Latest news with #Aberdeen-based
The National
4 days ago
- General
- The National
Scottish oil and gas firm fined £300,000 after 'terrifying incident'
The episode happened on the FPF-1 offshore platform, owned by Aberdeen-based Ithaca Energy (UK) Limited, during a night shift on December 10, 2020. The men had been descending in a lift inside one of the platform's legs to carry out routine inspection work at the base of one of the sub-sea columns when they experienced a 'rush of air'. Before the lift reached the bottom of the shaft it started to fill with water, which was up to the men's knees by the time they were able to stop the lift by pressing the emergency button, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said. READ MORE: SNP to consider banning football fans caught using flares at games They returned to the main deck safely and none of the men sustained any injuries. An HSE investigation found that hardware failures and incorrect operating procedures had caused the bottom of the lift shaft to flood while the inspection site was being cleared of standing water. The HSE also found that a lack of water alarms at the bottom of the lift shaft also meant the control room was unaware that water was flooding into the shaft. The investigation found that water marks on the lift door showed the water had reached a level of just under 1.5m before the lift was stopped. Meanwhile, Ithaca's own investigation found the water level could have reached more than three metres – which would have made it difficult for the men to have escaped through the top hatch of the lift if the workers had used the lift later, or not been able to stop it as quickly as they did. Ithaca pleaded guilty to safety failings at a hearing at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on June 12, and were issued with a £300,000 fine, the HSE said. HSE inspector Ian Chilley said: 'This was a terrifying incident for the workers involved, we are just thankful that no physical harm came to them. 'This fine should send a message and reminder to those operating offshore facilities for them to be extra vigilant. 'It was only a matter of good fortune that this incident didn't result in serious injury, or worse.' READ MORE: Search concludes after man goes overboard from Clyde ferry The HSE added that when passing sentence, the sheriff said the case marked 'another reminder of the need for rigorous adherence to health and safety in the oil and gas industry'. The HSE also issued an improvement notice in the immediate aftermath of the incident, and work in confined spaces was halted until February 2021 while a full review of the incident was carried out. An Ithaca Energy spokesperson said: "Ithaca Energy takes its responsibilities in relation to the health, safety and welfare of its employees and contractors extremely seriously, and takes considerable pride in its excellent safety record. "The company has treated the matter with the utmost seriousness and accepts its responsibility for the failings that led to the incident, where thankfully no individual was harmed. "A thorough internal investigation was launched immediately, and the Company has worked closely with the HSEx to implement and comply with the recommendations of their findings."
The National
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The National
Scottish fishing body accuses David Attenborough of 'propaganda'
The Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF) have issued a statement claiming that Attenborough's latest cinematic offering for National Geographic, Ocean, is a 'full panoply of Hollywood tear-jerk techniques'. Co-produced by two Bristol-based companies, Silverback Films and Open Planet Studios, the cinema-length film documents how the state of the world's oceans and our understanding of how they function have changed over the course of Attenborough's lifetime. The natural historian and broadcaster described Ocean as one of the most important films of his career, as the launch coincided with his 99th birthday last month. READ MORE: Scottish council issues statement amid row over whether Union flag is 'sectarian' However, despite the film being widely well-received, the narrative of the world's oceans being at a crossroads with 'destructive' fishing techniques has triggered condemnation from SFF. A statement from the Aberdeen-based federation said: 'Once again, the fishing industry is in the position of defending its legitimate business activity in the face of a fresh onslaught from environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) designed to influence delegates to the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, from June 9-13. 'The spearhead this time is a film, Ocean, made by Silverback and narrated by Sir David Attenborough. 'Despite being voiced by someone who is regarded as a national treasure, and whose former association with the BBC means he is almost universally perceived as being impartial and unbiased, the film is a work of anti-fishing propaganda that wholly blames the industry for the poor state of the planet's oceans. (Image: PA) 'Astonishingly, it singles out fishing from every other form of human impact on our seas. 'It also omits to mention the necessity of protein-rich, healthy food to feed the planet, and fishing's relatively low impact on greenhouse gas emissions, compared with other modes of food production.' SFF added: 'Deploying the full panoply of Hollywood tear-jerk techniques, from beautiful imagery to, by turns, uplifting and depressing music, and additional narration by individuals who give an unchallenged, one-sided perspective on a variety of case studies from around the world, it has been carefully crafted to damage the industry.' The industry body went on to say that fishermen have made 'huge changes' over the last 30 years to ensure fish stock levels are 'sustainable for the future'. They went on to say that the industry is 'very heavily regulated' and that their focus is to work with governments in a bid to find a balance between conservation and sustainable harvesting. SFF added that island communities depend on seafood to provide jobs and income and that the industry is committed to making industry sustainable for future generations to come. The statement concluded: 'The unbalanced and unfair light shone on fishing in Ocean does a huge disservice to the skilled, knowledgeable and responsible men and women who make up our industry and, sadly, is a wasted opportunity to inform the public.' Ocean contains some of the most graphic footage of the damage that bottom trawling, a common fishing practice around the world, can do to the seabed. According to Attenborough, the film is a vivid example of how industrial fishing can drain the life from the world's oceans. Footage from the film shows how the chain that the trawlers drag behind them scours the seafloor, forcing the creatures it disturbs into the net behind. They are often seeking a single species: more than three-quarters of what they catch may be discarded. A statement from Silverback Films and Open Planet Studios said the film emphasises the importance of supporting fishing communities and highlights that one of the 'standout lines' is that the goal of healthy fisheries and conservation is the same. The statements read: 'Throughout this film, we make clear this is not anti-fishing. 'One of the standout lines from the film is that 'the goal of healthy fisheries and conservation are the same: more fish, more abundance'. 'The film emphasises the importance of supporting fishing communities and the three billion people worldwide who depend on fish for food and livelihoods.' The statement added: 'If we allow marine environments to recover, fisheries will recover too. 'In the film, we cite the scientific recommendation of protecting 30% of our seas and, crucially, this is not suggesting we stop fishing altogether. 'Certain types of fishing methods are particularly damaging, but there is no reason why we cannot continue to fish if we also govern the ocean more responsibly.'
Scotsman
13-06-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
We must put pragmatism before polarisation to build offshore wind industry
Sign up to our Scotsman Money newsletter, covering all you need to know to help manage your money. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... In 1975, millions of tonnes of rock were blasted out of a mountainside at Kishorn, a remote site on the west Highland coast. The purpose was to create a dry dock for the construction of drilling platforms as the world's oil and gas giants raced to tap an emerging North Sea hydrocarbons boom. One of them, Ninian Central, was the largest movable object ever created when Chevron towed the vast concrete structure out to a site off Shetland. Half a century later, the US energy company is winding down Ninian and other platforms as it quits the North Sea. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Now Kishorn Port is being reinvented as a manufacturing hub for offshore wind, leveraging its status as one of the largest dry docks in Europe. Highlands and Islands Enterprise last month pledged £24 million for expansion that would allow assembly of floating offshore wind platforms. Kishorn is emblematic of Scotland's attempt to harness the job-creation opportunities presented by the energy transition. Ed Miliband, energy secretary, is looking to Scotland to deliver the lion's share of the UK's target for 50 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind as part of a 'Clean Power 2030' plan. Back in the day, Kishorn employed 3,000 people. The hope is that if enough business can be won making concrete offshore wind foundations and other components, half that number could be working at the site eventually. Yet the big unknown for Scotland's energy workforce is whether such work will come in the volume needed to create enough green jobs to make up for an anticipated decline in employment as the North Sea basin comes to the end of its life. It's a situation faced not only by other ports across Scotland – Ardesier in the Moray Firth, Nigg in the Cromarty Firth - but Scotland's entire offshore wind industry. This includes developers in ScotWind, a mostly North Sea portfolio of 20 wind farms that are supposed to deliver 30GW of the UK's target. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The warning lights are already flashing. Last month, Aberdeen-based Robert Gordon University (RGU)'s Energy Transition Institute forecast that depending on how three scenarios play out, the direct and indirect UK oil and gas workforce could lose about 400 jobs every fortnight for the next five years – a 'Grangemouth effect', given this is the same number being let go with the refinery's closure. This matters because around 90 per cent of the UK oil and gas workforce is deployed in the supply chain, such as engineering and maritime services – precisely the feedstock of transferrable skills that offshore wind developers and ports need to build and maintain wind farms. The RGU reckons that close to £210 billion would need to be spent on offshore wind to meet the UK government's 2030 target. Yet only a fraction of this is currently approved for spending by ScotWind developers. Arguably the main barrier to progress is lack of clarity on connections to the grid, which must urgently be upgraded. The issue was brought into stark relief this week when the UK's National Energy System Operator said Scotland's 'constrained' network meant it had been forced to pay operators to disconnect wind farms at record levels. So far, so discouraging. The situation is made worse by the fact that 60 per cent of ScotWind is for floating wind farms designed for waters too deep for platforms fixed to the ocean floor. This is commercially unproven technology, on which Miliband's 2030 target heavily depends. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Moreover, banks and insurers are not yet sufficiently confident in the technology to commit to the scale of what's envisaged. Some ScotWind projects involve more than 200 wind turbines standing almost as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Three things need to happen to fix this. First, the UK government needs to bring forward a consultation due by 2030 on replacing the Energy Profits Levy (EPL), or 'windfall tax', with a more flexible mechanism would tax operators more fairly and at a time of unusually high prices. Gail Anderson, research director at energy consultants Wood Mackenzie, says this would incentivise companies to stay in the North Sea in the crucial next five years, preserving jobs. 'There's an upside case here but the government needs to act quickly,' she says. Second, floating wind urgently needs a pipeline of demonstrator projects that are fast-tracked, tested and a commercial case proven for them become bankable as quickly as possible. Only one commercial scale floating wind farm so far exists in the UK: Green Volt, a 560-megawatt floating wind farm planned by Flotation Energy and Vårgrønn. The good news is that GB Energy, the state-owned company whose £8.3bn in government funding was confirmed in this week's Spending Review, will focus its firepower on nascent technologies such as floating offshore wind. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We want to be a market-maker for these new technologies,' its chairman, Juergen Maier, told a Glasgow conference last month. An extra £300m handed to GB Energy in the Spending Review for offshore wind should help. Finally, it's time to act on a recommendation in a jobs and innovation report out last week from Gordon Brown's think-tank, Our Scottish Future. It urges setting out a single, clearly defined Scottish industrial strategy, jointly owned by the UK and Scottish government and regional partnerships, proposing a series of 'big bets on a handful of strategic clusters', such as offshore wind.
Press and Journal
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Press and Journal
Fishing chiefs furious over Sir David Attenborough 'propaganda'
Aberdeen-based fishing chiefs have launched a scathing attack on a film narrated by 'national treasure' Sir David Attenborough. The Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF) denounced it as a work of 'anti-fishing propaganda'. And it accused its makers of using 'the full panoply of Hollywood tear-jerk techniques'. The movie is called Ocean, with David Attenbourough. It's co-produced by two Bristol-based companies, Silverback Films and Open Planet Studios. Silverback's impressive roster also includes BBC shows Wild Isles, The Hunt and The Mating Game. It's also the firm behind Netflix wildlife successes including Our Planet, Our Planet II and A Life on Our Planet. Ocean was released as a 'global cinema event' on May 8, Sir David's 99th birthday. The film is now available on National Geographic, Disney+ and Hulu streaming channels. But its narrative on 'destructive' fishing techniques has triggered fury at the SFF. A statement from the Granite City-based federation said: 'Once again the fishing industry is in the position of defending its legitimate business activity in the face of a fresh onslaught from environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) designed to influence delegates to the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France from June 9-13. 'The spearhead this time is a film, Ocean, made by Silverback and narrated by Sir David Attenborough. 'Despite being voiced by someone who is regarded as a national treasure, and whose former association with the BBC means he is almost universally perceived as being impartial and unbiased, the film is a work of anti-fishing propaganda that wholly blames the industry for the poor state of the planet's oceans. 'Astonishingly, it singles out fishing from every other form of human impact on our seas. 'It also omits to mention the necessity of protein-rich, healthy food to feed the planet, and fishing's relatively low impact on greenhouse gas emissions, compared with other modes of food production.' SFF added: 'Deploying the full panoply of Hollywood tear-jerk techniques, from beautiful imagery to, by turns, uplifting and depressing music, and additional narration by individuals who give an unchallenged, one-sided perspective on a variety of case studies from around the world, it has been carefully crafted to damage the industry.' The federation continued: 'Scottish fishermen have been committed to improving sustainability and sensible conservation measures for decades. 'It is due to the efforts of these fishermen that 70% of stocks in the North Sea and West of Scotland are fished sustainably. Yes, there is still more to do, but fishermen have made huge changes over the last 30 years to ensure we have stocks that are sustainable for the future.' SFF went on: 'Ours is a very heavily regulated industry, and our focus in working with governments is to find the right balance between conservation and sustainable harvesting. 'By providing jobs and income, a sustainable industry assures the future of many coastal and island communities that depend on seafood for their viability. 'No form of food production anywhere on the planet is without impact, as a glance at our farmed and grazed landscapes attests only too well. 'The unbalanced and unfair light shone on fishing in Ocean does a huge disservice to the skilled, knowledgeable and responsible men and women who make up our industry and, sadly, is a wasted opportunity to inform the public.' Meanwhile, SFF chief executive Elspeth Macdonald has warned the Scottish Government not to follow the path of Westminster proposing a ban on trawling in English Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Banning fishing in such an arbitrary and ignorant fashion will deprive hard-working people of their jobs.' Elspeth Macdonald, CEO, Scottish Fishermen's Federation Ms Macdonald said: 'It is extremely disappointing the UK Government seems to have caved to the emotional, unevidenced siren calls of the environmental NGOs and Sir David Attenborough, and announced a ban on trawling in English MPAs. 'We are sure the Scottish Government will take a much more intelligent, grown-up and responsible approach to the rules and regulations around fishing in Scotland's MPAs.' She added: 'Banning fishing in such an arbitrary and ignorant fashion will deprive hard-working people of their jobs and cost very often marginal communities much-needed income.'
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wood Group races to finalise Sidara deal by end of June
Wood Group, the troubled London-listed oil services company, is racing to finalise a cut-price takeover by a Gulf-based rival by the end of the month. Sky News has learnt that Wood and Sidara, its UAE-based suitor, are to request an extension to a 'put up or shut up' deadline on Thursday for the latter to make a firm offer. The joint request to the Takeover Panel, which is expected to be granted, is likely to involve a shorter extension than the maximum 28 days allowed under City rules, reflecting the companies' confidence that a deal will be agreed. Money latest: Wood and Sidara are aiming to get a binding transaction agreed by 30 June, when a waiver of Wood's lending covenants is due to expire, according to industry insiders. A public statement is likely to be made on Thursday. Sidara tabled a 35p-a-share offer for Wood in April which valued the Aberdeen-based target at just over £242m. It came less than a year after it proposed a deal worth about £1.5bn, after which Wood's shares collapsed in the wake of revelations about its past financial results and corporate governance. Read more from Sky News:Unemployment rate highest in four years The company's shares have been suspended since the beginning of last month. Wood was also the subject of an earlier takeover approach from Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm. A spokesman for Wood declined to comment.
