Thousands Of New Jobs To Be Created In Oil & Gas Industry

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Ollie

A report suggests that thousands of new jobs are set to be created in the oil and gas industry.

The new report, the Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets report, Oil and Gas: Rising Fortunes, revealed that over three quarters of businesses said they expected to create new jobs over the next couple of years.

A survey conducted for the report questioned 100 decision makers. The report said that many businesses would take on an extra 500 staff and that 87% of them were on target to grow in the next two years.

Existing companies in the gas and oil industry are receiving extra orders and more work is emerging in overseas markets – all of which is helping to stimulate the oil and gas sector.

The fact that companies are set to take on more work and extra staff means that these benefits will help other companies which are dependent on the sector through the supply chain.

The managing director for Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets in Scotland, Alasdair Gardner, said “The net result of larger contracts and more orders for products and services is more jobs. Oil and gas companies already know they will need more capacity to handle the extra business coming their way next year and that is heartening news for the economy and for the jobs market. The strategic importance of Aberdeen as an oil and gas centre of excellence should translate into jobs in the north of Scotland, particularly”.

However, according to the report, there is a shortage of skilled workers to fill these positions. Of those questioned 46% said that a lack of highly skilled workers at a time when the industry was set to grow could create a barrier to that growth.

Earlier this year Utility Exchange reported that experts were warning that the new North Sea oil and gas tax would cost the industry over £50m and thousands of jobs would be lost. This is still one of the barriers to growth according to the report and another report last month said that over 50% of oil and gas operators thought the North Sea oil & gas tax had damaged North Sea investments.

SSE To Build Smart Energy Centre In Wales

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Emma

Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) is to open a £7m energy centre in Wales which will create 250 new jobs.

SSE is investing £5m in a new energy centre which will provide renewable energy training facilities and be home to a green operational centre. The new centre will be built in Treforest.

In Wales SSE operates under the Swalec brand. The Swalec Smart Energy Centre is due to open in the summer of 2012. The Smart Energy Centre will receive £2m in repayable finance from the Welsh Government.

The energy centre will be the base for specialist teams involved in micro-generation, solar installations and solid wall insulation. The centre will also be home to a larger home services maintenance team.

The chief executive of SSE, Ian Marchant said “This announcement of our commitment to Wales demonstrates our willingness to invest and create new jobs and this exciting new training centre will ensure our staff will have the skills to be at the forefront of this green energy revolution. We are grateful for Welsh Government support for helping us realise this ambition”.

Edwina Hart, the Business Minister said “I am pleased the Welsh Government is supporting this significant investment in one of our key sectors that will not only create several hundred sustainable ‘green’ jobs but also boost the skills base needed to support this fast growing sector. The expansion will offer excellent training and employment opportunities for young people in the area while contributing to and supporting the Welsh Government’s low carbon targets”.

National Grid & Northern Gas Networks Fined For Gas Leak Failings

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Ollie

Two utility companies have been fined by Ofgem for not dealing with gas leaks quickly enough.

The two companies, National Grid Gas and Northern Gas Networks have been fined for failing to attend to gas leaks on time. National Grid Gas (NGG) will be fined £4.3m while Northern Gas Networks will be fined £900,000. NGG owns four energy networks and it’s for this reason that the fine is higher for NGG.

Both companies failed to meet the mandatory targets for attending and assessing gas leaks in time last winter. Standards for how quickly companies should deal with gas leaks are set out by Ofgem with Gas Distribution Networks having annual targets to respond to 97% of uncontrolled gas leaks within an hour and controlled gas leaks within two hours.

While no-one was injured as a result of the two company’s failure to meet the Ofgem targets both companies have learnt from the events of last winter in order to improve their performance and meet targets in the future.

Senior Partner Smarter Grids and Governance, Distribution at Ofgem, Rachel Fletcher said “Consumers pay for these important service standards and have a right to expect that they will be met. Today’s announcement sends a clear message to energy network companies that they risk a financial penalty from Ofgem if they don’t meet their obligations to continue to uphold Britain’s very high standards in responding to gas escapes on time”.

She continued “Ofgem accepts that many parts of Britain experienced bad weather conditions over the last year and individual members of staff from NGN and NGG worked hard in difficult conditions to reach customers that reported gas escapes. However, both companies need to plan better for bad weather and ensure that adequate resources and contingency plans are in place to meet the annual targets”.

Chief operating officer at National Grid’s gas distribution business, John Pettigrew, said “Last winter was one of the harshest seen in this country for many years, and our teams worked extremely hard in difficult conditions. We missed our target and told Ofgem as soon as we knew this would be the case, working closely with them during their investigation”.

He added “We take our responsibility to attend and manage gas escapes very seriously, and we have learned lessons from last year that we have embedded into the improved plans we have put in place for this coming winter”.

Meanwhile NGN’s chief executive, Mark Horsley said “Winter 2010/11 severely tested our network and we would like to apologise to anyone who was adversely affected but also take this opportunity to reassure our customers that we have taken action. We’ve completed a thorough review of our business and resources and put the lessons learnt into a new plan for this winter. Despite the fine imposed, the regulator has praised the dedication shown by our engineers, support teams and contractors. They showed immense dedication in responding to an unprecedented number of gas escapes during the worst winter to affect our region for more than 100 years”.

Report Finds Solar Panels & Double Glazing Don’t Cut Bills For All

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Kathryn

A report for the Energy Saving Trust and the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) has found that energy saving measures including solar panels and double glazing don’t cut bills for around 26% of consumers.

The report is part of the Coalition Government’s Green Deal trial whereby householders can take out loans of up to £10,000, backed by the government, for energy efficiency measures. The report found that in some cases energy bills actually increased.

The green deal will be available to around 14 million homes from next year but it’s being trialled by 311 households at the moment and it’s this trial which found that 26% of those who measured how much energy they used found that their bills didn’t go down.

The report states “A limited number reported they had checked their bill savings or checked the amount of electricity the solar panels were generating and the actual were less than the predicted”.

In fact one householder said “The performance of the panels so far is not as high as it’s meant to be or as high as we expected”.

However, this was only 26% of those involved in the trial. On the whole most were happy with the energy saving scheme and in most cases the fact that energy prices had increased and there had been changes in living patterns were the reason there had been little difference in energy bills.

However, The Energy Saving Trust said the trial had really been about the logistics of the scheme rather than how much people’s bills will have been cut. Furthermore, three quarters of those involved in the scheme would probably not have implemented energy saving measures without the Government backed loans.

It will be hard to convince people that their bills would probably have been higher if they hadn’t installed the green measures but the Energy Minister Greg Barker said “This is the most ambitious energy-saving programme anywhere since the Second World War. It will do for environmental efficiency what privatisation did for industrial efficiency”.

Rathlin Energy Drills For Yorkshire Oil

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Emma

Yorkshire could become the next big oil producing area as a Canadian energy company, Rathlin Energy, plans to drill for oil below villages in East Yorkshire.

The company, Rathlin Energy, plans to drill a borehole 1.5 miles underground between the villages of Bishop Burton and Walkington. It has already sent plans for the project to East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

Highways officers will initially look at the plans and a report recommends that if they feel there will be no impact on local roads then the plans can be approved.

If the plans are given the go-ahead then drilling will take place on farm land 24 hours a day. Drilling is set to last for five weeks.

If the company finds a commercial quantity of oil then it will suspend drilling and submit another application to produce fuel i.e. petroleum.

A spokesman for Rathlin Energy, Tom Selkirk, said “We’ve evaluated the existing oil control. We’ve combined that with the existing seismic data that’s available. We like the looks of what we see in terms of the nature of the rocks that’s present in the sub-surface and the nature of the structure that’s present there. We feel that there may be potential to have some conventional hydro-carbon resources there”.

As the UK tries to become more self-sufficient in energy generation and production, particularly as North Sea oil and gas runs out, then it’s thought there will be an increasing number of applications for similar projects across the country.

A geologist at Manchester University, Professor Ernest Rutter, said “Britain needs to become more self-sufficient in gas and oil. The potential for securing UK energy supplies on home ground is so great that we really can’t turn our backs on it”.