The UK is on the cusp of powering its electricity system without coal during the summer months, according to new analysis from Imperial College London on behalf of power group Drax. Coal accounted for less than one per cent of the country’s electricity supply in June – its lowest ever monthly performance – and for 12 days of the month was not used for electricity generation at all, according to the research released today.
Business Green 14th Aug 2018 read more »
One of the major players in the North Sea oil and gas sector celebrated passing a corporate milestone this week with a promise to continue investing in the industry. Fifty years ago Shell began production off the coast of Scotland at the Leman gas field. The global energy giant is in no rush to leave the North Sea, with plans to continue production for a further half-century. Steve Phimister, the firm’s UK upstream vice president, said Shell would continue to invest “between $600-800million of new capital every year” to grow its business. “We’re definitely committed to the North Sea and to the UK sector in particular. We have over the last few years gone through a lot of change, we turned the company around as we weren’t in the place we wanted to be,” he told Energy Voice.
Scotsman 14th Aug 2018 read more »
FAROE Petroleum has shown faith in the exploration potential of the UK North Sea by agreeing to buy into acreage East of Shetland after focusing recent investment on Norway.
Herald 15th Aug 2018 read more »
SENIOR health experts including academics and a former health minister have praised the Scottish inquiry into the health impacts of fracking and called for Westminster to mount a similar investigation. More than a dozen experts have written to Dr Sarah Wollaston, the Tory MP who chairs the Commons Health and Social Care Committee. The signatories include former Health Minister Norman Lamb and professors Peter Strachan, from Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University and Andrew Watterson, from the University of Stirling. They call on the committee to undertake a comprehensive review of all current evidence on the health impacts of fracking as the mo st recent work was published in 2014 by Public Health England (PHE). “However, this report was very limited in scope, and only provided advice on ‘the potential public health impacts of exposures to chemical and radioactive pollutants as a result of shale gas extraction’, and did not assess any other public health or social impacts of fracking,” they wrote.
The National 15th Aug 2018 read more »