North Sea oil companies are poised to make even deeper cuts to the embattled workforce this year as almost half say that costs need to fall further to manage the aftermath of the oil market crash.
The Bank of Scotland has warned that nearly a third of companies are planning further job cuts to survive the slow recovery from sub-$30 a barrel oil prices seen earlier this year. The bank’s annual oil sector survey shows that 43pc of companies are planning cost cutting even after sweeping job losses and a dramatic pullback in investment last year.
The Bank of Scotland’s Stuart White said “there are still choppy water to navigate”.
“With oil prices currently hovering around the $50 mark there is hope that prices have bottomed out and have begun to slowly and modestly recover. Many businesses however, undoubtedly face more difficult decisions on cost savings, jobs and investment,” he added.
The troubling findings come just weeks ahead of a scheduled employment report from Oil and Gas UK, which in September last year showed that 65,000 oilworkers had lost their jobs in just over a year. The bank of Scotland says that for every six jobs lost in 2015 only one new job was created.
Unsurprisingly companies in Scotland have been particularly hurt by the slump in oil prices, with almost six in 10 saying that their business has been “severely” hit, compared to a national average of 4 in ten.
Stuifzand on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 6:49 pm
Who cares about a North Sea oil slump, oil is the past:
Just on the Dutch news: 9 European countries on Dutch initiative have decided to engage in far reaching cooperation to build the world’s largest wind turbine park, filling the entire North Sea area.
The plan for plastering the North Sea full with turbines is not new, new is the cooperation.
Holland alone will build thousands of turbines to cover electricity needs for 5 million households (The Netherlands has 7 million households).
The cooperation will mainly cover setting up a grid covering the entire North Sea to connect the individual (national) wind parks.
http://nos.nl/artikel/2109364-noordzeelanden-gaan-samen-windmolens-bouwen.html
Snoopy on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 7:53 pm
Stuifzand …and what’s great is that these wind farms can be built using energy from existing wind farms and other renewable energy!!!
Oh, wait. No we need oil to mine the raw materials. Oh and oil and coal to transport that raw material to factories to produce steel and cement. Oh, yeah, and oil to transport that steel, copper, silicon etc to other factories to produce generators, pylons as high as tower blocks and so on. Oh crap, and oil to run the machinery to construct the wind turbines on site and then there’s the maintenance.
Bollocks, it isn’t sounding so good now…
Davy on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 8:24 pm
Stu, the math does not add up for renewable energy as a transition energy source that will be foundational. We throw cold water on the idea daily here on our board. WE have multiple people posting and disproving this delusional thinking.
Go Speed Racer on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 9:34 pm
The energy production from windmills is lousy. It is just a scam so the gubbamint can pretend to be solving the fossil fuel decline.
So we are to bow and pray to the windmills, while the lefties swoon like loons, and the right-wing rolls their eyeballs.
In reality, wait ’til the first “engine out” cargo ship floats thru their taking out windmills dozens at a time.
Or maybe Osama will do it on purpose.
Boat on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 10:07 pm
Go Speed Racer
Texas is over 10 percent wind and growing. Has some of the cheapest electric rates in the nation. Texas is not a leftest state. You read much?
GregT on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 11:03 pm
“Texas is over 10 percent wind and growing. Has some of the cheapest electric rates in the nation. Texas is not a leftest state. You read much?”
Think much? That wind power isn’t replacing fossil fuels Boat, it is in addition to them.
joe on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 11:31 pm
With all the heat from the sun trapped by co2 we will surely have plentiful wind to extract energy from.
GregT on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 11:55 pm
“With all the heat from the sun trapped by co2 we will surely have plentiful wind to extract energy from.”
And the more windmills we manufacture, the more accumulative CO2 dumped into the environment, the higher the wind potential, the more electricity we can produce.
A win win situation! 🙂
Brent on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 2:25 am
Also if everyone switches over to electric cars electricity consumption is going to rise dramatically. Holland will need many many more windmills to power all those electric vehicles.
Ralph on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 3:25 am
The North Sea is one of the windiest places on the planet. The energy payback time on the turbines is 1 – 3 years, and most the resources can be extracted without the use of fossil fuels. The structures are mainly steel and concrete, the use of ‘rare earth’ metals is optional and any oil employed in construction and maintenance is more than offset by the fossil energy saved (mostly NG and coal) by the electricity generated. (and by switching to electric or NG powered personal transport they can more than replace the oil they consume with reduced oil demand). Although their design lifetime is 20-25 years, the major components ( the towers and undersea grid ) should last acentury or more, so the long term EROEI is higher than the nominal 15:1 .
Wind does not work everywhere, nor does solar. However, in Scotland, and that good old hard headed oil country Texas, wind turbines are the CHEAPEST electricity available, now, grid connected.
makati1 on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 4:25 am
Wind needs an equal amount of electric generation backup for those many times when there is not enough or too much. That backup is usually oil or NG. Take away the backup and wind fails the test.
Davy on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 5:43 am
“The energy payback time on the turbines is 1 – 3 years, and most the resources can be extracted without the use of fossil fuels.”
We know most of the resources can be extracted theoretically by renewables but that is where it ends. This statement does not consider affordability nor scale. You cannot scale this “self-perpetuating” idea behind renewables that many have more than small scale.
EV personal transport would work in isolated cases but they would greatly raise cost on top of already high cost to build out the wind turbines. The heavy transport would not work nor is it likely to every work in any kind of scale. The idea of adding EV’s to the mix is a whole other project. EV transport will not scale for Scotland in time, resources, and cost. It is more likely normal fossil fuel powered equipment would be used in our economic and resources starved world.
As for the payback period that is great and in such situations this is a renewable sweet spot that should be exploited. We need to exploit many such sweet spots of high renewable potential. We should be very careful where we put our resources though. Many areas and situations could be poor investments and eventually be shut in energy sources depending on how they connect to the end user. The best application of renewables is small scale and at the end user but that does not fit our globalism business model except in small scale.
My point would be this is a great project on one level but fails on others. Every chance we get to add to the mix of energy sources will buy us time but it will not save us. We should not be misrepresenting the potential of these projects. They are not the answer. They are part of many answers and all those answers will only be a temporary extension of modernity at least at the level of technological complexity with our living arrangements.
Spiritually is a different story and another story that could fill a book. We can grow our humanity and understanding of ourselves but not our living arrangements they are at limits. These delusional renewable ideas are an example of what is wrong with our spirituality.
I would also mention the ugliness of filling an environment with wind turbines. A little is OK but the idea of a huge amount of turbines again gets back to what is wrong with humans. We should be putting more resources into changing our mentality and attitudes then we can scale up the technology and complexity only to greatly reduced expectations and desires. Yet, adding the attitude component will not work because people and investors won’t buy it. These vital mentality changes type appears not possible until too late.
I hope I am wrong with my negativity on the subject but the math, physics, and the common sense do not add up. The last thing we need when teetering on the edge of the abyss is more fantasy to lead us in the wrong direction. People have to change more so than the technology. This is a biological software issue not hardware.
Stuifzand on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 6:29 am
“That wind power isn’t replacing fossil fuels Boat, it is in addition to them.”
I don’t have many differences of opinions with Greg, but this is the most important one.
Now I am going to propose an insight that is so earth shattering, so revolutionary, so immense in its consequences, here it is:
1 kwh = 1 kwh
There you have it, I just said it. There is no way back for me. I crossed the Rubicon.
Seriously, it doesn’t matter if a kwh comes from nuclear, from hydro, from wind, from oil or from the energy content of your latest bean soup f***.
Energy is energy. You can build entire solar plants or wind parks using the energy generated by earlier installed solar plants and wind parks.
“Oh, wait. No we need oil to mine the raw materials.”
What you need most is iron for steel. Here is the kicker. Since in countries like Holland at least 95% of all waste iron is recycled, we already have all the iron needed above the ground to build a few thousand 150 m towers. Just kick a few cloggies out of their cars and you’re good. Most cars aren’t going to be used anyway in the long run.
Holland has 8 million registered cars. 70% of a car is iron. Assume the average weight of a car to be 1000 kg. That makes 6 million ton of iron.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windkraftanlage
In 2009 all German wind towers combined had 3.6 million ton of steel. Germany is a top notch wind energy country (5x Holland in population). That should give you an idea of the amount of steel required to install the equipment.
The wind park is planned to be completed ca 2024. There will be enough fossil fuel around until that date. These steel towers will be around for centuries (compare the Eiffel tower that is still in perfect condition).
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafelijke_Korenmolen
Her is the oldest Dutch windmill, older than 1440 and still operational (for tourists). The windmill was constructed before America was discovered and probably will outlive the US in its present shape.
Morale: as Ralph already said, the epbt is something like 1-3 years in very windy environments like the Northsea. Its pure gold.
Go for it.
Boat on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 7:12 am
“That wind power isn’t replacing fossil fuels Boat, it is in addition to them.”
That is now. We are at the beginning of wind and solar. From Texas to Canada there is great wind and decent solar. As coastline disappears look to see population move to the breadbasket of the world.
Ralph on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 7:58 am
I already have the electric car. I plan (this week) to put an equal amount of money into a windfarm investment which should fund the running costs of the car (and all my domestic electricity consumption) for life.
Of course the investment could fold. That is a risk I am prepared to take.
Kenz300 on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 8:18 am
Paris Goes Car-Free First Sunday of Every Month
http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/17/paris-goes-car-free/
The transition to safer, cleaner and cheaper alternative energy sources continues…………
Germany Achieves Milestone – Renewables Supply Nearly 100 Percent Energy for a Day
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/05/germany-achieves-milestone-renewables-supply-nearly-100-percent-energy-for-a-day.html
Portugal ran entirely on renewable energy for 4 consecutive days last week
http://electrek.co/2016/05/16/portugal-ran-entirely-on-renewable-energy-for-4-consecutive-days-last-week/
Stuifzand on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 10:16 am
Declaration (letter of intent) signed today:
http://tinyurl.com/jhtm255
(Dutch gov, English)
The deal is sold as combating climate change, not depleting fossil fuel, which is at least as important.
Core agreement: “North Seas Countries’
Offshore Grid Initiative”. Countries are going to build their own massive wind parks, but the participating countries agree on building a grid together on the sea floor, to be connected to the already existing European super grid.
It looks like the EU will be again on top soon in the graphs as presented by Kenz.
PracticalMaina on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 10:24 am
Something else they are positioning themselves to do properly, throwing round-up out of Europe.
http://www.reuters.com/article/health-eu-glyphosate-idUSL8N18Y1TK
Stuifzand on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 10:28 am
7 min English presentation about the Gemini project, to be completed in 2017. Gives a good impression of how the other intended North Sea projects will be carried out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65mgPeygC8
Cables deployed on sea floor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25hzTV-xDzE
GregT on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 2:15 pm
British Columbia, where I reside, generates 95% of it’s electricity from hydro, and has been doing so for the better part of a century. Hydro electric power generation is not intermittent, and is as renewable as it gets. It isn’t renewable however, and is completely reliant on fossil fuels for maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. As is also the case for all of the industrial electronic gadgets that we use that electricity for. I’m all for building out as much alternate electric power generation infrastructure as possible, as quickly as possible, but in no way will it replace what fossil fuels currently do for us in modern industrial society.
Even with a large scale build out of alternate electricity generating infrastructure, conservation, and a radical departure from BAU and current standards of living will be necessary.
Stuifzand on Tue, 7th Jun 2016 3:33 am
“It isn’t renewable however, and is completely reliant on fossil fuels for maintenance, repairs, and upgrades.”
You need microscopic quantities of fossil fuel for lubrication perhaps, but that’s it. You can have maintenance, repairs and upgrades powered by electricity from renewable power plants. It is completely irrelevant where the necessary energy quantities originate from.
1 kwh = 1 kwh
“Even with a large scale build out of alternate electricity generating infrastructure, conservation, and a radical departure from BAU and current standards of living will be necessary.”
That’s absolutely true, certainly for the short and medium term. We are too late for a smooth transition.
But in the long term there is no principal energy problem. An area like Spain covered with solar panels + storage infrastructure is enough to replace present day global fossil fuel consumption.
Davy on Tue, 7th Jun 2016 6:49 am
Stu, you are lost in abstract theorizations and misplace scaling. It is more than too late for a smooth transition it is too late period because of physics and the economic realities of globalism. Nothing will save globalism and by extension modern life. Your fantasies are of the type that got us here. It is deception and delusion. Technological drunkenness and delusional fantasy wrapped up in one.
You can’t slow down globalism. Minimum operating levels, economies of scale, and global wide distribution are a delicately robust system. That is an incongruous juxtaposition, paradox, and catch 22 wrapped up in one. This system must remain at high RPM to survive and remain strong. When it slows down it becomes delicate and fails. The catch 22 is that many of our problems solutions are found in the slowing down but the slowing down ensures failure. This is the paradox of modern man that his solutions are his death and his death is his solution. Right is wrong and wrong is right in that our death of this form of human is necessary. Survival of modern man is wrong per Nature.
It is necessary by natural law modern man dies. To fight this is to fight Nature herself. That is a losing proposition. Nature is generous in a human sense because we likely have some time to do something before this death. We can make things more comfortable but we will not get out of this situation alive. It is a trap of our own making and likely just normal evolutionary ends that come with epochs, periods, and species branching. We may become a new and different species in the respect of what is going on in our large brain but the current global human civilization is over. This may be at most a decade or two. Modern man is a popcorn fart of history.
An energy transition like you are proposing is a slowing down and can only be achieve by destructive change. Our current situation is already near limits and diminishing returns so an energy transition is out of the question. We have nothing to transition with. We are a spend force and nature is enforcing her laws on us. There is no getting out of jail free card with nature there is just is-ness of natural balance.
Stuifzand on Tue, 7th Jun 2016 7:35 am
@Davy – I think I can learn a thing or two from you about abstract theorizations. And who wants to save globalism? Not me! And were do I say that I believe in modernity or modern man? Bury them! The Muslims are giving the ‘good example’ with their 7th century archaism; won’t be long before the rest of the world will follow it some form or another.
“Stu, you are lost in abstract theorizations and misplace scaling. It is more than too late for a smooth transition”
Huh? That’s what I am saying!
“An energy transition like you are proposing is a slowing down and can only be achieve by destructive change.”
You are apparently missing that around the world everybody is busy setting up a new renewable energy base (apart from Russia). And because America is the only large country that doesn’t have a renewable energy police (on the federal level, smart provinces like Texas do) that’s perhaps the reason why you think it can’t happen.
“Nature is generous in a human sense because we likely have some time to do something before this death. ”
Yeah, exactly. So why wasting time on dreaming up reasons why it can’t work and act instead and build those windturines and solar panels while we still have fossil capital to do it.
“we will not get out of this situation alive.”
In the long run we’re all dead. No reason to prematurely breakoff vacation just because it is going to end anyway.
“We may become a new and different species in the respect of what is going on in our large brain but the current global human civilization is over.”
Yep, douze points as they say at the ESC.
Davy on Tue, 7th Jun 2016 8:25 am
What I said is a linear attempt to theorize about non-linear reality. We are a linear knwledge people trying to understand the non linear is-ness. Our language and narrative is linear. Our policies and actions are linear based. They cannot be anything but linear. To be non linear one must be detached from the nature of things. It is obvious nothing is detached.
As the nonlinear reality of our earth ecosystem and human civilization approaches and is in the vicinity of the vertical of multiple non linear processes we will enter the surreal world of decay and destructive change. This is a trap without exit. It is a vortex of deflation of a bubble that can only be described as modern man. It includes our environment and the earth ecosystem and hence for no other reason than that this is our end. Even if we could fix our human situation we will not fix the destruction of the stability earth ecosystem, climate, and virgin resources of the last thousands of years.
How’s that Stu. Chew on that in your big easy chair I know you have because you told me back when you were Arthur. How is that IPad humming along? Theorizing about false hope and delusional green fantasies?
Stuifzand on Tue, 7th Jun 2016 9:12 am
Davy, nice to know that somewhere in North-America somebody still remembers a few details about me. 🙂
“is that IPad humming along? Theorizing about false hope and delusional green fantasies?”
More than that. Abandoned my iPad2 for a fabulous iPad Pro (eyesight and stuff), although I keep the old one with 3G capabilities for booking.com while on holiday. And yes typing these words still from the same chair a liberal doesn’t want to be found dead in. 🙂
I am almost ready with prepping. My 130 m2 backyard is almost fully utilized now for food production. In the autumn I’ll have somebody remove the 15 or so tree stumps, the sad reminders of the trees I had to cut down to maximize solar influx for veggies and thermal solar collectors (yet to be installed)… additionally gave me 2-3 seasons worth of firewood.
Bought a greenhouse prematurely, to empty my bank account a little, just in case, so I won’t be surprised when the international financial system will go flat on its face, but it is still lying around as a building kit, to be unpacked and installed after the harvest:
http://producten.royalwellkassen.nl/kassen-tunnels/tuinkassen/universal/universal-128
Furthermore I now have solar panels. Unfortunately only six 100 x 168 cm 285W panels fitted on my part of the roof, I have to share with two neighbors (living in Holland automatically comes with neighbors). I refresh my browser several times a day to see how many kwh these panels brought me this day (6.11 kwh at 16:00 CET, today is very sunny, will probably increase until 8 kwh. My record is 11 kwh so far). In three weeks the first half year is past and I probably will make it until 750 kwh or 1500 over the year, which about covers my consumption pattern in 2015 and 2015 (1650 kwh).
Additionally to store the veggies, I bought a max efficiency freezer:
http://www.mediamarkt.nl/nl/product/_bosch-gsn58aw41-1351302.html
Runs on 200 kwh/year. Perhaps I buy a 2nd one. Finally I acquired a generator to at least keep the freezer(s) going in case the grid goes down.
https://www.dewitschijndel.nl/honda-handy-eu-10i-generator/
Made a lot of money over the past 5 months and for the first time in several years won’t be sitting behind a computer during the summer months. Leaving soon for the Austrian alps, Italy as far south as Rome and than NW-Spain.
PracticalMaina on Tue, 7th Jun 2016 9:30 am
Get some pigs and goats to remove those stumps, greenest way you can do it… fence some pigs in around a stump, drill-dig some holes around the base-roots of the stump and put some corn or another treat in and under the stump. Then just give the pig some time to work at it. Pig will root the stump up, and be happy he had something to occupy his time. Then you can switch in a got to consume the rest of the biomass.
Check out those solar concentrators in Spain!
Foxconn sucks, but at least now there are 60,000 fewer poor suicidal factory workers making those I toys.
PracticalMaina on Tue, 7th Jun 2016 9:31 am
*switch in a goat
Davy on Tue, 7th Jun 2016 9:31 am
Glad all is well Stu. You always were a gentleman and a great source of thought provoking information. My wife is from the Dolomites near Falcada by Austrian border. Great place to get freshly made Ricota from mountain dairy cattle. Mummmm. Getting hungry thinking about it.
Stuifzand on Tue, 7th Jun 2016 9:39 am
“Get some pigs and goats to remove those stumps”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUgDHTFOoTk
500,- euro in a single day.