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Energy 1999
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The information below comes from the UK Activity Report.
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National Power is to build a £1m hydroelectric plant near Fort William, as part of a strategy to increase its output from renewable sources. 30-Dec-1999 Deutag Drilling is to cut 30 of the 87 jobs at its Aberdeen-based drilling business, and its workforce will be merged onto one site in Altens. 29-Dec-1999 BP Amoco has launched an internet-based gas trading service that will enable industrial customers to make spot gas purchases at current prices. 29-Dec-1999 Shell is to transfer ownership of 180 of its largest filling stations to London & Regional Properties, in a £300m sale-and-leaseback deal. 24-Dec-1999 Logica has been selected by Ofgem as the preferred provider of software to run the new electricity trading arrangements in England and Wales. 23-Dec-1999 BG has started producing gas at the £150m Easington joint venture with BP Amoco and Amerada Hess, and expects to maintain 250m cu ft a day for three years. 22-Dec-1999 National Power is linking up with Union Fenosa of Spain to operate gas turbine plants in the US and to chase about £1.5bn of potential power projects in the Middle East. 22-Dec-1999 British Borneo is considering plans to sell assets in a strategic review prompted by operational problems at its fields in the Gulf of Mexico. 21-Dec-1999 Northern Ireland Electricity has signed a £100m contract with Alcatel Kabel of Norway to lay a new interconnector between Northern Ireland and Scotland, involving 55km of underwater cable between Auchencrosh in Ayrshire and Islandmagee. 20-Dec-1999 Cumbria County Council is in discussions with Cumberland Coal about the possibility of building a covered coal handling facility at the port of Workington, to serve the open cast mine at Pica. 17-Dec-1999 Wakefield Council is considering plans from Coalgas UK for the development of a 10MW generator fuelled by waste gas at five abandoned mines at the Wheldale Colliery. 16-Dec-1999 BP Amoco has awarded a £370m contract to Exult of California for the outsourcing of its human resources department, which will involve the transfer of 350 staff. 16-Dec-1999 Shell is to step up its cost-reduction programme by shedding 18,000 jobs by the end of next year, in order to make annual savings of $4bn. 16-Dec-1999 Melrose Resources is to raise £5.8m in a London flotation, in order to fund the development and exploration of its oil and gas assets. 16-Dec-1999 London Electricity and Eastern Electricity are forming a joint venture to manage their neighbouring power distribution networks, with the loss of up to 800 jobs. 15-Dec-1999 OIS International Inspection is to create about 20 new jobs in Aberdeen, having won a £40m five-year inspection services contract from BP Amoco. 10-Dec-1999 BP Amoco has agreed to acquire ExxonMobil's stake in the fuels division of their European oil refining and marketing joint venture for £920m. 08-Dec-1999 National Power is planning to build a £6.2m wind farm in Pennsylvania, with completion due in May 2000. 07-Dec-1999 Exxon and Mobil are planning to relocate an unspecified number of jobs from Aberdeen to London following the merger of their businesses, but the UK production headquarters is expected to remain in Aberdeen. 06-Dec-1999 Lasmo is in negotiations to sell its stake in the Inam oil block in Azerbaijan to Shell for about £12m. 06-Dec-1999 British Gas has announced plans to refurbish its headquarters in Cardiff's Churchill Way, which houses 1,800 staff. 02-Dec-1999 British Nuclear Fuels is to stop production at its Magnox power station in Bradwell, Essex, in March 2002, with the loss of up to 350 jobs. 02-Dec-1999 The Ministry of Defence is considering plans to close the nuclear assembly plant at Burghfield, having awarded a £2.2bn contract to British Nuclear Fuels, Lockheed Martin and Serco to operate facilities of the Atomic Weapons Establishment. 02-Dec-1999 Conoco has announced plans to invest £700m over the next 10 years at its Killingholme Refinery on the Humber, including a new plant to produce ultra-clean fuel and a new combined heat and power plant. 30-Nov-1999 Centrica is seeking 80,000 sq ft of office space to set up a new headquarters in the Heathrow area. 29-Nov-1999 BP Amoco is considering plans to cut back its operations in Russia, claiming that it was forced to sell its main oil investment in western Siberia to a local competitor. 27-Nov-1999 Enterprise Oil has announced a £340m oil development project in Brazil, in partnership with Petrobas and Odebrecht. 27-Nov-1999 Halliburton has announced plans to close two Barmac oil platform fabrication yards near Inverness by next April, with the loss of about 3,300 jobs. 27-Nov-1999 Rolls-Royce and Sheffield Heat & Power are seeking government permission for a £42m urban power station to supply thousands of homes and businesses in Sheffield. 26-Nov-1999 National Power is re-opening the Croesor hydroelectric power station in Snowdonia, as part of a strategy to set up a network of hydro schemes across the country. 26-Nov-1999 Rochford District Council is considering plans from EDL Operations for a plant to convert methane gas to electricity at the Barling landfill site in Essex. 25-Nov-1999 Powys County Council is considering plans from BSW Timber for the construction of a wood-burning power station as part of a £50m investment at its mill at Newbridge on Wye. 25-Nov-1999 Shell is to swap 80 of its petrol stations in the UK for 375 Texaco sites in Greece. 25-Nov-1999 Scottish Power has secured final US regulatory approval for its £3.86bn acquisition of PacifiCorp. 25-Nov-1999 ICI has signed an agreement for PowerGen to build and operate a £110m combined heat and power plant at its manufacturing site in Runcorn. 24-Nov-1999 Enterprise Oil has announced plans to expand its presence in the Gulf of Mexico by acquiring new licences and setting up joint ventures. 22-Nov-1999 Scottish Power is to cut 450 jobs in its electricity distribution business over the next three years, in order to improve efficiency. 19-Nov-1999 BP Amoco has opened the first solar-powered service station in France, as part of a plan to convert 200 service stations throughout the world by 2001. 18-Nov-1999 National Power is selling the Eggborough power station to British Energy for £640m and the Killingholme power station to NRG Energy for £410m, and has also announced plans to demerge its domestic and international businesses. 18-Nov-1999 Scottish & Southern Energy is to offer "green" electricity from its hydro-electric plants to the 1m members of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 18-Nov-1999 Shell has announced an agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company to develop two fields in the northern Gulf. 15-Nov-1999 Soco International is to invest £6m in the development of an oil field off the coast of Vietnam, in partnership with state-owned Petrovietnam. 15-Nov-1999 Scottish & Southern Energy is considering plans to build a £150m 400MW gas-fired power station near Drogheda in Ireland. 13-Nov-1999 Rolls-Royce is considering plans to build a new power station at Yelland in North Devon. 12-Nov-1999 Viridian is seeking small acquisitions to boost its earnings from non-regulated operations, and is preparing for the introduction of an all-Ireland electricity market over the next five or six years. 12-Nov-1999 RJB Mining is in discussions with Sandhurst Assets Corporation of the US about the possibility of selling its Ellington coal mine, and the output would be exported to Yugoslavia and Africa. 12-Nov-1999 BP Amoco is taking control of Crescendo Resources, the US natural gas company, by acquiring the remaining 51% from Repsol-YPF for $500m. 12-Nov-1999 British-Borneo is in discussions with an unnamed company that could lead to a takeover offer. 12-Nov-1999 Enron has had its plans to build a 1,200MW gas-fired power station on the Isle of Grain in Kent rejected by the government, and a 560MW scheme by Anglesey Aluminium has also been blocked. 11-Nov-1999 British Energy is looking to acquire non-nuclear power stations and another electricity retail supply business in the UK, and has also announced plans to shed 250 administrative jobs over the next two years. 11-Nov-1999 BP Amoco is outsourcing its accounts and back-office operations in the US to PwC in a $1.1bn deal, and about 1,200 employees will be transferred. 11-Nov-1999 Shell Services International is considering the future of its IT support operation in Aberdeen, prompting speculation that it may be closed with the loss of up to 240 jobs. 10-Nov-1999 North Cornwall District Council has approved plans from National Wind Power for nine wind turbines at Bear's Down, near St Eval. 10-Nov-1999 Energy Power Resources is seeking permission to build a £160m 66MW power plant at Bexley in London, and it will burn up to 585,000 tonnes of household waste a year. 09-Nov-1999 Eastern Group is to change its name to TXU Europe following its recent acquisition by Texas Utilities, although the Eastern name will be retained for its UK power distribution and household electricity supply businesses. 09-Nov-1999 BG has received an allocation of shares in the Gas Authority of India, the gas monopoly that is being privatised. 08-Nov-1999 London Electricity is to transfer sales and customer services teams to SWEB offices in Devon, and a further 100 jobs will be created in Exeter and Plymouth. 05-Nov-1999 Rolls-Royce has won government approval to build a £20m 49MW gas-fired power station to supply electricity and heat to its aerospace business at Ansty near Coventry. 05-Nov-1999 Dragon Oil is raising £15m to fund the development of offshore fields in Turkmenistan. 05-Nov-1999 PowerGen is linking up with Affinity Internet to offer a subscription-free internet service called Surf&Save, which will enable consumers to get discounts on their utility bills. 03-Nov-1999 RJB Mining is planning to close the Ellington Colliery near Morpeth with the loss of up to 400 jobs, due to a decline in coal face conditions. 02-Nov-1999 Eastern Group has put its Eastern Electricity meter reading division up for sale, and all 500 permanent staff will be transferred to the new owner. 29-Oct-1999 Viridian has announced plans to double the size of the proposed electricity interconnector between Northern Ireland and Scotland to 500MW, which will cost a total £150m. 29-Oct-1999 Northern Electric's US parent company MidAmerican Energy Holdings is being acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in a $9bn deal. 27-Oct-1999 Conoco is seeking government permission to build a power plant at Killingholme near Grimsby, with the creation of 35 permanent jobs. 27-Oct-1999 North Lincolnshire Council has announced plans for a major new industrial development on the south bank of the Humber, which could create up to 7,500 jobs and includes a £450m power station project by Southern Company of the US. 26-Oct-1999 Shell has announced plans to invest $1bn in the EA offshore oil field in Nigeria, which is expected to come onstream in 2002. 26-Oct-1999 National Power is to build a £14m rechargeable battery system next to Didcot power station, as a commercial-scale demonstration of its Regenesys technology. 26-Oct-1999 Shell is selling a 45% stake in its $2bn Philippines gas project to Texaco, as part of a strategy to sell off non-core assets. 23-Oct-1999 BG is acquiring a 50% stake in five Israeli offshore exploration licences from a consortium led by Isramco. 22-Oct-1999 ABB Energy Development Company has been blocked by the government in its attempt to build a 450MW gas-fired power station at Raventhorpe in North Yorkshire. 22-Oct-1999 British Energy is said to be planning to acquire the 6,400MW Bruce nuclear power plant in Ontario, in partnership with US partner Peco Energy. 20-Oct-1999 PowerGen is to pay £197m to BHP, Lasmo and Centrica for a reduction in gas supply prices from the Liverpool Bay field to its Connah's Quay power station in north Wales. 20-Oct-1999 Enterprise Oil has acquired a 7.5% stake in Khanty Mansiysk Oil for £12m, in order to expand its oil exploration activities in Siberia. 20-Oct-1999 Shell Energy is forming a joint venture with Eneco of the Netherlands to supply electricity to large corporations in the Benelux countries. 16-Oct-1999 Eastern Group is considering plans to move its staff to the former Bentwaters airbase in Suffolk while its current premises in Ipswich undergo a refit. 15-Oct-1999 Midlands Electricity is to cut 330 jobs in its power distribution business, and blames the tough price controls announced by the industry regulator. 15-Oct-1999 Scottish Power is looking to sell its electrical contracting and technology businesses, which employ a total of 1,300 staff, in order to focus on energy and water. 14-Oct-1999 Hyder has opened a £3m power plant running on methane gas at Tower Colliery near Aberdare, which will make the mine self-sufficient in electricity. 13-Oct-1999 Repsol of Spain is looking to sell its UK oil production, refining and marketing assets, including 150 service stations and the Harwich refinery. 12-Oct-1999 PowerGen is creating 50 new jobs at its call centre in Nuthall and a further 100 people will be recruited next year, due to rising demand for its gas and electricity supply services. 08-Oct-1999 Centrica is acquiring gas assets in the southern North Sea from Veba Oil and Total Oil Marine at a cost of £13m. 08-Oct-1999 Northern Electric has dropped plans for 500 compulsory redundancies and will instead seek voluntary redundancies with the promise of enhanced severance packages. 07-Oct-1999 Kirklees Council is considering plans from Kirklees Waste Services for a new £30m power plant in Huddersfield to burn domestic rubbish. 05-Oct-1999 BG is to issue a £500m bond as part of a capital restructuring designed to partially separate the Transco pipeline business from its international exploration operations. 02-Oct-1999 Transco is planning to build a new gas pipeline from Drointon, near Uttoxeter, to Sutton-on the-Hill, north of Tutbury, in order to meet rising demand in the East Midlands. 02-Oct-1999 Waste Recycling Group is planning to build an energy-from-waste plant in Hull and a waste reprocessing plant in Bridlington, and has secured contracts worth £250m to dispose of rubbish in East Yorkshire for the next 25 years. 30-Sep-1999 BP Amoco is planning to buy out Mobil's stake in their European fuel distribution and refinery joint venture at a cost of £1bn, which will help Mobil win clearance for its merger with Exxon. 29-Sep-1999 Scottish & Southern Energy has had its plans to build a 54MW gas-fired power station in Didcot rejected by the government. 28-Sep-1999 Unit Energy is to set up the first independent power trading business dealing exclusively in green electricity, which will involve buying from wind farms and hydro-electric schemes and selling to the public and small businesses. 27-Sep-1999 Eastern Group is investing $312m in a joint venture with Pohjolan Voima in order to gain 600MW of thermal generating capacity in Finland, as part of a strategy to build up a pan-European energy business by forming a series of partnerships. 25-Sep-1999 PowerGen is planning to build a £30m heat and power plant in Bootle, to provide electricity and steam for port businesses on Merseyside. 24-Sep-1999 Premier Oil is in discussions with Amerada Hess of the US and Petronas of Malaysia about a £130m cash injection for the troubled UK explorer. 24-Sep-1999 Soco International is planning to resume oil exploration in Mongolia, Thailand and Vietnam, following a recovery in oil prices. 23-Sep-1999 Railtrack could lose its monopoly on the sale of electricity to the train operating companies, as the rail regulator is aiming to improve the efficiency of electricity use on the railways. 21-Sep-1999 PowerGen has won government approval to convert its 2,000MW Cottam power station in Nottinghamshire to burn gas as well as coal. 18-Sep-1999 Eastern Group has won government approval to convert its 1,000MW coal-fired power station at Rugeley to burn gas, and AES has also won approval to convert a 140MW oil-fired plant at Indian Queens in Cornwall. 17-Sep-1999 CPL Industries is to close the Homefire Plant in Coventry with the loss of 60 jobs, as the company has bought a factory in County Durham which produces similar fuel products. 16-Sep-1999 BG is to open a new office in Wakefield as part of a nationwide expansion of its BG Energy Services division, in order to provide gas infrastructure services to the industrial and commercial markets. 11-Sep-1999 RJB Mining is to close the Clipstone Colliery in Nottinghamshire next year with the loss of up to 170 jobs. 10-Sep-1999 Centrica is seeking alliances with energy utilities in continental Europe, and is also planning to add telecoms to its range of home services. 10-Sep-1999 PowerGen is looking to spend up to £3bn on the acquisition of a US electricity company, and is also interested in buying another UK regional distribution business. 10-Sep-1999 Angus Council is to consider plans from Glasgow-based Renewable Energy Systems for the construction of a £12m wind farm at Ark Hill near Glamis. 09-Sep-1999 United Utilities has dropped plans to develop high-speed data services using power cables, due to insufficient demand. 08-Sep-1999 Shell has sold its Shell-Mex House property in London to Witkoff of the US for about £180m, and plans to vacate the offices by the end of the year. 07-Sep-1999 Enterprise Oil is looking to acquire assets in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico that are expected to be sold by BP Amoco, Exxon and TotalFina in order to meet cost-cutting and regulatory demands. 04-Sep-1999 Northern Electric is to cut up to 500 jobs in its distribution business, following demands by industry regulator Ofgem for the company to reduce customer bills. 02-Sep-1999 Cooper Cameron is to cut 220 jobs at its Leeds-based oil equipment business due to a fall in worldwide demand. 02-Sep-1999 Transco has awarded a £30m contract to Alfred McAlpine for the construction of a gas pipeline between Mawdesley in Lancashire and Warrington in Cheshire. 02-Sep-1999 Enron of the US is considering plans to sell its 790MW Sutton Bridge gas-fired power station in Lincolnshire, but will continue to seek development permits for two other plants in Kent and south Wales. 01-Sep-1999 Kvaerner is to cut 3,000 of the 14,000 jobs in its oil and gas business, which will affect workers in both the UK and Norway. 01-Sep-1999 Shell has announced plans to sell its international coal operations, including assets in Australia and Venezuela, and the tender process could raise about $1bn. 31-Aug-1999 PowerGen has completed a £6.4m deal for a new office building at the Pegasus Business Park near East Midlands Airport, and will use the site as a central office for its distribution business. 27-Aug-1999 BP Amoco is facing the prospect of having to sell production and exploration assets in Alaska in order to receive clearance for the acquisition of Atlantic Richfield. 25-Aug-1999 Emerald Energy has announced an oil discovery at the Gigante field in Colombia, with a flow rate of 3,500 barrels per day. 24-Aug-1999 Scottish Power is to create 100 jobs at its call centre in Falkirk, in order to sell electricity and gas to consumers and small businesses and to pilot new initiatives such as e-business. 23-Aug-1999 Business Location Services has announced plans for a £5m power plant at Falmouth Docks that will take waste oil from ships to generate electricity, thereby helping to combat the illegal dumping of oil at sea. 20-Aug-1999 Enterprise Oil is considering plans to move downstream into the Irish energy market by selling gas from the Corrib field directly to industrial users, and it wants to build a £130m pipeline from the west coast to Dublin. 20-Aug-1999 Highland Council has given outline planning permission to Kinloch Base for a £3m project to convert the former Kishorn fabrication yard in Wester Ross into an oil supply depot and rig decommissioning centre, which could create 600 jobs. 19-Aug-1999 National Power is setting up an office and laboratory at the Harwell International Business Centre in Oxfordshire, in order to house 45 staff working on the development of the Regenesys electricity storage technology. 19-Aug-1999 National Power is to sell the Drax coal-fired power station to AES of the US in a £1.87bn deal, and AES is expected to follow this up with further acquisitions in the UK and continental Europe. 19-Aug-1999 BP Amoco is to link some of its petrol stations to the internet to enable customers to view weather and traffic information while using the pumps. 18-Aug-1999 North Wiltshire District Council is to consider plans from North Wiltshire Bio-mass Power for the construction of a £9m coppice-fuelled power station near Cricklade. 17-Aug-1999 Independent Energy is considering plans to raise £50m to expand its gas and electricity generating interests, and is also looking to move into continental Europe next year. 17-Aug-1999 Shell has announced an oil discovery in India's north-west desert, the first such find since the country opened exploration to multinational companies. 17-Aug-1999 Enterprise Oil has announced a major gas discovery in the Corrib field off the west coast of Ireland. 13-Aug-1999 BG is forming a joint venture with Edison International of Italy and the Egyptian Petroleum Corporation to develop the largest gas field in Egypt. 12-Aug-1999 BP Amoco is planning to cut a further 2,000 jobs by the end of the year, mostly in the US, as it continues to eliminate the duplication of functions between the former BP and Amoco companies. 11-Aug-1999 RJB Mining has submitted plans to mine up to 320,000 tonnes of coal at a former colliery site at Shipley West near Ilkeston, with the creation of 30 jobs. 10-Aug-1999 Grove TK is to close its oil industry equipment plant in Dunfermline in November with the loss of 130 jobs, following a fall in orders. 06-Aug-1999 BP Amoco has sold a number of Canadian oilfields to Penn West Petroleum and Canadian Natural Resources for $1bn, as part of a strategy to sell off $10bn of assets over the next three years. 06-Aug-1999 RJB Mining is to cut 300 jobs at its Selby complex in Yorkshire, and two coal faces will be operated instead of the current three. 29-Jul-1999 Scottish Hydro-Electric has dropped plans to relocate 130 staff from its Millburn Street office in Aberdeen to a new site at Westhill, and will instead move them to existing offices at Dyce and Ashgrove. 27-Jul-1999 Premier Oil is planning a £127m refinancing of its business with the sale of a 50% stake in its West Natuna gas project in Indonesia. 26-Jul-1999 ICI is expected to award a £100m contract to Electricite de France for the development of a 200MW gas fired heat and power plant at Runcorn. 26-Jul-1999 Talisman Energy is to build a new headquarters in Aberdeen, in order to combine its 200 staff onto one site. 23-Jul-1999 Co-operative Bank has reached agreement with the Renewable Energy Company to power its Manchester offices with hydro-electricity generated on the Manchester ship canal. 22-Jul-1999 BG has announced plans to invest £5bn in its international energy business over the next four years, including projects in Latin America, Trinidad and Kazakhstan. 21-Jul-1999 Derbyshire County Council has approved a £5m plan from Solihull-based Indpendent Energy to develop abandoned gas wells in a green belt area of Amber Valley. 20-Jul-1999 Scottish Power is to install combined heat and power generators at five sewage works owned by its Southern Water subsidiary, in order to supply electricity to up to 5,000 homes in the south of England. 19-Jul-1999 National Power is cutting 50 of the 190 jobs at the Blyth power station, as part of a review of its 12 power stations and Swindon headquarters. 16-Jul-1999 BP Amoco has announced plans for a $26bn investment programme and the disposal of assets worth $10bn, while it has also made a major oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico,. 16-Jul-1999 Costain is shedding 31 jobs at its oil and gas division in Wythenshawe, due to the instability of oil prices. 15-Jul-1999 Shell is in discussions to sell its Cressier refinery in Switzerland to Petroplus of the Netherlands, as part of a strategy to improve returns in its downstream operations. 15-Jul-1999 Harland & Wolff is linking up with Ireland's Marine Institute to develop wave power technology, and a pilot plant is planned for later this year. 15-Jul-1999 British Nuclear Fuels is to undergo a partial privatisation as the government has confirmed plans to raise about £1.5bn by selling a stake of up to 49%. 14-Jul-1999 Lasmo is selling stakes in two Algerian onshore blocks to ENI of Italy for £27m, as part of a strategy to dispose of its smaller assets. 14-Jul-1999 BP Amoco has announced a large gas discovery in Azerbaijan, which could lead to the construction of export pipelines to Turkey. 13-Jul-1999 John Wood Group is forming a joint venture with Amec Process & Energy to provide integrated services to Shell Expro's Northern North Sea installations. 07-Jul-1999 Hyder is considering plans to generate electricity from windfarms off the coast of Wales. 07-Jul-1999 Mission Energy of the US is to invest £200m at its newly-acquired coal-fired power stations in Cheshire and Yorkshire in order to improve their environmental performance. 07-Jul-1999 Midlands Electricity's US parent company GPU is to take full control of its distribution business by buying the stake held by Cinergy for £443m. 07-Jul-1999 RJB Mining has won a contract to supply 1m tonnes of coal a year to aluminium smelting company Alcan, and the coal will be sourced from mines in Yorkshire. 06-Jul-1999 Viridian, BG, PowerGen, and Ireland's Electricity Supply Board have all won approval to transmit electricity to the 240 biggest users in Northern Ireland. 06-Jul-1999 National Power has announced a £470m plan to build a 1,100MW gas-fired power station in Texas and a 550MW gas-fired station in Massachusetts. 03-Jul-1999 BG is looking for alternative opportunities in the Korean gas sector following the collapse of negotiations to acquire a 15% stake in Korea Gas. 03-Jul-1999 Transco has announced a £12m investment in its gas pipeline network in Yorkshire, which will involve laying 133 miles of plastic pipes. 02-Jul-1999 The Centre for Marine & Petroleum Technology is to reduce its staff to less than 10 due to the effect of cost-cutting by oil companies, and the activities of the London office will be transferred to Aberdeen. 01-Jul-1999 Transco has shortlisted four companies for a £30m gas pipeline project in north London, which will include metering, mains laying, emergency work and other services. 01-Jul-1999 Alstom has won a contract worth £80m to build a combined heat and power plant at Deeside for Shotton CHP. 01-Jul-1999 DSND Soendenfjeldske, the Norwegian oil services company, is to close its Norwich office in order to concentrate its UK business in Aberdeen. 30-Jun-1999 Aramark has won an extension to its contract to supply offshore hotel services to BP Amoco, and expects to recruit an additional 100 staff. 30-Jun-1999 BP Amoco is setting up a new £25m institute at Cambridge University in order to fund research into fluid flow in oil wells. 29-Jun-1999 National Power has completed the £380m acquisition of a 25% stake in Union Fenosa Generaci, the Spanish electricity generator, and is also forming an international alliance with Union Electricita Fenosa. 29-Jun-1999 AEA Technology has won a contract to manage the technical support and R&D functions of Ontario Power Technologies in Canada, as part of a consortium with Canatom and Scientech. 29-Jun-1999 Scottish & Southern Energy is considering plans to close its Claverhouse office in Dundee, which could involve relocating about 100 staff to other sites in Dundee and Perth. 25-Jun-1999 Kirklees Council and Belgian-owned company Kirklees Waste Services have announced plans for a £45m waste plant in Huddersfield, incorporating an energy-from-waste incinerator to burn up to 135,000 tonnes of waste a year. 23-Jun-1999 Scottish & Southern Energy has submitted plans for a 115MW gas-fired power station at Long Lawford in Warwickshire to produce power for Rugby Cement. 23-Jun-1999 Waste Recycling Group is linking up with three companies - CPL Energy, Hyder Industrial and Combined Landfill Projects - to generate electricity from methane gas at its 38 landfill sites. 22-Jun-1999 BG is forming a new holding company called BG Group that will be listed on the London and New York stock exchanges, as part of a restructuring process that will assist with the expansion of its international gas business. 19-Jun-1999 Desire Petroleum is in merger discussions with Gaelic Resources of Ireland, as part of a strategy to reduce its focus on exploration in the Falkland Islands. 18-Jun-1999 Scottish Power is forming an alliance with Blue Circle to sell pulverised fuel ash from its power stations to the construction industry. 17-Jun-1999 British Gas has won a series of permits from Israel to explore for oil and gas in the Mediterranean. 17-Jun-1999 Conoco has announced what it claims could be an important natural gas discovery 80 miles east of the Lincolnshire coast. 15-Jun-1999 BG, the gas pipeline company, is to receive a £250m windfall payment from its holding in Dynegy, following a decision by the US company to merge with Illinova in a $7.5bn deal. 15-Jun-1999 Viridian has announced plans to develop a £300m gas-fired power station in the Craigavon area of Northern Ireland. 15-Jun-1999 British Energy is planning to buy two more US nuclear reactors from Niagara Mohawk, through its AmerGen joint venture with Peco Energy. 14-Jun-1999 British Nuclear Fuels has won government approval to start testing the use of reprocessed uranium at the £300m mixed oxide reprocessing plant at Sellafield. 12-Jun-1999 Enron Europe is to build a £20m 45MW combined heat and power plant at Seal Sands on Teesside. 11-Jun-1999 BP Amoco is planning to sell a large part of its Canadian oil properties, while the European Commission has announced plans to investigate its proposed merger with Atlantic Richfield. 11-Jun-1999 Eastern Group is to cut 500 jobs at offices in north London and Peterborough in response to the high costs involved with the doorstep selling of electricity and gas, and will instead focus on telephone marketing and joint ventures. 11-Jun-1999 Scottish & Southern Energy is expected to cut about 800 jobs following the merger of Scottish Hydro-Electric and Southern Electric, as the company has announced a £61m provision for employee rationalisation costs. 10-Jun-1999 Expro International is to streamline its oilfield services business from six to three divisions, and 130 jobs will be lost. 10-Jun-1999 KBC Advanced Technologies, the oil industry consultant, has sold its Sigmaflame business, as part of a strategy to cut costs in the face of increasing competition. 09-Jun-1999 Lasmo is to acquire stakes in three exploration blocks operated by Unocal in order to build a deep water position off Indonesia. 08-Jun-1999 OM Technology Energy Systems is planning to set up the UK's first independent power exchange to trade electricity. 07-Jun-1999 Transco has shortlisted four contractors for a £40m gas pipeline project between Mawdesley in Lancashire and Warrington in Cheshire. 03-Jun-1999 Rowan Drilling of Aberdeen is to relocate two of its jack-up rigs from the North Sea to the Gulf of Mexico, putting up to 100 offshore jobs at risk. 31-May-1999 National Power is considering plans to close its Blythe A, Blythe B and Fawley power stations in order to reduce over-capacity in the market, but will first wait for the results of an independent review by the energy industry regulator. 31-May-1999 Eastern Group is said to be considering plans to form an alliance with VEW of Germany as part of a strategy to expand its power business in continental Europe. 31-May-1999 Midlands Electricity is seeking to acquire a regional water company and is also considering plans to move into the gas distribution business. 29-May-1999 United Utilities is seeking a merger for its Norweb power supply business, as it believes it needs to more than double its customer base to gain the necessary economies of scale. 28-May-1999 BP Amoco has announced the discovery of hydrocarbons at a test well in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea. 28-May-1999 Petroline, the offshore services company, has cut 18 jobs from its 200-strong workforce in Aberdeen and Arbroath, while the remaining employees have accepted a 5% short-term reduction in pay. 27-May-1999 The University of Aberdeen is to set up a centre for testing materials and instrumentation used in the offshore industry, and it will include a high pressure and high temperature facility. 26-May-1999 National Grid is considering plans to set up a £500m 800MW electricity cable link between the UK and Norway. 26-May-1999 Dana Petroleum has announced three offshore production sharing contracts in Mauritania, in partnership with Hardman Resources of Australia. 25-May-1999 National Power is to cut 200 jobs following the recent acquisition of the Midlands Electricity supply business, with most of the cuts taking place at the Swindon head office. 22-May-1999 RJB Mining is to shed jobs 120 jobs at its Selby coalfield, as part of a national plan to cut its workforce and improve efficiency. 20-May-1999 Fuchs Lubricants is to close its refinery in Belper next year with the loss of up to 170 jobs, and production will be transferred to its larger plant in Stoke-on-Trent. 20-May-1999 Seeboard is to create almost 200 more jobs in Hove, including customer service staff and field sales workers, as part of a strategy to benefit from the opening up of the electricity market. 19-May-1999 The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has estimated that up to £400m may need to be spent on the construction of 11 plants to convert landfill waste into electricity. 18-May-1999 Shell Expro is to abandon its Lifestyle health and safety initiative after 11 years in a cost-cutting move, but its other in-house programmes will continue. 18-May-1999 Scottish & Southern Energy has won two contracts worth £50m for the Royal Docks regeneration near the Millennium Dome, which will involve upgrading the existing electricity infrastructure and providing a £10m energy centre for the ExCel exhibition centre. 18-May-1999 PricewaterhouseCoopers is leading a consortium planning to bid for the management of the wholesale electricity market, and its partners include ABB Energy Information Systems, the International Petroleum Exchange and Energy Settlement and Information Services. 17-May-1999 Premier Oil is considering plans to sell stakes in its three main Asian gas projects in order to release capital and strengthen its balance sheet. 17-May-1999 The government is planning to sell a minority stake in British Nuclear Fuels in order to raise up to £1bn, but has ruled out a full privatisation at this stage. 17-May-1999 Coflexip Stena Offshore has won a £20m contract from Texaco for the supply of a pipeline system for the Captain Field, and 300 people are expected to be employed on the project at Evanton, Aberdeen, Leith, Newcastle and London. 14-May-1999 British Energy is considering plans to invest in US fossil-fuel generation and power supply, as well as expanding its US nuclear power business. 13-May-1999 Hyder has received a number of approaches from companies interested in buying its south Wales-based power supply business, which is thought to be worth up to £150m. 13-May-1999 Marathon Oil is to cut 44 jobs in Aberdeen and Peterhead, 26 in London, and 10 offshore, due to the effect of low oil prices. 12-May-1999 The government has reached agreement with Denmark and the Faroe Islands over the continental shelf boundary between Scotland and the Faroes, which will enable a large area of oil-rich waters to be opened for exploration. 11-May-1999 National Power and the Manx Electricity Authority are to lay a £45m undersea power cable between England and the Isle of Man, which will have a capacity of 40MW. 11-May-1999 The International Petroleum Exchange of London is expecting to receive tender offers from eleven energy companies interested in acquiring a 70% stake in the energy derivatives market. 10-May-1999 South Western Electricity is to seek a buyer for its electricity supply business, as its parent company Southern wants to focus on the local power distribution network. 08-May-1999 Kimberly Clark has won government approval for the construction of a 13MW gas-fired heat and power station at its paper mill in Barrow-in-Furness. 08-May-1999 Scottish Power is planning to set up a Welsh language call centre in Caernarfon for its Manweb electricity business, creating 30 jobs. 07-May-1999 BP Amoco has awarded contracts to Wood Group Engineering and Amec Process & Energy to undertake engineering work worth about £56m per year on its UK offshore platforms. 06-May-1999 Eastern Group is acquiring a 36% stake in Savon Voima, the Finnish power company, for £42m, and has an option to buy a further 55%. 06-May-1999 Elf Exploration UK is said to be planning to dispose of the operatorship of the North Sea's Piper and Claymore fields, the Flotta pipeline system and its terminal in Orkney, in order to shed high-cost operations. 05-May-1999 British Steel is said to be in discussions with a large US energy group about the construction of a £1bn 1000MW coal-fired power station on Teesside. 04-May-1999 Scottish Power has won approval from Argyll and Bute Council to build a £20m 30MW windfarm on the Mull of Kintyre, and is also looking at ten other potential sites throughout the country. 30-Apr-1999 Eastern Group has become the first UK company to join the Swiss Electricity Price Index, the recently-formed power trading market in Switzerland. 28-Apr-1999 Abbot has won a five-year contract worth about £200m to supply drilling services to Shell UK Exploration. 27-Apr-1999 Cobex of Wakefield is planning to start open-cast mining at Clyton West, and has applied for planning permission to extract 275,000 tonnes of coal over the next three years. 26-Apr-1999 PowerGen is to sell its coal-fired power stations at Fiddler's Ferry in Cheshire and Ferrybridge in West Yorkshire to Mission Energy of the US for £1.3bn, in order to win government approval for its acquisition of East Midlands Electricity. 26-Apr-1999 The DTI is planning a £12m coal research project in order to develop cleaner technologies for coal-fired power generation. 23-Apr-1999 PowerGen is planning to cut up to 700 jobs at East Midlands Electricity by consolidating six regional offices onto a single site at the Pegasus business park in Leicestershire. 23-Apr-1999 Lasmo is to sell a package of North Sea gas assets to Gaz de France for £90m. 22-Apr-1999 Ballymoney Council is considering plans from Meekatharra of Australia to mine 660m tonnes of lignite at locations in north Antrim. 19-Apr-1999 British Energy is buying the Clinton 930MW nuclear reactor near Chicago for £12m, through its AmerGen joint venture with Peco Energy. 16-Apr-1999 Schlumberger Sedco Forex, the North Sea drilling contractor, has announced plans to cut its Aberdeen workforce by up to 200. 15-Apr-1999 Torridge District Council has announced plans for the construction of a £7m biogas power station at Holsworthy in Devon. 15-Apr-1999 BG has formed a consortium with Shell to acquire a controlling stake in the Brazilian gas company Comgas from the state of Sao Paulo, for £602m. 15-Apr-1999 Hampshire County Council is to switch the bulk of its electricity supplies from Southern Electric to British Gas Trading, in order to reduce the bills at 840 of its sites by £1m over the next four years. 14-Apr-1999 BP Amoco has announced a £30m programme to install solar power at 200 new petrol stations being built in 11 countries over the next two years. 14-Apr-1999 Centrica is to close a British Gas call centre in Croydon and a billing centre in Barnet, with the loss of up to 650 jobs, as they had been operating at less than 50% of capacity. 14-Apr-1999 RJB Mining has secured a four-year agreement worth up to £800m to supply coal to National Power, which should help to secure its future for the next few years. 14-Apr-1999 United Energy is to sell AmBrit Energy to Castle Energy of the US for £14m, and is seeking opportunities to invest the proceeds outside the oil sector. 14-Apr-1999 BP Amoco has announced a £1.5m regeneration package for Hull, in order to help 290 workers at its Saltend plant find alternative employment and to improve education and training in the area. 13-Apr-1999 National Power has won government approval to acquire the supply business of Midlands Electricity, on the condition that it sells the Drax power station in Yorkshire. 10-Apr-1999 RJB Mining is to shed 200 jobs at the Calverton colliery in Nottinghamshire as it is no longer considered viable. 10-Apr-1999 The government has announced plans to set up consumer councils to oversee the activities of utility companies, including an energy council that will combine the Gas Consumers Council with the 14 electricity consumers' committees. 09-Apr-1999 East Midlands Electricity is planning to set up a central office at the Pegasus Business Park near East Midlands Airport, and expects to relocate 400 staff from existing offices in the region. 08-Apr-1999 BP Amoco and General Electric of the US have won government approval for a £300m gas-fired power station scheme at Baglan Bay near Swansea, which will be central to an energy park that could create up to 10,000 jobs. 07-Apr-1999 Monument Oil & Gas has received bid approaches from a number of companies thought to include Lasmo and Enterprise Oil, which could lead to a full takeover or the pooling of assets. 07-Apr-1999 Durham County Council is being urged by government inspectors to re-think their plans to curb opencast mining. 06-Apr-1999 Wood Group is set to cut more than 100 jobs from its workforce in the Brent field, while Total is to shed 25 jobs at its St Fergus site. 06-Apr-1999 Scottish Hydro-Electric is to recruit up to 200 staff in Aberdeen, Inverness, Perth and Dundee, following the launch of a new contracting company to carry out street work contracts. 06-Apr-1999 BP Amoco is to buy the remaining 50% of Solarex, the US solar power company, from Enron for $45m, and the business will be renamed BP Solarex. 06-Apr-1999 Eastern Group is planning to spend £10m on improvements to its Eastern Electricity network in Gorleston and Yarmouth, which will involve linking homes to the new power station at South Denes. 02-Apr-1999 The Office of Fair Trading is to investigate claims that oil companies are using their control of the petrol market to drive up prices in the Highlands, and will decide within six months whether to hold a full inquiry. 01-Apr-1999 Northern Ireland Electricity has invited tenders for the £150m construction project contract for the undersea electricity interconnector between Northern Ireland and Scotland, and work is due to start in the summer. 01-Apr-1999 PowerGen is to re-brand its recently-acquired East Midlands Electricity supply business under the PowerGen name. 01-Apr-1999 British Nuclear Fuels is planning to cut a further 500 jobs at its Sellafield plant over the next two years. 01-Apr-1999 Enterprise Oil and Lasmo have called off their merger discussions, apparently due to concerns over how competitive a combined group would be. 31-Mar-1999 The government is aiming to improve the competitiveness of the oil and gas industry by reforming the offshore licensing procedure and speeding up the handling of applications. 31-Mar-1999 Kingston Council is to consider plans from Beacon Low Impact Structures and Services for the construction of a revolutionary low energy office complex in Kingston upon Thames. 30-Mar-1999 British Energy's plan to build an 850MW gas power station at Sleaford is facing opposition from Lincolnshire County Council. 30-Mar-1999 Questar Corporation of the US has applied for a gas conveyance licence in order to build a pipeline and distribution network in Northern Ireland, including a 100-mile pipeline to Dublin and a 110-mile pipeline from Dundalk to Co Sligo. 30-Mar-1999 RJB Mining has launched a £5m takeover bid for CIM Resources, the Australian coal mining company, as part of a strategy to expand into other countries. 30-Mar-1999 Hyder, the Welsh utility group, is considering plans to sell electricity and gas to 10m households in England. 29-Mar-1999 The government is introducing new planning restrictions on the development of opencast coal mines, which will give local authorities the power to reject plans unless they are environmentally acceptable. 29-Mar-1999 Expro, the oil services group, is to shed 7% of its worldwide workforce, which is expected to result in the loss of about 30 jobs in Aberdeen. 26-Mar-1999 PowerGen is to take on 200 staff in Nottingham from Perot Systems Europe, following its decision to bring East Midlands Electricity's business systems in-house. 25-Mar-1999 Premier Oil is to shed 25% of its staff this year in order to make cost savings of £6m a year. 25-Mar-1999 Texaco has awarded £37m worth of North Sea contracts that will help to secure 200 contracting jobs in north-east Scotland, with a joint venture between Cooper Cameron and Brown & Root being selected to design and build subsea equipment. 24-Mar-1999 BP Amoco is to cut an unspecified number of jobs on its Magnus oil platform in the North Sea in order to reduce operating costs. 24-Mar-1999 Viridian is planning to create up to 100 new jobs with the launch of a new subsidiary called Powerteam, which will offer electrical services to companies throughout Ireland. 23-Mar-1999 Monument Oil & Gas is considering plans to invest £250m in either a corporate acquisition or the development of existing fields in countries such as Iran. 23-Mar-1999 British Energy is seeking to broaden its mix of power generation assets by trying to persuade the government to allow it to buy one of PowerGen's coal-fired power stations. 22-Mar-1999 Scottish Hydro-Electric has awarded an £8m contract to a consortium led by Weir Group for the refurbishment of the Errochty and Trinafour power stations. 22-Mar-1999 Phillips Petroleum is to go-ahead with development plans for its Central North Sea Jade field discovery, using a not-normally-manned platform. 19-Mar-1999 Elf has announced a significant oil and gas find in the Central North Sea, five miles from the Elgin and Franklin fields. 18-Mar-1999 Cambridge Water Company has started offering electricity to its water and gas customers in the Cambridge area, having secured supplies from Independent Energy. 17-Mar-1999 Wakefield Council has approved plans from MED Contracting for a reclamation scheme at the former Woolley Colliery, which will involve opencasting about 164,000 tonnes of coal. 17-Mar-1999 Celtic Energy has won approval to develop the Margam coal mine near Port Talbot, creating up to 350 jobs. 16-Mar-1999 Eastern Group is planning to develop an integrated electricity business across continental Europe, and is particularly interested in buying the power stations being sold off by the Dutch government. 15-Mar-1999 Enterprise Oil has announced details of a restructuring programme that will reduce its workforce by 25% and give more autonomy to operations in Aberdeen and abroad. 13-Mar-1999 The new combined body for regulating the electricity and gas sectors has selected London as the location for its headquarters, prompting fears of job losses at Offer's headquarters in Birmingham. 12-Mar-1999 Shell is transferring strategic control of its US division from Houston to London, as part of a strategy to centralise major decisions about capital expenditure. 12-Mar-1999 Manweb is planning to overhaul its customer service outlets in order to make it easier for customers to discuss account and energy saving problems, and dozens of new payment points will be set up. 11-Mar-1999 ASEA Brown Boveri has won a £200m contract to build a 400MW gas-fired power station at Shoreham for South Coast Power. 11-Mar-1999 Cairn Energy is to cut 95 jobs in a restructuring programme, largely as a result of Shell becoming the operator of one of its fields in Bangladesh. 11-Mar-1999 Abbot, the oil services company, is looking to acquire assets from exploration companies that have been hit by the low oil price. 11-Mar-1999 PowerGen has been refused planning permission to build a gas-fired power station in Lanarkshire, as the government ruled it would be against the local development plan. 11-Mar-1999 RJB Mining has submitted plans to extend its Hicks Lodge opencast coal mine in Leicestershire. 10-Mar-1999 Nutec is to set up a £2m safety and survival training facility at Dyce near Aberdeen, and it will target the offshore sector. 09-Mar-1999 Eastern Group has opened an office in Paris as it prepares to apply for licences to trade in electricity and gas across France. 05-Mar-1999 Thames Water is forming a joint venture with the Renewable Energy Company to sell electricity generated from sewage, under the name Ecotricity. 05-Mar-1999 BP Amoco is to close an oil consortium working in Azerbaijan, having failed to find commercially viable reserves in its offshore contract area. 04-Mar-1999 Transco has shortlisted seven companies to operate a new independent UK gas trading market, designed to improve the balance of supply and demand and prevent price manipulation. 04-Mar-1999 Plymouth City Council is considering plans to set up an electricity generating incinerator at the Chelson Meadow landfill site, and discussions are taking place with waste management companies. 03-Mar-1999 Phoenix Natural Gas has received a £45m investment boost from its shareholders, which will enable it to bring natural gas to more people in Northern Ireland and create more jobs. 01-Mar-1999 British Energy is seeking to expand its US nuclear business in partnership with Peco, and they have started negotiations to acquire the 540MW Vermont Yankee plant. 27-Feb-1999 Scottish Coal is preparing to appeal against the refusal of planning permission to set up an opencast coal mine near Forestmill in Clackmannanshire. 26-Feb-1999 Deeside Woodland Products has won government approval to build a £42m 23MW wood-fired power station near Inverness, which could lead to the creation of 260 jobs. 26-Feb-1999 East Riding Council has appointed Sussex-based firm Chris Blandford Associates to study proposed wind turbine sites in Holderness. 24-Feb-1999 Tees Valley Development Company is in discussions with a number of local firms about plans to make the north-east the centre for the offshore wind farm industry, and they believe that up to 30,000 jobs could be created in the region. 24-Feb-1999 ASCo Marine & Underwater Services is linking up with a number of local companies to form a new joint venture company in Aberdeen called Allied Marine Solutions, in order to offer a combined package of marine services to the oil sector. 24-Feb-1999 The government is planning to promote the use of solar power and is asking for industry assistance to help it develop large-scale demonstrations in shops, offices, housing estates, and hospitals. 22-Feb-1999 BG has sold 5% stakes in the Interconnector gas pipeline to both Distrigas of Belgium and Ruhrgas UK Exploration & Production of Germany, which will leave it with a 25% stake. 20-Feb-1999 Seeboard is to set up a customer service centre at its office in Hove, East Sussex, with the creation of 300 jobs. 19-Feb-1999 A consortium of engineering companies, including Swan Hunter, Shepherd Offshore, Amec and Aker McNulty, is considering plans to transform the Tyne into a leading centre for oil rig decommissioning, creating 3,500 jobs. 18-Feb-1999 BP is to invest £15m creating a network of 300 forecourt liquefied petroleum gas filling sites over the next five years. 18-Feb-1999 BP Amoco has announced plans to cut a further 3,000 jobs worldwide in order to reduce costs by £1.2bn within 12 months, and exploration will be concentrated on the Caspian Sea, Angola and the Gulf of Mexico. 18-Feb-1999 BG Storage and InterGen are appealing against refusal of planning permission for their £120m scheme to build gas storage caverns in East Yorkshire. 17-Feb-1999 British Sugar has won government approval to set up a £35m 70MW combined heat and power plant at its sugar factory in York. 16-Feb-1999 RJB Mining is considering plans to acquire coal mines overseas in order to reduce its dependence on the UK. 15-Feb-1999 National Power is considering plans to float its international power interests in order to boost its share price. 15-Feb-1999 BP Amoco has announced a major gas find in the Caspian Sea, with estimated reserves of 300bn cubic metres. 11-Feb-1999 National Power and United Utilities have ended merger talks that could have led to the creation of a £10bn electricity business. 11-Feb-1999 Plymouth City Council is set to approve plans from Wainstones Power for a £400m gas-fired power station and business park on the edge of the city. 10-Feb-1999 PowerGen has acquired a 49.9% stake in LG Energy, the South Korean power company, for £38m. 10-Feb-1999 Cairn Energy is to cut a large number of the 100 jobs at its Edinburgh headquarters, following its decision to transfer the management of its main gasfield interests in Bangladesh to Shell. 09-Feb-1999 Centrica is buying a 5% stake in the North Sea's Victor gas field and a 10% stake in two blocks in Morecambe Bay from Dana Petroleum for about £10m. 09-Feb-1999 Shell is in discussions with the Nigerian government and other international oil companies about an $8.5bn plan to boost Nigerian oil production by almost a third. 08-Feb-1999 Weir Engineering Services has won an £8m contract to refurbish two Scottish hydro power stations at Errochty and Trinafour, on behalf of Scottish & Southern Energy. 08-Feb-1999 BP Amoco is to cut 1,500 of the 6,300 jobs in the Chicago area over the next 18 months, due to low oil prices and restructuring of the merged companies. 06-Feb-1999 National Power has won a £160m contract to build and operate a 500MW power station plant at Pelican Point in South Australia. 05-Feb-1999 Scottish Power's attempt to acquire PacifiCorp for $11.8bn could be prevented or delayed by new legislation in Utah that would give the government the final say on the merger. 05-Feb-1999 Emerald Energy has raised £5m in a share placing in order to fund its drilling programme in Colombia. 02-Feb-1999 Independent Energy, the electricity supply company, is planning to move its UK listing from Aim to the main market in the summer. 01-Feb-1999 The government has rejected a plan by General Electric of the US to build a 1000MW gas-fired power station at Fleetwood. 29-Jan-1999 Edinburgh Oil & Gas is increasing its interest in the North Yorkshire gas project licences from 23% to 40%, having taken up options granted by the Irish exploration group Tullow Oil. 27-Jan-1999 Corrie Services, the Inverness-based recruitment company, has set up offices in Melbourne and Perth to enable redundant Scottish oil industry workers to find work in Australia. 27-Jan-1999 Southend Council is considering innovative plans to set up a small generating station to provide heat and electricity for residents and businesses in the town centre. 27-Jan-1999 Halliburton, the energy services group, has confirmed plans to cut about 600 jobs in Scotland by the spring. 26-Jan-1999 Monument Oil & Gas is buying out its partner Neste's stake in an oil discovery in southern Algeria. 25-Jan-1999 Siemens has won a £120m contract to build the 385MW second phase of the Seabank power station near Bristol, on behalf of a joint venture between BG and Scottish & Southern Energy. 23-Jan-1999 British-Borneo Oil & Gas is raising £30m from the sale of stakes in five North Sea gas assets. 23-Jan-1999 Highland Council has approved a £25m proposal from BSW Timber to build a 23MW wood-burning power station in Lochaber, which will create more than 100 jobs. 20-Jan-1999 Northern Ireland Electricity has won approval from the industry regulator for the £150m 35-mile undersea interconnector from Scotland, and construction contracts are expected to awarded by the middle of this year. 20-Jan-1999 National Grid is said to be close to agreeing the acquisition of a second large US electricity company in New England, and is also planning to sell a third of its 74.3% stake in the Energis telecommunications business for over £1bn. 20-Jan-1999 PowerGen has announced plans to restructure East Midlands Electricity by centralising the network management and construction departments, which will result in an unspecified number of job losses. 19-Jan-1999 Midlands Mining is to close the Annesley Bentinck coal mine in Nottinghamshire by the end of the year with the loss of up to 400 jobs, due to geological problems and adverse market conditions. 19-Jan-1999 National Power is to set up a £54m 110MW gas-fired combined heat and power plant in Thailand, which will be built by Electrowatt Engineering and Sumitomo. 16-Jan-1999 British Nuclear Fuels may have to shed hundreds of jobs at its Sellafied nuclear reprocessing works, following the cancellation of German government contracts worth £1.2bn. 15-Jan-1999 Shell International Renewables is buying a wood-fuelled plant at Kirkenaer in Norway that provides heat to a number of industrial and municipal customers, and will invest $4m upgrading it. 15-Jan-1999 Enterprise Oil is to shed 160 of its 800 staff in response to low oil prices, and the 400 London-based employees will be hardest hit. 15-Jan-1999 Petrus Oil is to create up to 20 jobs in Stoke following the award of a £22m joint venture deal with Velten Oil to construct a new waste oil refinery in Germany. 14-Jan-1999 Tullow Oil has raised its stake in North Yorkshire gas fields from 13% to 60% at a cost of £4.5m, and will take over the operation of the power station at Knapton. 14-Jan-1999 Independent Energy is acquiring a 50% stake in the Petroplus power plant at Milford Haven, and will invest in raising generation at the site from 21MW to 40MW. 14-Jan-1999 British Energy is seeking to diversify out of nuclear power by acquiring coal-fired plant put up for sale by PowerGen, and it is also identifying acquisition prospects in the US and continental Europe. 13-Jan-1999 WRE of Germany is planning to sell power generated from renewable sources in the UK from April, operating under the name Water Power & Renewable Energy, and will build wind parks off Cornwall and in the North Sea. 13-Jan-1999 Enterprise Oil is in preliminary merger discussions with Lasmo, which would create a combined oil group valued at about £2.3bn. 11-Jan-1999 Transco has been ordered to change the way it handles applications for connections to its pipeline network, following allegations of anti-competitive practices and a subsequent investigation by the industry regulator. 09-Jan-1999 BP Amoco has announced 900 job cuts in the UK, including 200 redundancies in Aberdeen, 500 at Amoco's former London headquarters and others at BP offices in Sunbury and Uxbridge. 08-Jan-1999 Celtic Energy has won approval from Bridgend County Borough Council to develop the Margram drift mine at Aberdaiden, creating up to 400 jobs. 07-Jan-1999 A new company called Kishorn Base is planning to re-open the Howard Doris oilyard at Kishorn on the West Coast of Scotland, and up to 600 jobs could be created to repair, build and decommission oil rigs and platforms. 07-Jan-1999 Phillips Petroleum is planning to make an unspecified number of job cuts in the UK, as part of a move to cut 1,400 jobs worldwide in response to low oil prices. 07-Jan-1999 WS Atkins Consultants has been appointed by the gas industry regulator to evaluate plans by utilities to prevent the disruption of gas supplies by the millennium bomb. 07-Jan-1999 Aker McNulty of South Shields has won a £17m order to help upgrade North Sea gas platforms for Statoil, which could create up to 600 jobs. 06-Jan-1999 Centrica has awarded a £65m contract to Amey for the management of its business support services throughout the country, including security, catering, portering and postal services. 06-Jan-1999 British-Borneo Oil & Gas is planning to make annual cost savings of £8m following its takeover of Hardy Oil & Gas, and it will vacate its offices in Knightsbridge to move to Hardy's London office. 05-Jan-1999 PowerGen is buying 12 small power plants with a combined capacity of 176MW from Yorkshire Electricity for £95m, which will double its combined heat and power generating output. 05-Jan-1999 Yorkshire Electricity is linking up with the British Chambers of Commerce to offer savings on energy bills to thousands of UK businesses. 04-Jan-1999 The information below comes from the UK Activity Report. 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