“Building one or more artificial islands in the middle of the North Sea sounds like a science fiction project, but it could actually be a very efficient and affordable way for the North Sea countries to meet the future demand for more renewable electricity,” said Torben Glar Nielsen, CTO of Energinet. Dogger Bank, an artificially-developed…

Every cloud has a silver lining.. The North Sea operator Ineos declared force majeure on all shipments of crude oil, natural gas and condensates on its Forties pipeline system – after a leak was detected. It carries around 40% of the UK’s North Sea oil and gas output. It’s a nightmare for Ineos which only completed…

Led by Saudi Arabia, it embarked on its all-out production battle with US shale drillers 17 months ago in a bid to wrestle back control of the market and increase prices. This month as al-Naimi claimed Saudi Arabia was only trying to stabilise the market, prices crashed beneath $45pb mark, far lower than what most…

Uruguay is quietly producing 95% of its electricity from renewable energy sources, at a time when the world’s most powerful nations were arguing in Paris over relatively small changes to their own fossil fuel usage. As a result it emits only 0.06% of all greenhouse gas emissions. It is remarkable when you consider that 15…

  Last week oil prices fell to levels not seen since 2004, with Brent crude hitting $36.05pb which is a fall beyond even that set on Christmas Eve in 2008 following the financial crisis. In June 2014 producers were getting $115pb. There are several reasons for this – excess production, stockpile glut, expectations of a…

The old stories tell us that many years ago there were two giants, one in Scotland called Angus and another in Ireland called Fionn. They planned to fight in a bid to decide who was the biggest giant and to reach each other they each set about building a causeway from their shorelines to the…

But if not – industry needs to make some pretty tough choices.   Concerns were recently raised by the executive director of the International Energy Agency about the lack of strategic planning about the sector’s future. “We have never seen this in the last 30 years, two consecutive years of investment decline,” warned Dr Fatih…

  It wants to be less dependent on coal, oil and gas. It is putting a lot of faith in offshore wind energy, where conditions for this source are described as ‘excellent’ – shallow waters, plenty of wind, good harbour facilities and an experienced industry. Such is its determination, it has developed an Offshore Wind…

Reuters spoke anonymously to a Singapore-based project manager who is thinking about going into solar after more than 15 years in the oil sector. “For me, it’s not a question about running out of oil, but that the industry is losing popularity on the consumer end.” In Asia renewables are the energy sector’s bright light…

According to the leaked report, “The ultimate Russian hack on the United States could involve severing the fibre-optic cables at some of their hardest-to-access locations to halt the instant communications on which the West’s governments, economies, and citizens have grown dependent.” US military and intelligence officials have recorded increased Russian activity along undersea cables in…