Latest news with #NorthSeaOil
Scottish Sun
14-05-2025
- Business
- Scottish Sun
We need our North Sea oil and gas to power the economy
'What is the point of these companies staying here if they're being taxed out of existence?' PLEA TO PM We need our North Sea oil and gas to power the economy THE future of the North Sea Oil industry hangs in the balance as the UK rushes toward Net Zero. However experts insist that even with renewable energy sources, we will still need oil and gas for decades to come. 4 North Sea Oil platforms. 4 Mike Tholen, policy director of Offshore Energies UK. 4 Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Prime Minister. North Sea Oil provides £20 billion a year in economic value to the UK but the Westminster Government has closed its consultation on the industry's future while another on the energy windfall tax closes later this month. Mike Tholen, policy director of Offshore Energies UK, pleads the case to help the our home grown oil industry before more jobs are lost forever. THE Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged his government would support jobs and families. Scotland's offshore energy family is in urgent need of that support right now. Last week alone hundreds of people were told they had lost their jobs. Harbour Energy in Aberdeen was forced to cut 250 onshore roles – a quarter of its workforce. Belmar Engineering, with 50 years of history supporting the UK global leading subsea industry, went into administration with the loss of more skilled jobs. There was further bad news when one of the world's biggest wind farm companies Orsted halted work on the Hornsea 4 wind farm in the sea off Humberside. They say they cannot make the sums add up. Warning lights are flashing but there is another path to our energy future. One that puts homegrown production at the heart of UK industry, supporting domestic oil and gas production alongside the build out of renewables. We need new oil and gas licences to show firms and the world the North Sea is open for business. That will also unlock more cash for companies to plough into renewable energy projects. We need to end the Energy Profits Levy - known as the windfall tax - which is driving away oil and gas producers that can't pay 78p in the pound in tax in a fiercely competitive world What is the point of these companies staying here if they're being taxed out of existence? Much better for them to move overseas. But that means the UK becomes even more dependent on imported energy which comes with a much higher carbon footprint. As the Prime Minister has said, the UK will continue to use oil and gas for decades to come. Our choice is whether we produce that oil and gas here or increasingly rely on imports. In an unpredictable world that is not the place to be. The North Sea remains a strategic national asset that has powered the UK economy and homes through oil and gas for half a century. Last year the UK imported almost 40 per cent of its total energy even though we still have significant untapped oil and gas reserves in the North Sea. Apart from these reserves we also have the second largest offshore wind capacity in the world and a pipeline of new opportunities. We have the geology to store more carbon dioxide under the North Sea than the country has produced since the industrial revolution. Building on these strengths, the UK is uniquely placed to support our energy future. But this is not the experience of many people working in our offshore energy sector and across industrial Britain. In recent weeks, my team and I have travelled across the country and spoken to hundreds of people in public meetings in Falkirk, Newcastle, and Humberside, as well as here in Aberdeen. These are communities dependent on the offshore energy industry. The message was clear - seeing UK industry shutting down to rely simply on imports is not the way forward. Yes, people want to see action on climate change, but they want that done in a way that supports jobs and value in our economy. And in a way that drives energy prices down. With practical policy, domestic energy production could support half of UK demand and add another £165billion of value to the UK economy, supporting jobs, and the very supply chain companies needed to build offshore wind, carbon storage, and hydrogen projects. This is not a black and white debate on one form of energy versus another. We reject the argument that it's wind electricity or oil and gas. The people of our industry and the public deserve better than that. We need all the homegrown energy we can get to keep the lights on, protect us from ever greater reliance on expensive imports and preserve the 200,000 plus jobs that depend on our sector. Our industry provides £20 billion a year in economic value to the UK. There are big decisions to be made by politicians. The UK Government just closed its consultation on building the North Sea's energy future. In a fortnight, another key consultation on the future of the Energy Profits Levy will close too. The UK's new industrial strategy is due for publication later this Spring. It is expected to focus on how better to manage energy production and use so industry has a fighting chance. We are on the brink of critical decisions which will impact hundreds of thousands of lives. For the future of our North Sea and for people and families across the UK, we must get this right. 4 North Sea Oil is worth £20 billion a year to the UK economy.
Scottish Sun
02-05-2025
- Health
- Scottish Sun
North Sea Oil worker who was ‘too fat for helicopter' sheds nearly half his weight
He said there was a turning point where he thought: 'This is enough.' 'UNBELIVEABLE' TRANSFORMATION North Sea Oil worker who was 'too fat for helicopter' sheds nearly half his weight Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A 26-STONE father-of-two who was regularly told he could not board a helicopter at work because of weight limits, has lost nearly half his body weight in an 'unbelievable' transformation. Dan Shilling, 39, an offshore electrical technician who lives in Norfolk, said he has always been 'overweight', but during the Covid-19 pandemic he reached his heaviest, 26st 1lbs (166kg). Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 8 Dan working offshore, before his weight loss Credit: Family Handouts/PA Real Life 8 He said he previously used to struggle to keep up with his daughter Betsy Credit: Family Handouts/PA Real Life 8 He was nicknamed 'Big Dan' because of his weight Credit: Family Handouts/PA Real Life Dan, who is 6ft tall, said he regularly found himself unable to board the helicopter to the offshore rig because of weight limits and was nicknamed 'Big Dan' by his friends and colleagues. After one day finding himself sweating and out of breath walking just 50 metres at work, he knew his lifestyle needed to change and he signed up to the Man v Fat sessions at his local football club. Since January 2024, Dan has lost 10st 9lbs (68kg) and now weighs 15st 6lbs (98kg), his clothes size has dropped from 4XL to XL and he has lost 10 inches from his waist. He said he feels 'loads better' and can now be a better partner to his girlfriend Emma and father to his two children – Betsy, five, and Elsie, four months. Dan told PA Real Life: 'I've actually got a folder on my phone, I've got an album called Fat Me. 'Looking back at everything from then to now, you realise how far you've come. I made a promise to myself that I would no longer be the heaviest person on the team Dan Shilling 'It's unbelievable. I still can't believe it myself.' Dan said he was 'always bigger' during his teenage years and, although he played sport, such as rugby, football and squash, he struggled with his weight. 'I wouldn't say I was fat as such, but I was always overweight,' he said. 'When I started working properly, I grew into my body, but I was still overweight.' I shed 6.5st taking weight loss jabs - but the best bit is my glowing skin makes me look 10 years younger During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dan was working on an oil platform west of the Shetland Islands and travelling to Aberdeen, meaning he was often away from home. While offshore he was eating the self-serve meals provided, which included a full English breakfast, bacon rolls, lasagne for lunch, biscuits and cake in the afternoon and shepherd's pie or steak for dinner. He said his exercise was 'non-existent' and his weight gradually increased – although he did not realise it at the time. 'While I'm offshore, if you don't eat at that time, you don't eat as such, so you feel like you have to,' he said. 'I didn't realise how big I was getting and, even though we weigh in – each time you come offshore, you weigh in because they need it for the helicopter weights – I wasn't registering that it was creeping up.' During this time, his partner Emma lost her father to cancer and Dan said he was subjected to workplace bullying. Looking back at everything from then to now, you realise how far you've come. It's unbelievable. I still can't believe it myself Dan Shilling He said 'everything that could go wrong was going wrong' and his mental health deteriorated. 'Being a typical man, instead of talking about my issues I spiralled and tried to find comfort in food, which led me to piling on the weight and becoming an unpleasant person,' he said. At this point, Dan said he was still eating the meals at work, along with 1,200-calorie Marabou chocolate bars every night, and he reached his heaviest weight of 26st 1lbs (166kg). After Emma told him 'a few home truths', Dan visited his GP and was diagnosed with depression and prescribed anti-depressants. 'I wasn't really there, I was just existing,' he said. In 2023, Dan found another job working on a gas platform in the East Irish Sea, flying out of Blackpool. 8 The dad of two at work, after losing weight Credit: Family Handouts/PA Real Life 8 Dan with his partner Emma and two children, Betsy and Elsie Credit: Family Handouts/PA Real Life 8 Dan has lost 68kg to date Credit: Family Handouts/PA Real Life With this new job his mood lifted and he was 'generally happier', but he said his weight became an issue and he was regularly being left behind because of helicopter weight limits. 'Where I'm working, we fly out each day and they have to be able to carry a certain amount of fuel, they call it the payload,' he explained. 'If I'm sat in the helicopter weighing 160 kilos, that's quite a lot of weight for the helicopter to have to carry, so I would quite often get left behind because I was the easy one to knock off the list.' One day in December 2023, Dan said he was going offshore and he was 'pouring with sweat and out of breath' walking just 50 metres from the terminal building to the helicopter. He said he found it difficult to fasten his seat belt in the helicopter and, at this point, he thought: 'This is enough.' He then signed up to Man v Fat Football Norwich West, along with the Couch to 5K programme, and made a commitment to change his life from January 2024 onwards. About 8,500 men currently take part at more than 150 Man v Fat Football clubs across the UK. 'I made a promise to myself that I would no longer be the heaviest person on the team,' Dan said. Dan also started counting his calories and monitoring his portions at work, and he focused on increasing his daily step count. Within the first three months, he said he lost 3st 4lbs (21kg) and, to date, he has lost nearly 11 stone. The exact time of day you need to eat if you want to lose weight SCIENTISTS previously agreed there is a link between what time you eat your last meal of the day and weight gain. But experts now have a better understanding about why. Sixteen participants with a BMI in the overweight or obese range underwent two six-day tests during which their eating and sleeping habits were tightly controlled. Throughout one, they ate three meals a day - breakfast at 9am, lunch at 1pm and dinner at 6pm. The other schedule saw the times shifted by several hours, so breakfast was at 1pm, dinner 6pm and supper at 9pm. Blood samples showed that when eating later, the participants' levels of leptin, the hormone that tells us when we're full, were lower across 24 hours. This suggested they were hungrier, so more likely to eat more, and calories were being burned at a slower rate. The research, by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, also found that eating later led to more fat being stored through adipogenesis. And the process that breaks fat down, known as lipolysis, was reduced. Combined, these changes can increase the risk of obesity, and therefore diabetes and cancer, the team warned. Dan now weighs about 15st 6lbs (98kg) and is able to wear clothes from when he was 20 years old again. 'I've still got some clothes from back then and I'm now wearing them again,' he said. 'I haven't had to buy a new wardrobe because I've still got my old one.' Dan has also taken up running and he plans to take part in the Rome Marathon 2026 to celebrate turning 40. While he still enjoys sweet treats and fast-food on occasion, he now has a healthier lifestyle and is no longer taking antidepressants. Asked for his advice to others, he said: 'Just stick to the basics – calories in versus calories out. That's all I've done. 'I'd be happy eating a KFC as long as I go for a run to cancel it out and I've got the calories spare.' Dan has been selected for Man v Fat Football's annual Amazing Losers match, which this year takes place at Leyton Orient's home ground in Brisbane Road, east London, on May 23. 8 Dan holding a certificate to highlight his weight loss percentage Credit: Family Handouts/PA Real Life
Daily Record
02-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Record
North Sea Oil worker who was 'too fat for helicopter' sheds nearly half his weight
After one day finding himself sweating and out of breath walking just 50 metres at work, he knew his lifestyle needed to change. A 26-stone North Sea Oil worker who was regularly told he could not board a helicopter at work because of weight limits, has lost nearly half his body weight in an 'unbelievable' transformation. Dan Shilling, 39, an offshore electrical technician who lives in Norfolk, said he has always been ' overweight ', but during the Covid-19 pandemic he reached his heaviest, 26st 1lbs. The father-of-two, who is 6ft tall, said he regularly found himself unable to board the helicopter to the offshore rig because of weight limits and was nicknamed 'Big Dan' by his friends and colleagues. After one day finding himself sweating and out of breath walking just 50 metres at work, he knew his lifestyle needed to change and he signed up to the Man v Fat sessions at his local football club. Since January 2024, Dan has lost 10st 9lbs and now weighs 15st 6lbs, his clothes size has dropped from 4XL to XL and he has lost 10 inches from his waist. He said he feels 'loads better ' and can now be a better partner to his girlfriend Emma and father to his two children – Betsy, five, and Elsie, four months. Dan said: 'I've actually got a folder on my phone, I've got an album called Fat Me. Looking back at everything from then to now, you realise how far you've come. It's unbelievable. I still can't believe it myself.' Dan said he was 'always bigger ' during his teenage years and, although he played sport, such as rugby, football and squash, he struggled with his weight. 'I wouldn't say I was fat as such, but I was always overweight,' he said. 'When I started working properly, I grew into my body, but I was still overweight.' During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dan was working on an oil platform west of the Shetland Islands and travelling to Aberdeen, meaning he was often away from home. While offshore he was eating the self-serve meals provided, which included a full English breakfast, bacon rolls, lasagne for lunch, biscuits and cake in the afternoon and shepherd's pie or steak for dinner. He said his exercise was 'non-existent' and his weight gradually increased – although he did not realise it at the time. 'While I'm offshore, if you don't eat at that time, you don't eat as such, so you feel like you have to,' he said. 'I didn't realise how big I was getting and, even though we weigh in – each time you come offshore, you weigh in because they need it for the helicopter weights – I wasn't registering that it was creeping up.' During this time, his partner Emma lost her father to cancer and Dan said he was subjected to workplace bullying. He said 'everything that could go wrong was going wrong' and his mental health deteriorated. 'Being a typical man, instead of talking about my issues I spiralled and tried to find comfort in food, which led me to piling on the weight and becoming an unpleasant person,' he said. At this point, Dan said he was still eating the meals at work, along with 1,200-calorie Marabou chocolate bars every night, and he reached his heaviest weight of 26st 1lbs. After Emma told him 'a few home truths ', Dan visited his GP and was diagnosed with depression and prescribed anti-depressants. 'I wasn't really there, I was just existing,' he said. In 2023, Dan found another job working on a gas platform in the East Irish Sea, flying out of Blackpool. With this new job his mood lifted and he was 'generally happier', but he said his weight became an issue and he was regularly being left behind because of helicopter weight limits. 'Where I'm working, we fly out each day and they have to be able to carry a certain amount of fuel, they call it the payload,' he explained. 'If I'm sat in the helicopter weighing 160 kilos, that's quite a lot of weight for the helicopter to have to carry, so I would quite often get left behind because I was the easy one to knock off the list.' One day in December 2023, Dan said he was going offshore and he was 'pouring with sweat and out of breath ' walking just 50 metres from the terminal building to the helicopter. He said he found it difficult to fasten his seat belt in the helicopter and, at this point, he thought: 'This is enough.' He then signed up to Man v Fat Football Norwich West, along with the Couch to 5K programme, and made a commitment to change his life from January 2024 onwards. He started counting his calories, monitoring his portions at work, focusing on increasing his daily step count and has taken up running and he plans to take part in the Rome Marathon 2026 to celebrate turning 40. Within the first three months, he said he lost 3st 4lbs and, to date, he has lost nearly 11 stone. Dan now weighs about 15st 6lbs and is able to wear clothes from when he was 20 years old again. He said: 'I made a promise to myself that I would no longer be the heaviest person on the team. 'I've still got some clothes from back then and I'm now wearing them again. I haven't had to buy a new wardrobe because I've still got my old one.' While he still enjoys sweet treats and fast-food on occasion, he now has a healthier lifestyle and is no longer taking antidepressants. Asked for his advice to others, he said: 'Just stick to the basics – calories in versus calories out. That's all I've done. I'd be happy eating a KFC as long as I go for a run to cancel it out and I've got the calories spare.' Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Report says 800 green jobs could be created at Grangemouth
A long-awaited report says up to 800 jobs could be created over the next 15 years at the Grangemouth site, where the UK's oldest oil refinery is set to close. The Project Willow study, which was funded by the Scottish and UK governments, sets out nine areas for potential private investment in green industries. It says jobs could be created in areas like sustainable aviation fuel, hydrogen production and plastics recycling. Owner Petroineos is shutting the loss-making refinery at the sprawling industrial complex on the Firth of Forth with the loss of 400 jobs. The report, by consultants EY, lists nine potential uses for the wider site, which employs around 2,000 people. About 480 jobs could be created with the manufacture of e-methanol for jet fuel and e-ammonia for shipping - but that would require £6.6bn of private investment and would not be operational until around 2035, the report said. Plastics recycling could be done much sooner, within five years, at a cost of about £600m. It is estimated around 250 jobs could be created. The report called on the UK government to bring forward market reforms of the electricity sector to bring down the cost of hydrogen production. Ministers should also encourage farmers to focus on plant-based products which can be turned into fuels, it said. Although we've waited months for this, Project Willow is just the starting gun being fired on what could happen to Grangemouth. Matching the ambition and the reality is not an easy job. In fact it's never really been achieved before. But among the big companies which operate on this huge industrial complex there is a renewed sense of optimism because governments are now engaging with them seriously on what could be achieved. The report sets out the options but it still requires billions of pounds in private cash. Decisions on whether to spend that money have to be done with an assurance of a return on that investment. Moving operations to other parts of the world, like the Middle East, the US and Australia, look like more favourable options at the minute. What both governments do next will be crucial. Cheaper renewable electricity and regulator reform are two key areas identified for change. The report talks about 800 potential new jobs but this whole town relies on a green industry developing at Grangemouth, so this will be a key test in whether a just and fair transition can ever truly be achieved. The Grangemouth oil refinery, the only such plant in Scotland, was established in 1924 by Scottish Oils, a subsidiary of the Anglo Persian Oil Company which was the forerunner of BP. After World War Two the site developed into a wider petro-chemical complex and from the 1970s it handled increasing quantities of North Sea Oil brought south by the Forties pipeline system. But in 2020, the refinery's current owners Petroineos, a joint venture between Ineos and PetroChina, mothballed some facilities, blaming reduced demand for road and jet fuels. In November 2023, the firm announced plans to shut the refinery completely, replacing it with a fuels import terminal. Grangemouth: A new dawn for the home of UK's oldest oil refinery? PM announces £200m Grangemouth site support fund Swinney pledges £25m for Grangemouth site
