The Port of Aberdeen boosted turnover by 10.5% to £50.7 million in 2024, despite headwinds facing the energy sector. Chief executive Bob Sanguinetti said that, with the right policy and investment support, the UK’s oldest port “can become an international hub for offshore wind”. He said the energy market has shifted due to the impact of the North Sea windfall tax, AKA the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) on oil and gas operators’ profits. Services firm DeepOcean decommissioned the North Sea’s largest subsea isolation valve – a 440 tonne safety device used in oil and gas operations located next to BP’s Miller oil field – offloading it onto a quay at the port’s South Harbour in 2024. However, Sanguinetti warned that consenting delays to offshore wind projects are hampering the energy transition. “While this new operational landscape is exciting, it also remains uncertain, and this uncertainty shapes our outlook for 2025 and beyond,” he said. “While our foundations are strong, the market is changing. Oil and gas activity – which accounts for almost two thirds of our revenue – is being impacted by the EPL and wavering investor confidence, while delays to consenting and grid connections are affecting timelines for offshore wind.” The Port of Aberdeen said in a statement that revenue performance and “careful cost management” drove growth in its full year of operations after opening the £420 million Aberdeen South Harbour in September 2023. The number of vessels arriving at the port rose by 2.6% to 7,128 in 2024. Passenger numbers rose by 2.8% during the period to 207,317, as the port said its diversification strategy across energy, trade and tourism “continued apace” in 2024. Cruise traffic was more than one million gross tonnes of vessel throughput, bringing 24,000 guests to the region. This came as the port increased

In case you missed it, the Department of Energy issued a notice to Harvard University this week terminating approximately $89 million in grant funding from DOE’s Office of Science and Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy due to the University’s policy of racial discrimination. This cancellation from DOE resulted in an immediate savings of $7 million to the American taxpayer and was issued in coordination with the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism’s letter to Harvard University announcing the termination of $450 million in grants from eight government agencies in addition to $2.2 billion that was previously frozen by the Trump Administration. Excerpts of DOE’s letters to Harvard President Dr. Alan Garber are below: DOE understands that Harvard University (Harvard) continues to engage in race discrimination, including in its admission process, and in other areas of student life, such as access to the Law Review at Harvard Law School. We are also aware of recent events at Harvard involving antisemitic action that suggest the institution has a disturbing lack of concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students. Harvard’s ongoing inaction in the face of repeated and severe harassment and targeting of Jewish students has ground day-to-day campus operations to a halt, deprived Jewish students of learning and research opportunities to which they are entitled, and brought shame upon the University and our nation as a whole. Indeed, as the Harvard Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias concluded, actions at Harvard during the 2023-2024 academic year resulted in widespread abuse of Jewish and Israeli students by an institution “that mainstreamed and normalized what many Jewish and Israeli students experience as antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias.” DOE maintains a firm policy of not supporting entities, individuals or actions that engage in discrimination or which promote and condone, by action or

During Mental Health Awareness Week, the International Association of Drilling Contractors’ (IADC) boss Darren Sutherland offered advice for employers to support energy workers during a turbulent time for the industry. Speaking at the All-Energy conference in Glasgow, Sutherland addressed recent industry tensions. “We are facing difficult times, especially in the oil and gas sector, and now renewables are starting to see headwinds as well,” the IADC North Sea Chapter vice chair said. His words came soon after the announcement of mass job cuts at Harbour Energy, financial difficulties for Aberdeen’s major service firms, businesses closing their doors, and a trend of North Sea players merging their UK operations. “I think the key thing is communication,” Sutherland continued, adding “people have a higher propensity for the truth than we give them credit for”. “Open communication from leadership about what’s happening and what’s going on is definitely key.” He spoke about the importance of “having that space for people to be able to speak and talk through their challenges” as they grapple with the impacts of the uncertainty facing the energy industry. “Then again, the other thing that we need to be doing is preparing our workforces for these future challenges,” Sutherland explained. He touched on the importance of ensuring workers are prepared for the worst case scenario. He asked attendees at the ‘Challenges and Successes of Addressing Mental Health in the Energy Industry’ panel how many of them had spoken with a financial adviser. “I’m not talking about your company budget, I’m talking about your bank funds,” Sutherland said. One member of the audience, and Sutherland’s fellow speaker, Alex Morton, of the Marine Safety Forum, raised their hands. He explained that during a time of peak inflation, his business brought in a financial adviser. “It’s about giving back some of those

Dive Brief: NuScale Power is in advanced discussions with several potential customers for its small modular reactor technology and could deliver an operating power plant in 2030 “if we get closure on a deal here soon,” CEO John Hopkins said Monday during a first-quarter earnings call. NuScale remains on track for an expected July approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its uprated 77-MW electric design, the company said in a news release Monday. Manufacturing partner Doosan has 12 NuScale modules in production now and could deliver 20 per year as orders materialize, Hopkins said. NuScale envisions four-, six- and 12-module deployments, with plant outputs ranging from 308 MWe to 924 MWe. Dive Insight: NuScale continues front-end engineering work as a subcontractor for Fluor Corporation’s 462-MWe power plant project in Romania, but has yet to finalize a module supply deal of its own. That could change soon, Hopkins suggested Monday, previewing a visit with executives from a prospective customer next month to Doosan’s module forging plant in South Korea.  “Our focus right now is to get closure on near-term contracts. We are no longer chasing or announcing [memoranda of understanding],” he said. “We’re actually in the process of submitting and negotiating term sheets. We’ve got customers that [want] to … touch steel.” Possible early power customers include large data center operators, other heavy industrial customers and utilities, NuScale said in the Monday news release.  Any deal would involve multiple parties, NuScale Chief Financial Officer Ramsey Hamady said Monday. The module buyer would likely be a power plant operator, which would work with an offtaker, probably a “tier one data center or AI developer,” he said. Other parties could include a site operator, such as a utility, along with capital partners and NuScale’s exclusive plant development partner, ENTRA1. NuScale’s focus

Dive Brief: Repealing technology-neutral clean energy tax credits would raise the cost of energy for consumers and industry across 19 states from 2026 to 2032 by increasing reliance on natural gas generation sources that have constrained availability, according to a new study released Thursday by the Clean Energy Buyers Association. Republicans in Congress have targeted the tax credits for early phase-out as they seek to fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to extend certain tax cuts and repeal clean energy incentives the president has derided as a “scam.” The study found that energy-intensive sectors such as iron and steel, chemicals, cement, aluminum and nonferrous metals would be hardest hit. Dive Insight: CEBA’s members include many of the technology giants, such as Amazon, Google and Meta, whose data centers and AI models are largely driving the increase in electricity demand.  “They are very concerned that if we don’t handle this rising electricity demand in a very, very responsible way, that we’re going to see very high electricity price increases both for our own businesses and for our customers,” CEBA CEO Rich Powell said in an interview. He said many CEBA member companies are in “growth mode,” pouring huge investments into building new technology, manufacturing and retail sites.  “Anything that destabilizes the electricity system right now, and the economics of the electricity system, could be really difficult for our businesses,” he added.  The study, which NERA Economic Consulting conducted for CEBA, modeled the state-level electricity market outlooks assuming incremental electricity demand from the growth of data centers under two scenarios, with and without the federal investment and production tax incentives. It also provided a breakdown of projected cost increases in certain states.  Seven of the 19 states would see double-digit percentage increases in average household and business electricity prices in the 2026-2032 period, according to the study.

The UK missed out on potentially £3.5 billion of investment by choosing the stalled Hornsea 4 wind farm over other projects in the last capacity auction. The UK government’s head of Mission Control for clean energy Chris Stark told the audience at All Energy: “Ørsted’s decision to delay Hornsea 4 despite securing a contract for difference (CfD) last year is a blow for us, particularly because it displaced other very good projects that would otherwise be in full development right now.” Speaking during the opening plenary alongside Stark, RWE UK country chair Tom Glover added that RWE’s projects were among those not selected in allocation round 6 (AR6), when Hornsea received its CfD. “I have massive sympathy with Ørsted,” he said. “But it was actually some of RWE projects that weren’t successful. “As a result, there would have been £7-8 billion of money that could have come to the UK 12 months ago, and for every pound I spend, roughly 50p ends up in the UK. “So we’re talking about £3.5bn that we could have had in the UK for 12 months that hasn’t been deployed. You’ve got investors with money ready to go and we’re not deploying it.” © Supplied by All-EnergyChris Stark, head of Mission Control for Clean Power 2030. Global headwinds Danish developer Ørsted announced this month that it would discontinue construction on its landmark 2.4GW Hornsea 4 offshore wind farm in what was viewed in some quarters as a blow to the UK’s net zero targets. Despite having received a contract for its power, the company said that “several adverse developments” such as increasing supply chain costs, higher interest rates, and an increase in the risk to construct and operate the project, had eroded the project’s financial case. Stark noted that Ørsted’s decision reflects “the reality