Allister Thomas

Oct 4, 2024 | energyvoice.com | Allister Thomas |Ryan Duff

Google Marc Ellington and you’ll be met with a cacophony of pictures and articles of a grinning American folk singer, a friendship with (then) Prince Charles, and the saving and restoration of a 400-year-old castle in Aberdeenshire. What connects these seemingly disparate elements? Aside from the late Ellington’s huge character, it’s a love of North East Scotland and an unlikely yet lucrative career with the (then) burgeoning energy industry.

Apr 11, 2024 | energyvoice.com | Jeremy Cresswell |Allister Thomas

It’s so blindingly obvious, workers, communities and the environment are seriously threatened by industrial accidents. And those who choose oil & gas by and large know perfectly well that they are working in an industry that is both dangerous and environmentally discredited. The pay can be good by local standards and apparently worth the risk of living with bad bosses, unsafe working practices, a corporate hire and fire mentality and living conditions akin to the workhouse.

Jan 19, 2024 | energyvoice.com | Gail Anderson |Wood Mackenzie |Allister Thomas

Recent proposals by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) on electrification of the UK North Sea could risk development of over 900 million barrels of oil equivalent and increase the UK’s reliance on higher intensity imports. It is proposed that fields onstream after 1 January 2030 must be fully electrified (host platforms must be electrified in the case of tie-backs). New fields onstream before 2030 must be “electrification ready”.

Dec 21, 2023 | eu1.hubs.ly | Clarissa Wright |Allister Thomas

Rosebank has been known as a complicated prospect to tap into many years – we speak to Professor Nicholas Schofield about the much-overlooked geology underlying this complexity. The West of Shetland has the UK’s largest undeveloped oil and gas field, Rosebank. After being discovered in 2004 many surprises lay ahead. Multiple companies changed their stakes in Rosebank over time.

Nov 23, 2023 | eu1.hubs.ly | Allister Thomas |Mark Stewart

If anyone was in any doubt that the lack of a coherent and long-term energy strategy is thwarting our net-zero ambitions, the events and news in recent months, have brought this into sharp focus. When the stakes are so high for people and the planet, it’s incomprehensible that energy continues to be a political football, subject to the vagaries of short-term political cycles and policies, based on knee-jerk responses geared towards winning votes rather than addressing the energy trilemma.