The Salamander floating offshore wind farm celebrated having received planning permission in principle for its onshore works in “record time” . The developers submitted the onshore application to Aberdeenshire Council in August last year, laying out plans for a site roughly 1.2 miles (2km) north of Peterhead for infrastructure including the substation, a 50MW battery storage facility and the onshore export cables. A second application was also made to the Energy Consents Unit of the Scottish government for the wind farm’s energy balancing infrastructure, which includes the battery. This has been validated and is progressing through the assessment process. Salamander project director Hugh Yendole said: “We are incredibly proud to have secured an almost-unheard-of unanimous approval in record time – only seven months after submission. We have achieved a number of significant ‘firsts’ with this consent – the first combined onshore substation and battery consent and the first consent of any of the innovation projects awarded exclusivity agreements under INTOG. “It is also worth noting that the joint venture team that delivered this consent did so under somewhat challenging conditions, especially differentiating Salamander’s low-impact grid connection from the profusion of GW-scale infrastructure that is planned.” © Supplied by Big PartnershipA map showing the location of the planned Salamander floating offshore wind project. The 100MW project is being developed by Ørsted, Simply Blue Group and Subsea7, and will install up to seven wind turbines on floating foundations in water 21.75 miles (35km) off Peterhead. The project also submitted its offshore consent application in May and is awaiting approval from Scottish Ministers – this would pave the way to develop the project’s offshore components. Salamander was a successful innovation bidder in Crown Estate Scotland’s innovation and targeted oil and gas (INTOG) leasing round. The application envisions onshore construction starting in January 2027 at

In an exclusive studio interview, James Armstrong, co-founder and managing partner of investment manager Bluefield Partners, discusses how the solar investor’s evolving business model has been a “big driver” of shareholder performance. The prospect of zonal pricing does not worry Armstrong, who said it is unlikely to happen “overnight” with much of the FTSE 250 listed trust’s portfolio being in the southern half of England and Wales. According to Armstrong, investing at the development stage through to operation has contributed to shareholder performance. This is in spite of the major headwind that has faced listed investment trusts in the past few years: the fact that most trade at a discount to the underlying net asset value of the portfolio – primarily as a result of rising interest prices. Bluefield started assembling development-stage projects at least five years ago on the basis that contracts for difference linked assets, such as the Yelvertoft solar farm, would gradually replace assets in the portfolio under the former Renewables Obligation subsidy. Last year, it partnered with £4.1 billion infrastructure investment fund GLIL Infrastructure, which invests on behalf of local authority groups, to expand on this strategy.

Aberdeen’s Ashtead Technology sees ample opportunities to drive its campaign of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the near future. Speaking to Energy Voice, Ashtead chief strategy and marketing officer Colin Ross said: “If you look at the wider market, we see no shortage of opportunities to continue to explore M&A in the year ahead.” Ashtead Technology has been on the acquisition trail since 2017, adding nine companies in the past seven years. It acquired WeSubsea and Hiretech in late 2022, ACE Winches in November 2023, and Seatronics and J2 Subsea in November 2024. These acquisitions “have been tremendously important for our business, great opportunities to grow and scale, to bring in talent to broaden our offering and really build a stronger business with more capability to serve our customers in a really effective way,” Ross said. Back in 2024, after announcing the company’s full-year results for 2023, CEO Allan Pirie said that he saw an opportunity to grow the company by “consolidating a fragmented market”. A year on and the Scottish energy services sector has seen two major movements in the M&A space in a matter of weeks. US fund manager Apollo snapped up Aberdeen-based offshore energy services group OEG Group in a deal that valued the firm at more than $1 billion (£770m). It will take an unspecified majority stake in the group, leaving its former owner, Los Angeles-based Oaktree, with a small minority stake. In addition, the future of services group Wood was thrown into doubt as Dubai-based Sidara revived its takeover bid for the company. Sidara abandoned its previous attempts to buy the company in August after offering 230p per share. Since then, Wood’s share price has fallen considerably, with the company extending the deadline for Sidara to make a final offer for the Aberdeen-based services company.

Scotland generated a record amount of energy from renewables last year – with data also showing the electricity generated north of the border helped power the rest of the UK. Renewable sources such as onshore and offshore wind, hydro power and solar generated a total of 38.4TWh of electricity in 2025 – an increase of 13.2% on the previous year and 8.4% higher than the previous peak of 35.5TWh, which was recorded in 2022. The majority of energy was produced by wind technology, with onshore and offshore wind projects generating 30.1TWh, the data, which was published by the Scottish Government, showed. Meanwhile, hydro power generated 5.2TWh, solar produced 0.6TWh and other forms of renewables resulted in 2.6TWh of electricity. The report also revealed: “Scotland continues to generate more electricity than it needs. In 2024, there was 19.7TWh of net electricity exports to other UK nations.” The report also said Scotland’s capacity to produce electricity from renewable sources had “increased substantially over the past 10 years”. In 2024 alone, capacity increased by 14.3% to stand at 17.6GW, compared to 15.4GW in 2023. As of the end of 2024 a total of 904 further electricity projects were being planned, with a combined capacity of 65.4GW. These included 640 projects for energy generation, with an estimated capacity of 37.5GW, along with 264 electricity storage projects, with an estimated capacity of 27.9GW. Environmental campaigners at Friends of the Earth Scotland said the figures gave a “glimpse of what’s possible for Scotland”. Speaking about the “positive renewable energy statistics,” head of campaigns Caroline Rance said: “The benefits of renewables are huge, but they are not yet sufficiently reaching our communities and the workers who are responsible for their deployment, whether that is due to manufacturing taking place overseas or big business sucking up all the

Kolibri Global Energy Inc. has reported a 6 percent decline in net income from $19.3 million for 2023 to $18.1 million for 2024. The company linked the decrease to a reduced unrealized gain in commodity contracts for 2024. Increased revenue was counterbalanced by higher operating costs and elevated income taxes, along with an uptick in general and administrative expenses, primarily due to the company’s NASDAQ listing, and interest expenses, Kolibri said in a media release. Net revenues for 2024 were $58.5 million, up 16 percent compared to 2023 primarily due to 24 percent higher production. In 2024, Kolibri’s average production reached 3,478 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), up 24 percent compared to the 2,796 boepd produced in 2023 and in line with guidance. This growth is attributed to output from wells drilled and completed during 2024. The company posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $44 million, up 13 percent from the $39.1 million reported for 2023. “We are pleased with the continued production and cash flow growth of the Company in 2024. We were able to meet our forecasted guidance in revenue and adjusted EBITDA even though actual prices were lower than the price used in our forecast”, Wolf Regener, Kolibri’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said. “The Company increased production by 24 percent, which was in line with our forecast, while only spending $31.3 million on capital expenditures, which was less than we had forecasted and a 41 percent decrease from the prior year. The cost efficiencies that our field operations team has achieved have allowed us to continue to grow production and revenue and drill 50 percent longer laterals while spending 12 percent less per well than we had forecast to spend in our 2023 drilling program”, Regener said. Regener anticipates continued

Cnooc Ltd. posted higher annual earnings and boosted its dividend, as growth in energy output offset weaker prices. Net income rose to 137.9 billion yuan ($19 billion) in 2024, from 123.9 billion yuan the previous year, China’s largest offshore oil-and-gas driller said in a filing. While that missed expectations of 144.6 billion yuan, and was shy of the record profit in 2022, the full-year dividend rose 12% to HK$1.40 (18 cents). Output expanded to 726.8 million barrels of oil equivalent, from 678 million barrels a year earlier, with overseas growth led by supplies from Guyana. The state-owned company has led Beijing’s efforts to enhance energy security and its operations have now delivered a sixth year of record production.  Cnooc’s focus on extraction leaves its earnings heavily dependent on global oil prices, which averaged about 3% less in 2024 on-year. But it also means the company is relatively unaffected by headwinds to demand faced by downstream peers. Earlier this week, China’s biggest top, Sinopec, reported a tumble in profits as the electric-vehicle boom weighs on fuel consumption. At this point, the company will stick to its three-year output targets through to 2027, including a push to increase gas production, Vice Chairman Zhou Xinhuai said at a briefing. Among its overseas interests, Cnooc and Exxon Mobil Corp. have merged their arbitration claims against Chevron Corp.’s proposed takeover of Hess Corp., a deal that would allow the US oil supermajor to enter Guyana’s Stabroek Block. A first tribunal hearing is due in May. PetroChina Co. — the country’s largest oil and gas company, whose operations straddle drilling, refining and retail — reports earnings on Sunday. China’s energy giants are increasingly looking to natural gas to drive growth, although domestic prices have stumbled recently due a slowing economy and plethora of supply options, from domestic fields and gas