Monthly Archives: August 2012

Second NZ oil basin could create 5,500 jobs

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Developing another oil and gas basin in New Zealand could grow exports by $1.5 billion a year and create a further 5,500 oil jobs, according to a Government report.

A new paper released today by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) looked at the potential benefits of oil and gas in terms of export growth, GDP growth, Government revenue and regional development opportunities.

New Zealand currently had only one producing petroleum basin in Taranaki.

Developing a second could have major outcomes for the country, said Simon Lawrence, MBIE manager of resources.

“Exports could grow by $1.5 billion per annum, royalty payments increase by $320 million per annum, and a further 5,500 jobs created,” he said.

A new basin could also, through direct and indirect effects, boost national GDP by an average $2.1 billion each year of a 30-year development.

It was estimated that a single field could generate between $557 million and $3.2 billion in regional GDP over that time.

“While the scenarios are hypothetical, the potential for growth of the oil and gas sector is real.

“There is reason to be confident that ongoing exploration investment will lead to new field discoveries and that local economies can benefit from such developments.”

According to GNS research, New Zealand had sovereign rights to a land area of 270,000 square kilometres and more than 5.7 million square kilometres of seabed.

Today’s report states that the oil and gas industry generated about $400 million in annual royalty and around $300 million in annual company tax revenue for the government.

Analysis by Edison Investment Research in its inaugural New Zealand Petroleum Sector Yearbook, out last week, found that nearly $7 billion had been invested in the oil and gas sector during the past five years.

“No other local sector comes close to matching the magnitude of this investment in new productive capacity,” the report said.

The yearbook found that exports from petroleum sales in 2004 totalled $502 million but by 2008 this had surged five-fold to $2.63 billion.

Despite falling production at the offshore Taranaki Tui field and the collapse of the oil price at the height of the global financial crisis, exports remained above $2 billion for each of the past three years.

Oil was New Zealand’s fourth-largest merchandise export.

The report comes in the same week as legislation regulating deep sea oil drilling inside New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) passed into law.

The Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act passed its third reading, with 72 votes in favour and 49 votes opposed.

The  Act establishes a framework for permits allowing oil, gas and mineral exploration and extraction in New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone, which lies between 12 and 200 nautical miles off the coast.

G.A.S. Unlimited is hiring!

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G.A.S. Unlimited is hiring engineers, designers, and a full range of professionals experienced in the Oil and Gas Industry. Our current Hot Job Opportunities include: Mid/Junior Electrical Engineer; Field Engineer – Encroachments; Piping Design Lead; Senior IC Designer; Senior Civil/Structural Designer; Planner/Scheduler – Project Controls ; and Electrical Engineer

Mid/Jr Electrical Engineer:
Natural gas experience and/or pipeline experience needed

Field Engineer – Encroachments:
A minimum of a Bachelors Degree required ( Civil or mechanical preferred)
8 or more yrs experience in project engineering and project/construction management in the pipeline or utilities industries, and faciliites or plant construction.
Excellent team player
Effective oral and written communication skills.
ability to travel up to 25% domestically required

Piping Design Lead:
Responsible for technical direction of design work and the quality of drawings of the group assigned to the project. Performs layout, design and checking work within company and industry standards and codes, from equipment specifications to detailed drawings. Proficient in Autocad, Cadworx and CloudWorx.

Senior IC Designer:
Performs layout, design and checking work within company and industry standards and codes, from equipment specifications to detailed drawings. Proficient in 3-D modeling, Autocad and Cadworx experience preferred. Background should includes work with instrumentation wiring diagrams, loop diagrams and location plans with thorough checking skills.

Senior Civil/Structural Designer:
Performs layout, design and checking work within company and industry standards and codes, from equipment specifications to detailed drawings. Proficient in Autocad and Cadworx. Preferred background includes sitework/earthwork, field measurements of existing structure, structural steel and foundation design.

Planner/Scheduler – Project Controls:
Must know Microsoft project (expert level)

Electrical Engineer:
BS in Electrical Engineering
Professional Registration
5 years of experience

To learn more about the above mentioned opportunities or other opportunities , contact us today!

Dark clouds gather over China’s once-booming solar industry

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China’s push into solar energy was supposed to be a proud example of how the
country was advancing into hi-tech manufacturing. But now the whole sector is on
the brink of bankruptcy.

Two years ago, LDK Solar, one of China’s largest solar panel makers, built a new, state-of-the-art factory in the central city of Hefei.

It sits in one of the city’s industrial parks, a big LDK Solar logo on its wall, with the New York-listed company’s slogan underneath: “Lighting the Future”.

“It cost 2.5 billion yuan (£250m) to build, the majority of the equipment was imported from Germany, and it hired 5,000 staff,” said Jie Xiaoming, a 30-year-old who works at the plant’s quality control and packaging department.

Last month, however, 4,500 of the staff were put on gardening leave. They receive 700 yuan a month to stay at home. The factory has shut down 24 of its 32 production lines.

“There do not seem to be any orders. People are still turning up for work, but mostly just sleeping. The management has not said much, just that the United States has a new policy that is stopping our exports,” said Mr Jie.

Read more at the Telegraph

Retraining is vital to fill skills gap in energy sector

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ENERGY North’s recent Skills Survey estimates that the north of Scotland’s energy sector needs to find 900 skilled people within the next five years. When you see the numbers needed and the fact we need them now, the well-documented skills shortage becomes a terrifying reality.

To address this issue we must turn talk into reality. Much attention is focused on young people with organisations and government working to persuade teenagers to study science and technology and school leavers to choose further education or apprenticeships that are rooted in engineering. But while this is a vote winner for politicians, young, newly qualified engineers are not necessarily what the industry needs.

While it is important to encourage youngsters to consider the energy industry. Energy North would like the government to incentivise people in other, less buoyant sectors, to retrain.

At The Underwater Centre, for example, we often train ex-military personnel to be divers or remotely operated vehicle pilots for the energy industry and we’ve seen many from the construction industry retrain as divers and go on to build great new careers. Elsewhere, many fishermen are retraining for the oil services industry.

The UK’s manufacturing sector is in the doldrums and we would like to see more people encouraged to consider the energy industry as an attractive option. Military cutbacks have left thousands of skilled men and women without work – this year we have already welcomed a number of aeronautics engineers from the Royal Air Force who have joined the energy sector.

So, while it is important to encourage youngsters to become the future pioneers of the energy industry, there are many skilled people currently out of work who could plug the 900-person gap within the next few years. And these people can retrain with ease.

All we need is the government to jump on this bandwagon with some funding to establish retraining programmes and the weight of the media to let people know the range of opportunities available to them in the north of Scotland.

Source: http://www.scotsman.com/news/steve-ham-retraining-is-vital-to-fill-skills-gap-in-energy-sector-1-2472452

Heriot-Watt University launches new MSc in Renewable Energy Engineering

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Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus launches a new MSc programme in September, dedicated to the subject of Renewable Energy, which is gaining increasing international attention.

The programme is a response to a rapidly expanding interest into renewable energy engineering and is aimed at students wishing to develop critical understanding of the significant changes in the energy system due to the development and integration of wind, marine, biomass and solar technologies.

The MSc in Renewable Energy Engineering will start in September. If you would like more information about the programme or to find out how you can enroll, please visit: http://www.hw.ac.uk/dubai.htm or contact dubaienquiries@hw.ac.uk.

Free Article Posting with Energy Job Blog…

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For a limited time Energy Job Blog is inviting all energy related businesses to post and publish news, press releases and energy related articles directly to Energy Job Blog.

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To post an article simply reply to this post with all your article information and our team will publish the article on your behalf.

Renewable energy generates jobs in Andalucia

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THOUSANDS of renewables jobs have been created in Andalucia thanks to the development of the renewable energy sector.

A total of 44,259 jobs were formed last year, with the construction, operation and maintenance of power plants accounting for 23,203 positions, according to the Andalucian Energy Agency.

Moreover the Agency estimates the industry will have generated as many as 110,356 jobs in Andalucia between 2007 and 2013 thanks to the Andalucian Sustainable Energy Plan.

Source: http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2012/08/28/renewable-energy-generates-jobs-in-andalucia/

Energy jobs training boost

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A NEW training academy is to provide 120 energy jobs over the next two years for Scotland’s expanding renewable energy sector.

Ten apprentices have already been recruited at the facility, based at Steel Engineering in Renfrew, after 230 people applied when courses were first advertised last month.

First Minister Alex Salmond officially opened  The Renewable Energy Skills Training Academy (TRESTA) today.

Source: http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/energy-jobs-training-boost.1345720302