Wings Over Scotland

Doug,
It’s the campaign of fear & confusion. It’s a dangerous game to play as fear often leads to irrational behaviour. They are confusing their small core of No voters as well as the undecided.
 
It’s entirely feasable that these people will vote Yes due to the Bitter Together crowd’s scaremongering campaign.
 
I would go as far as saying it’s emotional terrorism (am I allowed to use that term Stu?).

When in doubt, follow the money.
 
When companies throw hundreds of millions of pounds into development and infrastructure it kinda gives the game away as to who’s telling the truth. Very much a case of putting their money where their mouth is.
 
link to scottish-enterprise.com

UK Govt yesterday announced that North Sea Oil has a future WELL BEYOND 2055.
So that’s well beyond 42 years. Love the well behond quote. It’s like someone with £1m in a bank account saying he’s got well in excess of £10,000. Not being dishonest but not providing the full account.

If consecutive Tory and Labour governments have been prepared to lie about the oil so many times in the past, then how can you trust a Tory/Labour government not to lie about the oil now?
 
Come on – once bitten twice shy.

They desperately need Scotland’s resources.
 
43% of England’s energy came from abroad last year.
 
link to dailymail.co.uk…
 
We’re sitting on top of millions of tonnes of coal yet England imports it to meet its energy needs. You couldn’t make this up.

If I’d known you were going to post such an article today Rev, I’d have waited a few hours. Shall add the post again here.

link to bbc.co.uk

Trapoil outlines North Sea fracking plans

In a statement accompanying its annual results, Trapoil said: “The amount of oil potentially held in tight reservoirs is equal to, or probably greater than, all of the oil produced to date from the UK North Sea.

The concerns over onshore fracking (groundwater supply contamination, small seismic disturbances) are not specifically applicable to the deeper offshore environment. In fact the oil and gas involved is in many ways just the same as that already being produced; just has not migrated into higher porosity/permeability formations where it’s easy to get at.

This is normal in hydrocarbon-rich basins, i.e. most oil/gas remains in situ or close to source rocks. Takes a special set of circumstances for it to migrate into handy little ‘pools’ in nice porous/permeable sandstones where you just need to stick a well in and it gushes out.
  

The Honourable Pathetics wouldn’t lie to us. Or would they?

I believe that Dr. Robert MacIntyre once received a letter from Ted Heath in the mid 70’s saying that it was unlikely that the value of recoverable oil in the North Sea was unlikely to exceed £800 million.  

Flaring off from the top of the derrick while hanging a crane hook from the flare boom. With a jib-less crane at the other end of the platform. Interesting.
 
Mind you, it’s just as well they don’t light up that flare with the accommodation so close and all.

I must admit there does indeed appear to be a hell of a lot of uncertainty about the future of Scotland’s oil. The only problem though is that the uncertainty does not exist amongst Scotland’s forward looking electorate, it ONLY exists in the petty mind sets of Westminster politicians and their lap dogs of the Better together crowd! 😆

Holebender

s_s don’t forget limestone reservoirs (which are especially suitable for fracking).

Big carbonate reservoir research group where I work; really hot topic with a lot of industry money being invested. As I believe I’ve said before, my main area is from the wellhead onwards; flow assurance mainly (specialist in gas hydrates and KHIs).

This area is also crucial factor in making smaller, marginal fields profitable and extending the life of existing fields post water breakthrough / during pressure decline.

@Slaughterhouse.

All possible yes, but you’d need to be really careful about just trying to dive in an ‘grab’ stuff where there are existing contracts. Could put off investors.

What you can do perfectly reasonably though is take a sizeable or controlling share in all new developments or existing ones when they go on the open market (Norwegian government do this through Statoil which is 60% state owned).

That means you need to inject some cash but then you get a share of the profits too. In addition, crucially, you have much more control over your own resources/supply from them.

@Horacesaysyes
 
My father was 32 years with BP and back in 79-80 I spent a year with them myself before finding myself on Maggie’s 4mil club. We both still keep an eye on the industry. I rarely if ever believe the dailys when it comes to the oil industry. Just check out govt projections check with a few company sites and hey presto picture formed. The fact that Dana, Shell, BP, Statoil and a few others have started to spend some serious cash is a bit of a heads up. 

Slaughterhouse said : “Would an indepedent Scotland be able to nationalise and/or renegotiate drilling licenses without risk of legal action from oil companies?”

Given the historical precedents, I’d be more worried about hostile action from MI6 and the CIA. 🙂

They throw a fit if anybody tries to nationalise anything anywhere, especially when it comes to oil rights.

Energy resources must NOT be allowed to benefit the people of the country they belong to – it is a natural law that they are always the rightful property of multinational British and American corporations… unless the Russians or Chinese get there first.

Not really sure why Norway’s been left alone so long by the global wrecking crew.

Honestly, though, I don’t know. It would certainly be something worth looking into, and scottish_skier makes a much more sensible point than me, namely that it would be a good idea for the government to set about getting a controlling share in any new wells post-independence.

It would be good to see posters up and down the country :
 
‘It IS Scotland’s Oil.
  Copyright  Vince Cable March 2013 

It appears that Conlibs are scrapping the Oil and Gas Division of the HSE formed in response to recommendations in Cullen’s report into the Piper Alpha disaster. Most of the inspectors are based in Aberdeen no doubt whats left will be relocated south of the border

This from the NY times article in Stu’s links …
 
Ms. Wexelstein, the analyst at Wood Mackenzie*, says the industry is likely to invest $70 billion in Britain from 2012 to 2016 — the most, even accounting for inflation, since the 1970s.
“We are expecting the decline in liquids production to halt [in the North Sea] and gas production to rise, “ Ms. Wexelstein says.
Rather than abandon Britain, the industry appears to be shifting into a new phase. The major producers are shedding smaller depleted fields and moving north, though the central North Sea off Scotland will likely remain the key producer for a longtime.
 
*from their website … Wood Mackenzie is the most comprehensive source of knowledge about the world’s energy and metals industries.

Does anyone think it would be a good idea for the Yes campaign to send a copy of the McCrone report to every household in Scotland?  I think many people in Scotland still do not know about it due to the media and their ‘style’ of reporting.

One of the main choices in the referendum is whether we are going to vote to take control over our natural resources to build a better society in Scotland.  Vote Yes for control over our natural resources, vote No for continued economic exploitation (mostly at the hands of fucking Tories and their Red Tory buddies), while at the same time being labelled “subsidy junkies”! 

Although probably badly in need of an overall update this website nevertheless gives an informative insight.
 
link to oilofscotland.org
 
 

@mutley79 -“Does anyone think it would be a good idea for the Yes campaign to send a copy of the McCrone report to every household in Scotland?  I think many people in Scotland still do not know about it due to the media and their ‘style’ of reporting.”
I think this is an excellent idea but with an update on the current situation from an independent source e.g. Oil and Gas UK, Professor Alex Kemp (University of Aberdeen).  I would say that the vast majority of the people of Scotland have never heard of the McCrone Report. If they had and they knew it has been kept Top Secret by the UK Government for 30 years, we would have been independent by now.

I wonder how long it will be before the NO’s change tactics and tell the truth?
“OK, we admit Scotland would be better off independent, but please stay. Pretty pretty please stay. Us Unionists MP’s and MSP’s have egos and familys to feed. And multiple properties in London to finance. Please, pretty please don’t force us to live in the real world.”

Would you allow a Westminster establishment which has racked up more than £1.4 Trillion of debt to “manage” your precious oil resources ?
 
The UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey is reported to have said: “Only the UK can deliver what is required over a sustained period if you are going to get the most out of the oil and gas industry. The UK is a large economy – that is why we can provide the support. Smaller economies have difficulty absorbing the costs. The size of the UK economy can really create the framework and certainty.” and “A bigger country is better at absorbing shocks — it’s simple logic. A modest change has a significant impact on GDP — in a country 10 times smaller, the shock would be proportionally bigger. We need to remember that when we’re debating this sensitive issue.”
 
So putting all your eggs in one basket by de-industrialising and basing your economy entirely on the quicksands of financial services is all right then? I think not.
 
According to the Westminster Lab/Tory/Lib party argument then no natural resources would belong to any single country but have to be given over to the EU or some world government instead!
 
What other country in the world votes for an arrangement where they hand over all the revenues from a natural resource within their territorial waters that will probably last for another 100 years, to another government that misspends at will and financially punishes the poorest and weakest in the donor country, whilst it gives the donor country only 9% of these revenues back?

Re Fracking at Airth, NNS have an article regarding renewed fears.  I’ve posted the FOI link there.

Another thought provoking article, but – ye left  Denis ‘we lied about the oil’ Healey out of your list!

We are OFT (oil field trash), our living comes from working in O&G sector. Local North East folk have acquired expertise in this extremely dangerous industry, we sell our skills worldwide, and yet, WM has the gall to tell us that WE won’t be able to manage this resource and the industry exploiting it, so we should let them continue to exploit us!

I learned to ignore a well-connected Arab in his Lexus Landcruiser, one cm off my bumper, flashing his headlights, trying to force me to make way for him, SO a well-connected Old Etonian politician, in my face, flashing his English majority trying to make me give up my sovereignty is not going to cut it.

The very thought that they even think to allow Fracking in the Central belt of Scotland scares the hell out of me. We have been mining underneath our cities and towns for over 300 years. Can you imagine the devastation fracking could cause, building and roads collapsing underneath you as you walk. Perhaps a great tory idea to get rid of us Scots, If you can’t breed them out, undermine them (seems they want to undermine our self esteem, and our towns). Oil will probably last for another century and that is great so long as we use it to build our infrastructure and invest in our inventors and entrepreneurs, nothing lasts forever, but as a small country we will be able to adapt and change in ways that the UK never could or want to.

link to bbc.com