After Laggan Gas Field was discovered in the 1980’s, it has taken 30 year to get to ‘first gas’. This is due to deep water gas drilling in the North Sea proving to be a lot more difficult both technically and financially. However, now that first gas has reached the shores could a struggling UK oil and gas industry be turning a corner.
Late on Thursday afternoon there was an announcement from the Russian oil minister that they will be meeting with OPEC in early February to discuss a 5% cut in oil production. The market has been flooded with over supply, which has caused the oil price to fall as low at $27 a barrel, however, this announcement caused a spike in prices with oil hitting $36 a barrel briefly before trading closed.
The UK Government announced in 2015 that it will be closing its remaining coal power stations in favour for cleaner gas power stations by 2025. This was a popular decision, with coal power stations accounting for a very large part of the UKs carbon emissions. However The Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) believe that the plans have been rushed and are currently unrealistic.
The Environment Agency has confirmed that more than 3,000 organisations that are required to participate in the Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) are yet to notify them that they are intending to comply. The original deadline of the 5th of December was extended till the end of January 2016 due to a large amount of companies that were expected to miss the deadline.
Oil prices on Monday morning fell to their lowest since 2003 as Western sanctions on Iran were lifted at the weekend. The price briefly fell to $27.67 a barrel before recovering slightly due to fears over more oversupply on the market.
You still have between 6 months and 12 months remaining on your current contract and your next contract negotiations are some time away, there is no reason to be looking at the contracts now, right? Not exactly, when looking at the wholesale gas and electricity markets the prices fluctuate on a daily basis and therefore it is when you sign the contract that is important when trying to minimise costs.
A report by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has revealed that demand for electric vehicles has risen in the UK. The rise in demand is thought to be in the region of 50% with demand for plug-in hybrids also increasing.
Oil prices fell to their lowest in 12 years on Thursday morning due to a continued glut of supply on the market and record levels of storage in the USA and Europe. This combined with lower demand from a slowing Chinese economy is causing market analysts to revaluate what they thought the lowest price could be.
The Government are currently locked in a battle with Lancashire County Council over Cuadrilla’s plans to start fracking in the area. Lancashire County Council say that the drilling will have too great of an impact on the landscape and will create too much noise.
Brent Crude Oil on Monday fell to its lowest price since July 2004 when it sank to $36.05 a barrel. The huge amount of oversupply on the market is causing the price to fall, with experts predicting that we could see prices close to $20 a barrel before it starts to recover, causing a huge headache for the oil industry but a huge relief to consumers at the pumps who can now purchase petrol for under £1 a litre for the first time since 2008.
Clean air zones will be set up in Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds, Southampton and Derby under plans to cut carbon emissions. The new plans will discourage heavily polluting diesel vehicles such as buses, taxis and lorries from entering the city centres. Park and rides schemes will be implemented, as well as increased infrastructure for electric vehicles and cleaner fuels.
The UK Government has announced that they will be cutting subsidies for solar electricity panels by 64%. The cut has been reduced from the original plans to cut the subsidies by 87% after they came under a lot of criticism.
The solar sector has spoken out against the cuts, claiming that they are being forced to go out on their own before they are ready. However the Government energy secretary Amber Rudd has said that consumers shouldn’t be paying the same amount towards subsidies when the price of the technology has gone down.
A successful experiment in Germany has used nuclear fusion to produce a cloud of helium plasma that reached 1 million degrees Celsius. Nuclear fusion is what creates the Sun’s energy source, and scientist have long believed that unlocking the energy source will create unlimited clean energy.
The RAC have said that they expect petrol prices to fall to £1 a litre by Christmas, bringing forward their previous prediction. This comes after Brent Crude Oil prices fell below $40 per barrel, the lowest since 2009.
Final meetings will be held today at the COP21 Conference where ministers from countries throughout the world will attempt to come to an agreement. The conference so far has seen a split of opinions, on one side are richer countries who are in agreement that everything possible must be done to protect the climate, and on the other side poorer countries say that they want to do their part, but not if it affects their growth.
The UK Government have said at the COP21 Conference that they will support the push for zero emission cars. They now join countries such as Germany and Holland in the push, with a target of 2050 to make all passenger vehicles zero emission.
A report by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has revealed that businesses that adopt energy efficiency measures could save anywhere between 18% and 25% on their energy bills. This comes after it was revealed that 31% of FSB members had said that energy costs were preventing them from growing.
George Osbourne has pledged that the conservative government will be investing in energy infrastructure over the next four years during his spending review. However, he also confirmed that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will see a 22% cut to its budget, a move that has been strongly criticised.
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Russian gas giant Gazprom has announced they have stopped all exports of gas to Ukraine because of Ukraine using up all of the gas they had paid for. However, Ukraine say that it was them who stopped the flow of gas from Russia because they could purchase it cheaper from other sources such as Europe.
npower have reported in their daily market report that the gas system in the UK is ‘slightly’ undersupplied and demand is higher than the seasonal norm. It is forecast that the linepack will be 6mcm short.
The UK has ramped up storage withdrawals to combat the higher demand and exports to Belgium via the IUK pipeline have been reduced to 7mcm a day, down from 17mcm a day. It is believed that the combination of these two actions will be enough to combat the slight undersupply and not affect prices.
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