Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

17 February 2015

	Sound oil given permission for second well at Nervesa gas discovery Sound Oil has received a nod from the Italian government to drill a new well at the country's Nervesa gas discovery. The oil and gas firm - which focuses on Europe and the Mediterranean for its work - has received drilling authorisation for a second well in the Carita licence

	Industry to focus on oil spill prevention in Dutch capital Oil spill response will be the focus of an oil and gas industry conference in the Netherlands next month. The Inerspill conference and exhibition in Amsterdam will run from March 24 to 26 and will reaffirm the importance of maintaining a focus in the event of such incidents

	Subsea business goes into administration Highland firm Mackellar Sub-Sea has gone into administration. The company, which employs 97 full and part-time staff, is based in Grantown-on-Spey. There have not been any immediate redundancies and administrators said they believed the business remained "viable" despite losses on a number of contracts

	Subsea Expo 2015: Safety testing technology launched Paradigm Flow Services demonstrated their latest technology to delegates at Subsea Expo in Aberdeen. The company created the groundbreaking technology, Flexi-coil, which is an industry first in riser and flowline blockage remediation

	Worker on North Sea platform exposed to radiation An investigation has been launched after a North Sea worker was exposed to radiation. The incident happened 145 miles east of Aberdeen on the Lomond Installation

	Sturgeon pledges to protect Scots oil and gas sector Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Cabinet spoke yesterday of the importance of protecting the north-east's oil and gas “success story" at a question and answer evening in Aberdeen

	North Sea bosses say union strike threat is 'premature' A North Sea employers’ body has dismissed a possible strike threat by unions as “premature”. Talks between the Unite and GMB unions and the Offshore Contractors Association (OCA), which represents employers, broke down last Friday over proposed changes to rotations and holiday entitlement

	Chevron settles fraudulent lawsuit The principal funder of a fraudulent lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador has reached a settlement agreement with the oil major. James Russell DeLeon has withdrawn financial support from the Ecuador litigation and as a result Chevron has agreed to release all claims against him

	Emergency declared in West Virginia counties on CSX derailment An oil train with 109 cars derailed near a West Virginia town Monday, causing as many as 15 tankers to catch fire and a state of emergency to be declared in two counties

	Wood Group profits rise as it reduces costs for 2015 by more than $30million Wood Group will reduce costs by more than $30million this year in light of the declining oil price. The company said it will keep a tight rein on costs and apply "tougher filters" to potential acquisitions

	Sanctions don’t bar oil-service giants bidding in Russian Arctic US and European suppliers to the oil industry are still able to seek work in Russia’s Arctic despite sanctions designed to limit their involvement because the rules don’t apply to foreign subsidiaries

	Australian LNG output cuts seen long-term amid gas shortage A shortage of coal-seam gas, needed to feed about $60 billion of export projects in eastern Australia, may prompt the developers to reduce shipments in the long term, according to Credit Suisse Group AG

	Second union raises prospect of industrial action A second union has raised the prospect of industrial action by North Sea workers, accusing oil companies and contractors of “blatant opportunism” amid falling prices

	Scottish hydro-electric power scheme given cash boost from UK government A hydro-electric power scheme near Crianlarich will be the first beneficiary of a £60million fund for community-scale renewables projects across the UK

	North Sea boss upbeat about prospects for the UK oil and gas industry Apache North Sea boss Jim House insists the UK oil and gas industry still has a bright future but he has also joined the growing clamour for Chancellor George Osborne to usher in new tax breaks