Scottish O&G Supply Chain Exports Jump 8.4%

Exports by Scottish oil and gas supply chain companies jumped 8.4 percent between 2011 and 2012 to $12.7 billion, according to figures released Monday by Scottish Development International.

Exports from Scotland's oil and gas supply chain now account for a record 47.6 percent of the supply chain’s total sales, which at $26.7 billion grew by 5.8 percent last year.

"The domestic market is still growing, but the international market is really growing," said David Rennie, international sector head for oil and gas at Scottish Enterprise, who was speaking to Rigzone at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston Monday afternoon.

Rennie, who along with Scotland Minister of Energy Fergus Ewing is accompanying a delegation of 50 Scottish companies to the show, pointed out that North America still represents the largest export region for Scottish suppliers to the oil and gas industry, accounting for around $4 billion of sales (an increase of 2.8 percent over 2011).

However, Rennie also noted that Africa could see significant growth for Scottish exports. Already, the continent accounts for around 15 percent of exports from Scotland’s supply chain firms, making it the second-largest export region after North America.

"I would say that Africa is potentially a big market for us," Rennie said. "We've just taken a trade mission to Ghana and we've got an office opening there later this year."

Rennie pointed out that Scotland is close to Africa in terms of time zone, so "there's no reason why we can't service a lot of activity in Africa from the UK".

Currently around 70 percent of Scotland's oil and gas supply chain is about services – reflecting a significant level of expertise, particularly around the Aberdeen area.

"It's a hub. It's about supply chain, it's about the cluster, it's about quality, it's about access to engineering and it's about access to academia," Rennie said.

"Subsea services, well management, drilling … There’s a whole range of things that can be serviced form Scotland. And we now export to about 100 countries … If you go anywhere in the world to look for oil you will find a Scots person."

A former engineer, Jon is an award-winning editor who has covered the technology, engineering and energy sectors since the mid-1990s. Email Jon at jmainwaring@rigzone.com.

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Total Reports Unplanned Outage at Scottish Gas Terminal

Total E&P UK tweeted early Tuesday that it has suffered an unplanned outage at its St Fergus gas terminal north of Aberdeen, Scotland. The firm's Twitter account reported that the outage means that it is losing the equivalent of five million cubic meters (177 million cubic feet) of gas per day.

The St Fergus gas terminal is a set of four gas processing plants that receive approximately 20 percent of the UK's gas from several gas fields in the North Sea.

The news comes just two weeks after Total restarted production at its Elgin/Franklin platform after it had been out of action for almost a year following a major gas leak there on March 25, 2012.

A former engineer, Jon is an award-winning editor who has covered the technology, engineering and energy sectors since the mid-1990s. Email Jon at jmainwaring@rigzone.com.

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Total Reports Unplanned Outage at Scottish Gas Terminal

Total E&P UK tweeted early Tuesday that it has suffered an unplanned outage at its St Fergus gas terminal north of Aberdeen, Scotland. The firm's Twitter account reported that the outage means that it is losing the equivalent of five million cubic meters (177 million cubic feet) of gas per day.

The St Fergus gas terminal is a set of four gas processing plants that receive approximately 20 percent of the UK's gas from several gas fields in the North Sea.

The news comes just two weeks after Total restarted production at its Elgin/Franklin platform after it had been out of action for almost a year following a major gas leak there on March 25, 2012.

A former engineer, Jon is an award-winning editor who has covered the technology, engineering and energy sectors since the mid-1990s. Email Jon at jmainwaring@rigzone.com.

Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

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Total Reports Unplanned Outage at Scottish Gas Terminal

Total E&P UK tweeted early Tuesday that it has suffered an unplanned outage at its St Fergus gas terminal north of Aberdeen, Scotland. The firm's Twitter account reported that the outage means that it is losing the equivalent of five million cubic meters (177 million cubic feet) of gas per day.

The St Fergus gas terminal is a set of four gas processing plants that receive approximately 20 percent of the UK's gas from several gas fields in the North Sea.

The news comes just two weeks after Total restarted production at its Elgin/Franklin platform after it had been out of action for almost a year following a major gas leak there on March 25, 2012.

A former engineer, Jon is an award-winning editor who has covered the technology, engineering and energy sectors since the mid-1990s. Email Jon at jmainwaring@rigzone.com.

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Scottish Diving Center Wins Energy Skills Funding

A Scottish subsea diver training center has been awarded an additional $196,000 as part of an initiative to encourage Scottish residents to begin a new career in commercial diving.

The Underwater Centre in Fort William received the funding package from the Scottish government's Energy Skills Challenge Fund just three months after it was awarded $543,000 towards the training of 42 divers. The new funds will enable the center to take on an additional 15 trainees.

The Underwater Center General Manager Steve Ham commented in a statement:

"This is great news for those who want to pursue a career in diving but have perhaps never had the opportunity financially to go for it," he said. "It is also good news for industry, which is struggling to find skilled workers for the subsea sector at a time of sustained growth and expansion."

"We had a huge number of calls from people from a range of career backgrounds, including construction workers and yard hands, when the first round of funding was announced in October, and we ran a number of successful assessment days for those interested."

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Oil Majors Back Scottish Corrosion Prevention Firm

Scottish oil and gas technology firm LUX Assure announced Wednesday that it has received an investment of approximately $5.2 million from a number of sources, including oil majors ConocoPhillips and Statoil.

The firm, which specializes in corrosion management, will use the funds to transform itself from a technology development business to a service provider for the oil and gas sector.

LUX Assure Chairman Laurence Ormerod said in a company statement:

"This major investment will allow LUX to capitalize on the excellent chemical monitoring products developed by the company. Our CoMic and OMMICA products have been very well received by the industry so this seems to be an appropriate time to dedicate the company to growing sales, both within the UK and overseas. We are delighted to have ConocoPhillips and Statoil as new shareholders."

As well as receiving investment from ConocoPhillips and Statoil Technology Invest, Archangel Informal Investment and the Scottish Investment Bank (a division of Scottish Enterprise) also took part in the funding round, LUX Assure said.

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Oil Majors Back Scottish Corrosion Prevention Firm

Scottish oil and gas technology firm LUX Assure announced Wednesday that it has received an investment of approximately $5.2 million from a number of sources, including oil majors ConocoPhillips and Statoil.

The firm, which specializes in corrosion management, will use the funds to transform itself from a technology development business to a service provider for the oil and gas sector.

LUX Assure Chairman Laurence Ormerod said in a company statement:

"This major investment will allow LUX to capitalize on the excellent chemical monitoring products developed by the company. Our CoMic and OMMICA products have been very well received by the industry so this seems to be an appropriate time to dedicate the company to growing sales, both within the UK and overseas. We are delighted to have ConocoPhillips and Statoil as new shareholders."

As well as receiving investment from ConocoPhillips and Statoil Technology Invest, Archangel Informal Investment and the Scottish Investment Bank (a division of Scottish Enterprise) also took part in the funding round, LUX Assure said.

Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

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Oil Majors Back Scottish Corrosion Prevention Firm

Scottish oil and gas technology firm LUX Assure announced Wednesday that it has received an investment of approximately $5.2 million from a number of sources, including oil majors ConocoPhillips and Statoil.

The firm, which specializes in corrosion management, will use the funds to transform itself from a technology development business to a service provider for the oil and gas sector.

LUX Assure Chairman Laurence Ormerod said in a company statement:

"This major investment will allow LUX to capitalize on the excellent chemical monitoring products developed by the company. Our CoMic and OMMICA products have been very well received by the industry so this seems to be an appropriate time to dedicate the company to growing sales, both within the UK and overseas. We are delighted to have ConocoPhillips and Statoil as new shareholders."

As well as receiving investment from ConocoPhillips and Statoil Technology Invest, Archangel Informal Investment and the Scottish Investment Bank (a division of Scottish Enterprise) also took part in the funding round, LUX Assure said.

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Aker Buys Scottish Well Control Specialist

Aker Solutions announced Tuesday that it has agreed to buy a majority stake in Aberdeen-based subsea well control specialist Enovate Systems.

Enovate, which was founded in 2002 and now employs 62 people, has developed a range of patented components and products for use in open water workover systems, in riser workover systems, rigless intervention systems and drilling safety systems. In 2012, it had revenues of approximately $23.6 million (GBP 15 million), with an EBITDA profit of $7.8 million (GBP 5 million).

"Enovate has developed and qualified unique technology for safe and efficient well control. Components from Enovate are also important building blocks for systems within workover and well-intervention services for high pressure and ultra-deep water fields worldwide," Aker Chief Technology Officer Åsmund Bøe commented in a statement.

Aker added that Enovate will continue to be developed as an independent supplier of well control components.

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Aker Buys Scottish Well Control Specialist

Aker Solutions announced Tuesday that it has agreed to buy a majority stake in Aberdeen-based subsea well control specialist Enovate Systems.

Enovate, which was founded in 2002 and now employs 62 people, has developed a range of patented components and products for use in open water workover systems, in riser workover systems, rigless intervention systems and drilling safety systems. In 2012, it had revenues of approximately $23.6 million (GBP 15 million), with an EBITDA profit of $7.8 million (GBP 5 million).

"Enovate has developed and qualified unique technology for safe and efficient well control. Components from Enovate are also important building blocks for systems within workover and well-intervention services for high pressure and ultra-deep water fields worldwide," Aker Chief Technology Officer Åsmund Bøe commented in a statement.

Aker added that Enovate will continue to be developed as an independent supplier of well control components.

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Dart Declares Scottish Coal-Bed Methane Test a Success

Coal-bed methane specialist Dart Energy International reported Monday that a three-month production test of its Airth 12 well in Scotland has been successfully completed.

The well which was completed in March 2012 and brought online in June was operated continuously for three months on a controlled production test basis. Sustained flow rates in excess of 500,000 standard cubic feet of gas per day were achieved, with peak rates in excess of 800,000 cubic feet per day. Dart said the well was held back from its maximum potential to minimize gas flaring.

Declaring the production test as a success Dart is now curtailing gas production at Airth 12 in order to preserve the gas for ultimate commercial production, although it will flow some gas for on-site electricity generation.

Dart is now awaiting regulatory approval before it can carry out further field development at Airth. The firm already has a gas sales agreement in place with SSE, the UK's second-largest utility.

Dart CEO John McGoldrick commented in a statement:

"We have invested significant capital in this area and are proud to be the first company to generate electricity from CBM natural gas in Scotland. During our Airth 12 well production test we have achieved sustainable and continuous flow-rates, significantly higher than any other CBM well production in Europe."

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