responsibility for upstream development and production activities in the UK and Ireland. Sjoblom replaces Gunnar Breivik who will now head up Statoil’s corporate investigation unit.
British spies are expected to scrutinise computer systems at new nuclear plants built by Chinese firms to address national security fears. Listening post GCHQ will be responsible for ensuring the country’s energy network is not made vulnerable to cyber attacks, according to The Times. The safeguard emerged as President Xi Jinping arrives for a four-day state visit hailed by David Cameron as a symbol of a “golden era” in relations with Beijing.