Scottish Independence, yay or nay?

[Champ]

They weren't voting for Salmond.

I think that's how a lot of people did see it

[mattyq]

This is always cracks me...skating on thin ice but his control of the audience is brilliant

 

[Jairzinho]

In the same way that in a General Election you're voting solely for your constituency MP

 

It's absolutely nothing like that at all.

[Dr Nowt]

This is always cracks me...skating on thin ice but his control of the audience is brilliant

 

 

Love that routine.  Some of the expressions around the room are a thing of beauty.  Obviously not literally.

[Anubis]

 

 

Like Bill, I would.

 

And Kirsty Williams as well, although she'd have to pay for her treacherous Lib Dem ways.

 

 

[Anubis]

Now that Scotland is just a massive petri dish for cultivating the ebola virus, should we quarantine it and wall it off?

[Mook]

Now that Scotland is just a massive petri dish for cultivating the ebola virus, should we quarantine it and wall it off?

Might not work given the girl with Ebola is in London.

[Anubis]

Might not work given the girl with Ebola is in London.

 

It's ok. She was transported back down by specialist military aircraft and locked in a quarantine cell where she will be observed 24/7 for the mutant changes which occurr.

[Sugar Ape]

Bullet dodged imo

Have you seen the price of oil recently?

Salmond's white paper was relying on it being $113 and it's now $72...that's a 30% drop or £2 billion to find from somewhere

 

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/24/north-sea-oil-and-gas-industry-suffers-worst-losses-in-decades

 

 

North Sea oil and gas industry suffers worst losses in decades

 

 

The North Sea oil and gas industry is facing a severe challenge to its future viability after suffering a dire year which involved the worst losses in decades, a new report has revealed.

 

Oil & Gas UK said its annual activity survey painted a bleak picture of the North Sea’s prospects after discovering that the sector as a whole lost £5.3bn last year, the worst figure since the 1970s.

 

Its report said the cost of producing a barrel of oil had risen to a record high of £18.50, on top of investment, tax and decommissioning costs. Falling oil prices, which slumped to below $50 a barrel earlier this year, cut revenues to just over £24bn for the year, the lowest since 1998.

 

The industry body said the financial situation was so dire that large areas of the North Sea could be “sterilised”, because oil companies would be unable to afford to develop and exploit unused fields.

 

The fall in revenues and investment came despite total North Sea output remaining very strong last year, at more than 1.4m barrels of oil equivalent per day – an industry measure that includes natural gas as well as oil. The 2014 total was the best year-on-year performance since 2000. The chief executive of Oil & Gas UK, Malcolm Webb, said it could increase marginally this year, to 1.43m BOE, but only 14 new exploration wells were drilled last year, compared with the 25 that had been expected.

 

In remarks aimed directly at the chancellor, George Osborne, in advance of next month’s budget, Webb said thousands of high skill jobs, key exports and high-tech industries were at risk unless there were radical changes to the sector’s taxation and incentives regimes.

 

“Without sustained investment in new and existing fields, critical infrastructure will disappear, taking with it important North Sea hubs, effectively sterilising areas of the basin and leaving oil and gas in the ground,” he said.

 

“The industry recognises that its cost base is unsustainable. Cost and efficiency improvements of up to 40% are required to give this basin a viable future. This adjustment is now underway, but cost control alone is not the answer.”

 

Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said the report made it clear that his department was right to give the industry extra help last December. He said ministers knew about the challenges facing the industry, and hinted that it would get further support in the budget. “I can reassure everyone involved in this vital industry that its future is front and centre of our thoughts as we approach the budget,” he said.

 

Climate campaigners, energy experts and environmentalists say that many of the world’s unused fossil fuels are “unburnable” if global warming is not to breach the 2C threshold set by the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change.

 

The Guardian revealed last week that Oil & Gas UK was alarmed by comments from Ed Davey, the UK energy secretary, that action on climate climate could render their reserves worthless. The EU now wants to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050.

 

Oil & Gas UK’s report raises challenging questions for the Scottish government’s campaign for Scotland to have far greater fiscal independence in exchange for propping up a minority Labour government after the May general election.

 

In 2012/13, overall government spending in Scotland stood at £65bn, but total Scottish tax receipts excluding North Sea revenues were just £47.5bn – a hole largely plugged by oil taxes in boom years.

 

The report says that the industry needed to invest £94bn to exploit the 10 billion barrels in known reserves, dramatically cutting the tax receipts needed to sustain Scotland’s higher than average public spending. A continuing slump would also threaten tens of thousands of high-paying jobs.

 

Oil & Gas UK said investment in new production was expected to slip in 2015 by about a third, to a maximum of £11.3bn. Current forecasts suggest that spending on authorised projects was likely to decline rapidly to £2.5bn by 2018, and to £3.5bn for unsanctioned projects.

 

Fergus Ewing, the Scottish energy minister, made no reference to the potential impact of a North Sea slump on Scotland’s balance sheet. Instead, he said, the UK Treasury had to cut taxes and increase financial incentives to help the industry recover urgently.

 

“This report highlights the long overdue and urgent action on taxation and regulation, which the UK government must deliver to give the industry the certainty it needs to protect jobs and investment,” he said.

[Section_31]

I presume prices are only being squeezed to twist the Slavic nipple?

[Sugar Ape]

I presume prices are only being squeezed to twist the Slavic nipple?

 

Probably for multiple reasons. It's meant to be slowing down fracking in the States and not making it viable as well. Either way, it doesn't sound good for North Sea oil at the minute.

[Sugar Ape]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/12/economist-explains-4
 

Why the oil price is falling
 


THE oil price has fallen by more than 40% since June, when it was $115 a barrel. It is now below $70. This comes after nearly five years of stability. At a meeting in Vienna on November 27th the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls nearly 40% of the world market, failed to reach agreement on production curbs, sending the price tumbling. Also hard hit are oil-exporting countries such as Russia (where the rouble has hit record lows), Nigeria, Iran and Venezuela. Why is the price of oil falling?

The oil price is partly determined by actual supply and demand, and partly by expectation. Demand for energy is closely related to economic activity. It also spikes in the winter in the northern hemisphere, and during summers in countries which use air conditioning. Supply can be affected by weather (which prevents tankers loading) and by geopolitical upsets. If producers think the price is staying high, they invest, which after a lag boosts supply. Similarly, low prices lead to an investment drought. OPEC’s decisions shape expectations: if it curbs supply sharply, it can send prices spiking. Saudi Arabia produces nearly 10m barrels a day—a third of the OPEC total.

Four things are now affecting the picture. Demand is low because of weak economic activity, increased efficiency, and a growing switch away from oil to other fuels. Second, turmoil in Iraq and Libya—two big oil producers with nearly 4m barrels a day combined—has not affected their output. The market is more sanguine about geopolitical risk. Thirdly, America has become the world’s largest oil producer. Though it does not export crude oil, it now imports much less, creating a lot of spare supply. Finally, the Saudis and their Gulf allies have decided not to sacrifice their own market share to restore the price. They could curb production sharply, but the main benefits would go to countries they detest such as Iran and Russia. Saudi Arabia can tolerate lower oil prices quite easily. It has $900 billion in reserves. Its own oil costs very little (around $5-6 per barrel) to get out of the ground.

The main effect of this is on the riskiest and most vulnerable bits of the oil industry. These include American frackers who have borrowed heavily on the expectation of continuing high prices. They also include Western oil companies with high-cost projects involving drilling in deep water or in the Arctic, or dealing with maturing and increasingly expensive fields such as the North Sea. But the greatest pain is in countries where the regimes are dependent on a high oil price to pay for costly foreign adventures and expensive social programmes. These include Russia (which is already hit by Western sanctions following its meddling in Ukraine) and Iran (which is paying to keep the Assad regime afloat in Syria). Optimists think economic pain may make these countries more amenable to international pressure. Pessimists fear that when cornered, they may lash out in desperation.

[lifetime fan]

Nice to see the unelected house of cunts, sorry I mean lords, kicking up a fuss about the scots giving 16 & 17 years olds the right to vote.

[VladimirIlyich]

Nice to see the unelected house of cunts, sorry I mean lords, kicking up a fuss about the scots giving 16 & 17 years olds the right to vote.

Wonder why that is?

Maybe because they are the generation most likely to see how pointless they are.

[Section_31]

Oil has fallen by 40% but a litre of petrol by about 12p. What's wrong with that picture.

[lifetime fan]

Wonder why that is?

Maybe because they are the generation most likely to see how pointless they are.

 

 

[Mook]

Right, where do I sign up for this shit?

[Spy Bee]

Oil prices will have a big say on whether they push for this.

[Champ]

Oil prices will have a big say on whether they push for this.

I doubt it

[Dr Nowt]

I think it's a formality.

 

It's not like fear of an uncertain future will scold a big chunk, who deep down would love to vote yes, into staying this time, is it.

[Anubis]

Last time I was desperate for Scotland to stay with us because of the implications for the rest of us at an election. This time, if they can lower their expectations and make it work, good luck to them.

[Dr Nowt]

I should point out that when I said a big chunk, I wasn't talking about Mook.

[Champ]

I should point out that when I said a big chunk, I wasn't talking about Mook.

Erm? Erm?

[Dr Nowt]

Erm? Erm?

I'll never make a politician.

[Section_31]

Getting boring this shit now, everytime someone drops a fart it's referendum time again.