Unions flag North Sea safety fears
Changed working terms have triggered strikes in both the the UK and Norwegian North Sea oil industries
Earlier this summer, hundreds of people gathered at the memorial garden in Aberdeen, where the names of 167 men who died in the Piper Alpha rig disaster 30 years ago were read out. The sombre occasion marked the anniversary of the North Sea's greatest disaster and acted as a reminder, noted by trade body Oil and Gas UK's (OGUK) chief executive Deirdre Michie at the event, that the industry must "keep remembering them so that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past". As the anniversary of the tragedy approached, trade unionists used the spectre of the accident to highlight fears that mistakes could be repeated now if operators continued to cut costs. Jake Molloy, the regional organiser for t
Also in this section
16 January 2026
The country’s global energy importance and domestic political fate are interlocked, highlighting its outsized oil and gas powers, and the heightened fallout risk
16 January 2026
The global maritime oil transport sector enters 2026 facing a rare convergence of crude oversupply, record newbuild deliveries and the potential easing of several geopolitical disruptions that have shaped trade flows since 2022
15 January 2026
Rebuilding industry, energy dominance and lower energy costs are key goals that remain at odds in 2026
14 January 2026
Chavez’s socialist reforms boosted state control but pushed knowledge and capital out of the sector, opening the way for the US shale revolution






