BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Murray Auchincloss’ total compensation dropped to £5.36 million ($6.91 million) in 2024, about 30% less than the previous year, after the energy giant’s profits disappointed. The London-based company’s 2024 earnings results reported in February showed a steep drop in profits compared with the previous year. That set the stage for a subsequent strategic switch back to oil and gas after years of shifting away from fossil fuels, as it strives to catch up with rivals such as Shell Plc which were quicker to pivot back to core businesses. While Auchincloss saw his base salary rise to £1.45 million from £1.02 million, his share awards dropped to £2.75 million from £4.36 million, according to the annual report published on Thursday. His annual bonus was sharply reduced in his first full year as boss. Auchincloss is in the middle of a roadshow meeting with investors in London in the hope of enlisting support for the company’s new direction. Activist investor Elliott Investment Management, which had bought about 5% of the oil major, is ramping up pressure on the company’s management after the new strategy fell short of its expectations. BP’s shares have declined about 6% since the strategy announcement on Feb. 26.  BP chair Helge Lund is looking for new board members who can bring skills and experience that align with the company’s revised oil and gas-focused strategy, he said in the annual report. The board is particularly keen to recruit an oil and gas expert, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Grafton Group Chair Ian Tyler was appointed to BP’s board to lead the remuneration committee, the company said Thursday. Tyler is also a director at Anglo American Plc. BP’s previous strategy, unveiled in 2020, focused on shifting away from oil

Nexos bosses discussed how they have seen “less people applying” for apprenticeships in recent years at a Scottish Apprenticeships Week event. The Aberdeen-based engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm, formerly known as Global E&C, welcomed local skills and training organisations as well as a local MSP to its harbour-side facility in the Granite City to mark the weeklong celebration of trainees. Graeme Gray, fabrication director for Nexos, said: “Going back 10 years, if you advertised an apprentice position you would be in the hundreds of applicants, I think when these recent guys came on the programme there were no more than 50 to 60 applicants.” He added that his current batch of apprentices “are great” and that “there’s no talking away from the quality” of their work; however, “there are just less people applying”. This supports recent reports from the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB), which found that 71% of employers in the engineering construction industry have recruitment challenges of late. On the oil and gas sector specifically, the trade body said that it is “unlikely” that oil and gas will be able to replace its aging workforce with younger employees, according to current trends. Nexos employs between 10 and 12 apprentices each year and the firm’s managing director for offshore, Derek Mitchell, described them as “the people who will be driving our future”. ‘Immense’ job market pressures However, oil and gas is not the only sector experiencing these challenges, as MSP for Aberdeen Central Kevin Stewart MSP pointed out while visiting the Nexos facility. Stewart commented: “The pressure in the job market is so immense.” He said that the industry’s engagement with young people is left “too late” and that employers need to be speaking to younger children about opportunities out with university. “I think we should be

Ross Provan has been appointed as head of decommissioning solutions at Aberdeenshire firm Elemental Energies. Provan brings 18 years of projects and operational experience working with major global operators and contractors, with expertise spanning drilling, facilities engineering, subsea, project assurance, construction and decommissioning. In his new role, he will lead Elemental Energies’ focus on EPRD (engineering, preparation, removal and disposal) and the integration of services, including the existing wells decommissioning capabilities, across all areas of the decommissioning work breakdown structure (WBS). Elemental Energies has specialist teams across subsurface, wells and facilities with a track record managing large-scale platform plugging and abandonment(P&A), major subsea well decommissioning and integrated wells and facilities projects. The firm’s CEO, Mike Adams, commented: “With global offshore decommissioning spend projected to double over the next two decades, the need for integrated, cost-effective and innovative solutions is crucial. “We believe this approach to decommissioning presents significant opportunities for efficiencies, particularly when technical teams collaborate early in the process. “We have seen these benefits firsthand through our successful delivery of integrated wells and facilities scopes. “With Ross leading this key area, we are confident that his experience and expertise will help us to continue to drive innovation and efficiency in the decommissioning sector.” Last year saw Elemental Energies snap up Norwegian firm Well Expertise, giving it a turnover boost worth more than £50 million. © Supplied by BlueFloat EnergyBlueFloat Energy CEO Carlos Martin Rivals. Carlos Martin Rivals has stepped down as CEO of BlueFloat Energy. Writing on LinkedIn, he said: “After careful thinking, I’ve concluded that it is the right moment to turn the page on my role in the company I founded with the support from 547 Energy and Quantum Capital Group in 2020 and move forward to explore other opportunities. “It has been an amazing journey since

Ministers are considering cutting the budget of Labour’s flagship state-owned energy company GB Energy. GB Energy was originally promised a budget of £8.3 billion over the current five-year duration of parliament. However, October’s budget only included £100 million for the company’s first two years. A Financial Times report warned that the upcoming June spending review will likely see cuts to the budget. The move comes amid mounting pressure on the UK government as it looks to push defence spending against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a weakening US commitment to NATO. This means that every part of the budget could be subject to a “zero-based review”, with sources warning that every previous spending commitment could be under review. According to people familiar with the discussions, the Treasury could cut £3.3bn from its budget, including the portion previously earmarked for low-interest loans to cover projects such as rooftop solar and shared-ownership wind projects. A government spokesperson said: “We are fully committed to GB Energy, which is at the heart of our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower and to ensure homes are cheaper and cleaner to run.” However, neither the Treasury nor the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) have confirmed that GB Energy is still guaranteed the full £8.3bn of funding. While the exact remit of the company is still unknown, GB Energy was created to help accelerate the UK’s energy transition, most likely by taking stakes in projects such as offshore wind farms. However, the group’s chairman, Jurgen Maier, has previously said his long-term plan for the company is to create a UK Orsted. Maier’s claims that GB Energy could create 1,000 jobs have also been revised, with Maier clarifying that that figure would be over 20 years, with the next

In an EBW Analytics Group report sent to Rigzone on Friday by the EBW Analytics Group team, Eli Rubin, an energy analyst at the company, said bearish fundamentals are beginning to reassert influence over natural gas. “Yesterday’s bearish EIA [U.S. Energy Information Administration] storage report surprise is the latest in a cascade of bearish fundamental indicators over the past two weeks,” Rubin said in the report. “Mild March weather (with other widely followed meteorologists aligning with DTN’s warm forecast), weekly average natural gas production near year to date highs, LNG seasonally softening, and narrowing storage deficits suggest the potential for near to medium term price weakness,” Rubin added. Rubin highlighted in the report that the NYMEX front-month contract was up 46.8¢ since Friday “despite the bearish fundamental indicators”. “A loose supply/demand balance may be directed toward refilling storage deficits; storage east of the Rockies is 299 Bcf below five-year norms. Bullish price action in the face of soft near-term indicators remains impressive,” Rubin added. Rubin went on to note in the report that EBW Analytics Group “continue[s] to highlight a structurally bullish long-term outlook and a fundamentally loose spring”. “While upside price threats remain, receding momentum and soft fundamentals are increasing the likelihood of a near-term natural gas price retreat,” Rubin said. The EIA’s latest weekly natural gas storage report, which was released on March 6 and included data for the week ending February 28, stated that “working gas in storage was 1,760 billion cubic feet as of Friday, February 28, 2025, according to EIA estimates”. “This represents a net decrease of 80 billion cubic feet from the previous week. Stocks were 585 billion cubic feet less than last year at this time and 224 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 1,984 billion cubic feet,” it added. “At

Enbridge Inc. has earmarked an investment of up to CAD 2 billion ($1.39 billion) until 2028 for a Canada-United States liquids pipeline with a capacity of about 3 million barrels a day of crude oil. That will be spent on “further enhancing and sustaining reliability and efficiency aimed at ensuring the Mainline system continues to operate safely and at full capacity to support maximum throughput for years to come”, the Calgary, Canada-based energy transporter and gas utility said in an online statement. Mainline, which started service seven decades ago and has grown to be Canada’s biggest crude conveyor, carries production from the Canadian province of Alberta to eastern Canada and the U.S. Midwest. Besides petroleum, it also transports refined products and natural gas liquids. Mainline stretches nearly 8,600 miles, according to Enbridge. The optimization will “support the growing need for ratable egress out of Alberta”, said chief executive Greg Ebel. Enbridge also announced additional investments in two pipelines: CAD 400 million for the BC Pipeline and CAD 100 million for the T15 project. The investment for the BC Pipeline is for the Birch Grove project under the pipeline’s T-North section. Expected to raise the BC Pipeline’s capacity by 179 million cubic feet per day to about 3.7 billion cubic feet a day by 2028, the Birch Grove project will provide additional egress for gas producers in northeastern British Columbia to access markets for their growing production, driven by the Montney formation. The investment for T15 phase 2 is meant for the installment of additional compression to double the original pipeline’s capacity. Expected to go onstream 2027, the expanded pipeline will deliver around 510 million cubic feet a day of natural gas to Duke Energy Corp.’s Roxboro plant in North Carolina as it transitions from coal to gas-fired generation. The investments come despite President Donald Trump imposing tariffs