This week, Energy Voice’s intrepid reporters Mat and Mike explored the recent announcement that the government is set to approve Eni’s HyNet carbon capture and storage project. The deal comes with financial support for the Track 1 project, and adds momentum to the UK’s CCS journey.

We also catch up with news editor Erikka, who was at the North Sea Decarbonisation conference this week, finding out all about how the UK needs to reshape its industries, create new partnerships and generate sustainable jobs to secure a greener future.

And back in the studio, Mike and Mat chat about the £300m coming from GB Energy to invest in the UK’s offshore wind supply chains. But is this a strong enough signal for the sector, which has seen mixed signals coming from the government?

This week Wood provided updates on Sidara's proposed £250 million takeover, NESO declared war on zombies in the grid queue, and Equinor and Orsted warned of the impacts of wake loss.

Aberdeen-headquartered Wood received a non-binding takeover bid from Dubai-based rival Sidara worth £250m, a significant drop-off compared to last year's £1.5 billion bid. Our reporters discuss this, Wood's shares being suspended and them impacts of yet another Scottish company being bought over by international competitors.

Next up, the UK's National Energy System Operator (NESO) unveiled plans to get rid of 'zombies' from the grid queue in a collaboration with regulator Ofgem. This could see up to 360GW of projects on the current queue have their contracts downgraded because they are not ready. What does this mean and is it a result of too much dithering from the UK?

Finally, European energy giants Equinor and Orsted have said offshore wind revenues could take a £363m hit due to other projects getting in the way of their turbines. Although those in the Tour de France peloton don't mind the frontrunner taking the brunt of the wind resistance, turbine operators do. Does industry need to share its survey results so all can benefit from the North Sea breeze?

This week we got further updates on the Neo Energy and Repsol tie-up, Kistos' full year results for 2024 and the results of HAR2. Energy Voice's Ryan Duff, Erikka Askeland and Mat Perry discuss.

First up, what's happening at Flotta? Erikka chats about the gas terminal's hydrogen plans and what attracted Neo Energy's private equity backers to the Spanish firm's UK division. Ryan argues that tax incentives from Repsol's extensive decommissioning liabilities may be the answer.

Next up, Ryan discusses Kistos and its plans to expand the Greater Laggan Area off the west coast of Shetland. The firm has brought attention to the Glendronach field now that operatorship of the area is changing hands. When talking about gas, there has to be a Trump, the trio discusses how US policy is impacting global oil and gas firms.

Finally, Mat chats about hydrogen and the results of HAR2. Was it perfect? No, but maybe it doesn't need to be. He discusses some of the talking points from a recent conference in Birmingham, which touched on getting hydrogen "good" but it doesn't need to be "perfect" in order to unlock investment. Price is still a sticking point for this fuel source but the government is aiming to tackle this too.

In this week’s episode of Energy Voice Out Loud, Ryan, Mat and Michael discuss Petrofac’s recent $500m contract award. Is it what the company, and the North Sea services sector in general, need to turn their fortunes around? Both could do with some good news.

And then we heard from Mat, who travelled down to Birmingham this week for the Hydrogen UK annual conference, and spoke to the organisation's chief executive Clare Jackson about how the UK sector has progressed in the past year.

And finally, Erikka was at NZTC's Net Zero Innovation show in Aberdeen and spoke to Mark Anderson, chief acceleration officer at the Net Zero Technology Centre, Paul Pirrie, co-founder of show exhibitor and TechX program graduate Myriad Wind Energy Systems, North Sea legend and UK Technology Platform director Colin Black and last but definitely not least Paul Addison, director of policy and external affairs for GB Energy.

This week’s episode was rocked by the announcement Repsol was merging its North Sea assets with private-equity backed Neo Energy. Energy Voice reporter Mathew Perry explains this is part of a trend for operators to distance themselves from the basin including Shell and Equinor, while Michael Behr confirms this the supply chain is also making marriages of convenience.

One of the big North Sea buyers has been Ithaca Energy, which last year combined with Eni which in turn had absorbed Neptune Energy. Now they are looking at reviving the fortunes of West of Shetland’s Cambo, the basin’s second largest undeveloped oil and gas find and green campaigner bogeyman.

Lastly, news editor Erikka Askeland tackles Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spring statement that wasn’t, at least for the energy industry, and asks if it’s possible for the UK to claim to be a superpower of both clean energy as well as the defence industry.

Scotland is currently leading the world in the development and testing of tidal stream and wave energy technologies. Two of the world’s first tidal stream arrays have been built and operated in Scotland since 2016. Excitement for the sector is also growing since a number of projects have won support through the UK's contracts for difference (CfD) scheme in recent years.

Turn in to hear Energy Voice news editor speak to Johanna Money, energy transition specialist at Scottish Enterprise, about the vast economic and environmental potential for Scotland underneath the water as it develops energy generation technology that is clean and comes from consistent and predictable tides. We also take a trip up to Orkney to speak with Eileen Linklater, corporate affairs director of European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), where conditions are ideal to prove why the tide will wait for no one.