Dozens of platforms in UKCS to go standstill

Unite the union announced on Monday, March 20 that major oil and gas operators in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) face a tsunami of industrial unrest within weeks as around 1400 offshore workers across five companies demand a better deal on jobs, pay and conditions.

Unite, whose members will take action at companies enjoying record-busting profits, predicts that platforms and offshore installations will be brought to a standstill due to the specialized roles its members undertake. 

The action will hit major oil and gas operators including BP, CNRI, EnQuest, Harbour, Ithaca, Shell and Total.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said, “Oil and gas companies have been given free rein to enjoy massive windfall profits in the North Sea; drilling concessions are effectively licences to print money.

“1400 offshore workers are now set to take strike action against these employers who are raking it but refusing to give them a fair share of the pie. This will create a tsunami of industrial unrest in the offshore sector.  

“Unite will support these members every step of the way in their fight for better jobs, pay and conditions.”

The prospective action includes electrical, production and mechanical technicians in addition to deck crew, scaffolders crane operators, pipefitters, platers, and riggers working for Bilfinger UK Limited, Stork construction, Petrofac Facilities Management, the Wood Group UK Limited and Sparrows Offshore Services.

John Boland, Unite industrial officer, added: “Unite has received unprecedented support in favour of industrial action in the UK Continental Shelf. It is the biggest mandate we have received in a generation in the offshore sector. There is no doubt that this is directly linked to oil and gas companies reaping record profits while the workforce gets scraps from the table. 

 “Unite’s members are angry at the corporate greed being shown by offshore operators and contractors. Now these major global companies are set to face the consequences as dozens of offshore platforms will be brought to a standstill in a matter of weeks.”

Around 700 offshore workers at Bilfinger UK Limited are set to down tools after Unite members voted in favor of taking industrial action as part of a pay dispute.  Bilfinger workers are demanding an increase above the base rate of pay set in the Energy Services Agreement (ESA) for 2022.  

Meanwhile, 350 Stork construction workers are set to take strike action after Unite members also supported industrial action in a dispute over working rotas and rates of pay.

Unite members employed by Petrofac Facilities Management Limited on the FPF1 platform also voted in favour of strike action. Around 50 workers are involved in the dispute over holiday entitlements. Offshore workers can be asked to work at any time for no additional payment. The operator, Ithaca Energy, has a clawback policy of 14 days, double the industry norm of 7 days.

Unite members employed by the Wood Group UK Limited on TAQA platforms similarly voted to take strike action. Around 80 members are involved in the dispute which is focused on a 10% cut made to salaries in 2015 worth around £7,000 a year.

The mandates for industrial action follow the recent announcement by Unite that around 200 Sparrows Offshore Services workers will take strike action across more than 20 oil and gas platforms in disputes over pay. Strike action is set to hit various platforms from 29 March and until 7 June in a series of 24, 48 and 72-hour stoppages. This action will hit a number of major operators including BP, Shell, Apache and Harbour Energy. 

A further two industrial action ballots are due this week at Petrofac BP involving around 80 workers (21 March), and at Worley Services UK Limited on Harbour Energy platforms involving around 50 workers (24 March) in disputes over pay. The pending ballot results could bring the final total to around 1500 offshore workers taking industrial action.

Unite recently blasted the UK Government's inaction on taxing oil firms as BP posted the biggest profits in its history as it doubled to £23 billion in 2022. BP’s bonanza profits come after Shell reports earnings of £32 billion, bringing the combined total profits of the top two energy companies in Britain to a record £55 billion.

bp joins Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation as a strategic partner

bp has joined the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) as a strategic partner, which was marked by a partnership agreement ceremony in Singapore. GCMD was set up to help drive decarbonisation of the maritime industry and bp is pleased to be working with GCMD to help further this aim.

GCMD is based in Singapore – one of the world’s busiest ports. It was set up as a non-profit organization in August last year to help the maritime industry meet or exceed the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) GHG emission reduction goals for 2030 and 2050. It aims to achieve this by creating opportunities for cross-industry collaboration and sharing its projects’ outcomes, aimed at helping fuel the energy transition within the maritime industry. This partnership adds S$10 million (USD$7.4 million) in funding, giving GCMD’s efforts a further boost.

Carol Howle, bp’s executive vice president for trading & shipping, said: “bp has helped shape the shipping industry for more than 100 years. A net zero future for the maritime sector demands industry collaboration, and GCMD is bringing to the forefront the conversations that matter most. As part of GCMD, we look forward to working with key industry players to further progress solutions at the pace and scale needed to help this carbon-intensive sector transition.”

Professor Lynn Loo, GCMD’s chief executive officer, said, “bp’s net zero ambitions and investments in low carbon solutions are aligned with GCMD’s mission and projects. Together with bp and our other partners, we aim to foster collaboration to address challenges and untangle the complexities of decarbonising shipping. We look forward to working closely with and leveraging bp’s experience and expertise in our pilots and trials.”

bp trading & shipping (T&S) is one of the world’s leading energy trading houses. At any one time, about 300 ships are on the water for bp, enabling it to move around 240 million tonnes of product every year. bp will look to leverage GCMD’s findings in its own maritime activities and share developing best practices with its customers through bp’s gas and low carbon energy business that integrates the company’s existing natural gas capabilities with its low and zero carbon businesses and markets, including wind, solar and hydrogen.

bp is also supporting zero carbon supply chains by driving new decarbonisation technologies and capabilities to create innovative zero carbon energy solutions. Safe development of hydrogen, ammonia, biofuel, and carbon markets is a priority for bp, and aligning with the GCMD on these projects provides a strategic fit.

As part of the partnership, Lambros Klaoudatos, bp’s senior vice president of shipping, will sit on GCMD’s board. The strategic partnership with GCMD follows bp’s ties with the Global Maritime Forum (GMF), Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping (MMMCZCS) in Europe and the Blue Sky Maritime Coalition in the US. Together, these organizations are helping drive decarbonisation of the maritime sector and provide global support for bp’s maritime decarbonisation journey across its key trading and shipping regions in Asia, Europe and the US.

 

bp and EnBW emerge successful in offshore wind project

bp and EnBW have been awarded a lease option off the east coast of Scotland to develop a major offshore wind project — to be known as Morven. The award was made in the highly competitive ScotWind leasing round; the results were announced by Crown Estate Scotland.

The approximately 860km2 lease is located around 60km off the coast of Aberdeen. The E1 lease is in an advantaged area, allowing the partners to develop it as a fixed-bottom offshore wind project with a total generating capacity of around 2.9 gigawatts (GW), sufficient to power more than three million homes.

“bp has a proud 100-year history in Scotland. We want to thank Crown Estate Scotland for the opportunity to now start a new chapter, helping Scotland continue as a global energy leader for the next 100 years.We have a fantastic partner in EnBW and now an even more competitive portfolio of nearly 6GW of combined offshore wind to develop together,” said Bernard Looney, chief executive officer.

The success of the bid is expected to unlock a number of investments across the country, as part of bp’s integrated energy company approach, leveraging its existing North Sea infrastructure, skills and relationships and EnBW’s experience in offshore wind. Along with the offshore wind development, these investments include significant expansion of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Scotland and green hydrogen production. Together, these represent up to £10 billion of investment in support of offshore wind and Scotland’s energy transition. 

“Our plans go much further than just the turbines offshore. They see us investing in projects and in people — from EV charging to green hydrogen — aligned with Scotland’s energy transition plans.   “This is good business — making disciplined investments and demonstrating what an integrated energy company can do; we can’t wait to get to work.”

EnBW CEO Frank Mastiaux added, “In this close partnership we succeeded in a highly competitive field of bidders. Since the construction of the first German offshore wind farm in 2010 by EnBW, we have become a major player in offshore technology, even beyond Germany's borders. We are therefore very pleased to be able to contribute our experience of developing and operating technically demanding offshore wind projects once again with our partner bp.

“This success marks so far the largest development project in offshore wind for our company. And we are proud to contribute significantly to a climate-friendly energy future in Scotland, being one of the world’s largest markets for offshore wind power. “For EnBW this investment will be a corner stone in our strategy to become CO2 neutral by 2035. The international and European targets to reduce the CO2-footprint can only be met by implementing large scale renewable generation capacity. Offshore Wind in Scotland provides a perfect setting for achieving this goal.”

As a result of the successful ScotWind bid, the partners will establish their operational centre in Scotland, and bp will make Aberdeen its global operations and maintenance centre of excellence for offshore wind, creating up to 120 new direct jobs.  It is expected to contribute up to £40 million per year to the economy.

The offshore wind development will include investments in infrastructure, ports, harbours and shipyards, including the construction of four ships to support EnBW and bp’s offshore wind projects across the UK, subject to technical and commercial due diligence. These new-builds will involve an investment of more than £100 million and would be expected to support 500 associated jobs. It also triggers additional investment in Forth Ports, who are creating Scotland’s largest renewable hub at the Port of Leith, supporting up to 3,000 direct and indirect jobs in the Forth Estuary net zero corridor.

bp also intends to apply its integrated business model to use the clean power generated offshore to supply and significantly accelerate the expansion of its EV charging network in Scotland, to around 4,000 public chargers, by 2030.

As part of bp’s commitment to support oil and gas workers through employment and opportunities for re-training and reskilling in renewables, bp and EnBW have already committed more than £1 million to X-Academy in Scotland in a five-year deal; supporting both reskilling experienced workers and the creation of entry-level energy transition roles.

Taken together, Morven will represent a significant contribution to the development of Scotland’s energy transition infrastructure, economy, and skills, creating new opportunities and long-term, high-quality jobs.

bp and Oman enter strategic partnership

bp and the Ministry of Energy and Minerals in Oman have signed a Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA) and a Renewables Data Collection Agreement which will support the potential development of a multiple gigawatt, world-class renewable energy and green hydrogen development in Oman, by 2030. 

As part of the agreement, bp will capture and evaluate solar and wind data from 8,000km2 of land – an area more than five times the size of Greater London. The evaluation will then support the Government of Oman in approving the future developments of renewable energy hubs at suitable locations within this area to take advantage of these resources. The renewable energy resources could also supply renewable power for the development of green hydrogen, targeting both domestic and global export markets.

This partnership represents a significant evolution of bp’s business in Oman and is aligned with bp’s strategy, which includes rapidly growing our developed renewable generating capacity and to take early positions in hydrogen. 

bp Chief Executive Bernard Looney said, “Today’s agreement represents what bp is able to offer as an integrated energy company. These projects will build on our gas business, and bring wind, solar and green hydrogen together in a distinctive and integrated way supporting Oman’s low carbon energy goals. 

“And we’re not just investing in energy. We are investing in Oman to create and develop infrastructure, support local supply chains and cultivate the skills and talent needed to usher in this next generation of energy leaders.  We look forward to working closely with the Omani government to take this forward.”

His Excellency Dr Mohammed Al Rumhy, Minister of Energy & Minerals of the Sultanate of Oman, said, “This is a proud moment for Oman and a significant step towards delivering our 2040 Vision. In partnership with bp, we will progress the development of new, world-class solar and wind resources – generating renewable power for the grid and powering the manufacture of green hydrogen to supply domestic demand and to export to global customers. Over the past 50 years, we’ve advanced our hydrocarbon production. Today’s agreement signals the next step in our energy journey – unlocking the potential for Oman as a low-carbon energy hub”.

The UK’s Minister for Investment Lord Gerry Grimstone added, “Following the signing last week of the UK-Oman Sovereign Investment Partnership, this investment by bp into Oman’s renewable energy sector is a shining example of our countries’ joint ambition to facilitate strategic and commercial bilateral investment. The project demonstrates our shared vision for future prosperity through clean growth, further strengthening the partnership between the United Kingdom and the Sultanate of Oman”.

Under the SFA, bp and Oman will also consider ways to collaborate in a number of areas, including a renewables strategy, regulation, the establishment of a renewable energy hub and the development and reskilling of the local workforce.

Oman has a strong track record in the oil and gas industry, which it has grown over recent years. Today’s announcement, which is subject to final agreement of commercial terms, is an important step towards the country’s 2040 Vision and an opportunity to become a leading low-carbon energy hub. And it would further support the Oman government’s goals of diversifying the economy and bolstering investment. 

bp is committed to growing its business and building on its 15-year history in Oman, where it operates Block 61, which produces a third of the country’s gas demand. In 2020, bp’s Oman business spent US$610 million with Omani-registered companies – 90% of its total spending. And in 2021, bp joined Oman’s national hydrogen alliance, Hy-Fly, to promote the hydrogen industry in Oman, and established a net zero taskforce to help develop a ‘roadmap’ for bp in Oman.