How the Opus technology works

Green Technology from UK Revolutionises Clean Sea Standards

A Surrey-based company with research and development facilities in Orkney, has made a breakthrough in green oilfield technology which has revolutionised international clean sea standards.

Specialist firm Opus, which has its headquarters in Guildford, has solved a problem of purifying ‘produced water’ – pumped in high volumes through pipelines with heavy crude oil to enable extraction – to advanced levels.

The purification process perfected by Opus for this ‘produced water’ has achieved results significantly above industry norms and massively under-cut progressive international regulations.

The company’s purpose-built separation plant, processing thousands of cubic metres of produced water daily, has achieved output levels of less than eight parts of oil per million – several times better than  the contracted target of 28 parts per million.

The Compact Flotation Unit is installed on the FPSO Maersk Peregrino, (floating production, storage and off-take vessel) serving the two platforms on the Peregrino field, commissioned last year off Rio de Janeiro, and has a production capacity of  100,000 barrels a day.

With estimated recoverable oil of up to 600 million barrels, the Peregrino field is the biggest operated by Statoil outside Norway.

Opus – whose motto is ‘Results Delivered’ – had the device built, installed, tested and commissioned against a tight timescale and then optimised the process to achieve the ‘above-spec’ quality of water being discharged back to the sea.

The company’s Director of Strategic Operations, Glen McLellan, said: “At Maersk Peregrino, we were told by the client that our installation and services were the smoothest part of the production vessel’s topsides (above-surface components) development.

“Between that and the superb performance of our equipment, we are making sure we live up to our aim to not only deliver results but to continuously develop our technologies and services to stay ahead of the field.”

The CFU is the fourth such unit to be deployed internationally by Opus, whose specialist design and project management activity is run from the Guildford base, working closely with their research and development facility on the Orkney ‘oil-hub’ island of Flotta in Scotland.

Anne Milton, MP for Guildford, said: “This is a great local business story for Guildford. I understand Opus have developed groundbreaking technology in this important field.

“I gather Opus are now leading the world in finding solutions to complex technological challenges and setting new standards in an very challenging environment.”

Noting that Opus has created their technology in Surrey and Orkney, the Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: ”This technology developed by Opus is an example of the sort of innovative thinking Scotland excels in, and I wish them every success.”

Particularly suited to production vessels as well as rigs, being unusually robust and unaffected by motion in the sea, the CFU uses three separation techniques, combining gas flotation (in which oil droplets attach to tiny bubbles), droplet coalescence (pulling tiny droplets together into removable accumulations), and cyclonic separation (use of a vortex to force oil and gas components into a stream for ejection).

The high-performance technology is further improved when coupled with another Opus innovation, the ‘Mare’s Tail’® which uses fibre to catch and combine oil droplets.

Opus separation technologies have been installed on fixed and floating installations by companies including BP, Hess, Total, Statoil and Maersk.

In addition to the ’coalescer’ technology, Opus provides solutions to a range of process and environmental needs for oil and gas producers, including fluids analysis, process upgrades and marine ecotoxicity testing.

Admiral Fallow set sail for HebCelt

Acclaimed Indie folk group Admiral Fallow are the latest band to sign up for this year’s much anticipated Hebridean Celtic Festival.

The Glasgow-based five–piece, formed in 2007, are earning a growing reputation and have attracted plaudits from such high-profile performers as Elbow’s Guy Garvey, King Creosote and Guillemots’ Fyfe Dangerfield.

Their debut album, Boots Met My Face, released in 2010 was hailed by the critics and the follow up, Tree Bursts in Snow, is released on 21 May.

Their first visit to HebCelt will see them performing on the main stage on Friday, 13 July.

Niteworks set to play at HebCelt

Louis Abbott, the group’s frontman, said:  “We’re delighted to have been asked to play HebCelt this year. It’s a festival that has been on our radar for a while now and, having spent some time on Lewis before, I can honestly say it’s one of my favourite places.

“We’re genuinely looking forward to this one.”

Admiral Fallow are one of 13 newly-announced acts for the festival which now has 25 artistes confirmed for the event from 11-14 July, with more still to be unveiled.

It has also been revealed that Niteworks will make a welcome return to the event after a storming set last year. The electronic Celtic folk act, originally from Skye but now based in Glasgow, are heavily influenced by their upbringing with Gaelic vocals, Scottish border pipes and Highland rhythmic song filtering through into their music.

Allan Macdonald, who plays pipes in the band, said: “We always love playing in Stornoway, it feels like our adopted second home.

“Being asked back to HebCelt – one of the biggest and most important events in the music calendar – is amazing, and given the reception we received last year, it’s definitely going to be our festival highlight this summer. ”

Also confirmed is singer songwriter Frank Yamma, a recent finalist in the National Indigenous Music Awards in his native Australia, and who appeared at the prestigious City of London Festival last year.

He will be joined by the Heidi Talbot Trio, fronted by the Irish singer and featuring John McCusker; Scottish/Irish piping duo Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson with their exciting new five-piece band; Edinburgh singer songwriter Adam Holmes and the Embers and award-winning young Gaelic singer Isobel Ann Martin.

The two festival stages will also host The Sea Atlas, an emerging local talent; Tiree-based Skipinnish; Edinburgh alternative Indie folk band Wee See Lights; Skye three-piece, The Angus Nicolson Trio; Edinburgh band Chasing Owls and provides a showcase for the Fèis Rois Ceilidh Trail.

Festival Director, Caroline MacLennan, said: “We are thrilled Admiral Fallow will be at this year’s festival. They are building up a formidable reputation and I am sure they will be a massive hit with our audience.

“The line-up we have confirmed so far is exceptionally strong, covering a wide range of musical styles and tastes. With still more acts to be confirmed we are greatly increasing the choice and value for money for our festival goers.”

Now in its 17th year, the festival will be headlined by The Waterboys, The Proclaimers and Kassidy.

It attracts visitors from around the world and already fans from across Europe, the USA and Canada have snapped up tickets which can be booked online at www.hebceltfest.com

Friday the 13th will be a lucky day for an up and coming artist or group who will be given the opportunity to showcase their talents at one of the summer’s hottest music festivals.

This year’s Hebridean Celtic Festival, which will be headlined by The Waterboys, The Proclaimers and Kassidy, is offering a performance slot for a new band or singer during the four-day flagship event.

The 17th HebCelt, which runs from 11-14 July, attracts visitors from around the world and already fans from across Europe, the USA and Canada have snapped up early bird tickets.

The One Step Further competition is open to any young band or performer, aged between 18 and 25 at the time of the festival, playing a genre of music that reflects the general programming of the event.

The winner will be able to perform live on Friday 13th July in front of the festival audience on the second stage within the main HebCelt arena.

Festival Director, Caroline MacLennan, said: “This is an incredible opportunity for an individual or group to present their talent to a large audience who are always keen to hear new music.

“The festival supports emerging talent from throughout the Celtic nations. However we recognise that it can be challenging for those starting out to break through, especially at a major event like the festival, so we want to encourage applicants to think creatively about how best to present their work to get that start.”

The competition is supported by internationally renowned musician Phil Cunningham, well known as a champion of young talent.

He said: “This is a fantastic idea from the festival organisers which could give an individual or group the chance of a breakthrough at a major event.

“Playing to a live audience is the ultimate for a performer and where better than HebCelt for young artists or bands in the Celtic genre to make a name for themselves.”

Entrants need to prepare a promotional pack in electronic format to sell their music to the judges. This should include high resolution imagery, a biography and links to three good quality recordings of their music. To enhance their pack they can also include links to their live video performances.

Submissions should be sent, marked HebCelt New Talent Submissions, by email to office@hebceltfest.com by midnight on Friday, 6 April.

Judging will take place throughout the month with the winning artist or artists being chosen by 27 April.

The HebCelt organisers will also offer the winner £200 towards expenses to attend the festival as well as passes to enjoy the rest of the event.

Are journalists the best people to speak to other journalists? Do you need to have served time in a darkened newsroom to be able to properly communicate with the media?

I would argue that it can help to understand the requirements of reporters, and how to serve them better, if you have seen the industry through the same bleary and bloodshot eyes at some stage.

The need to get to the heart of the story, the desire for relevant detail, the quest for context, statistics, quotes that back up your top line and getting a message across in simple, easily-understood language without lapsing into jargon, are all aspects a reporter is looking for. And all at a time to suit his/her deadline.

Surely a battle-scarred hack is the best person to ensure other hacks get what they want?  Maybe, but certainly not exclusively.

Demobbed members of Her Majesty’s  Press  do not necessarily make good  PR executives.  A good writer can give a weary press release the burst of energy it requires to get it noticed. But if they  can’t write very well in the first place, it’s unlikely that they will become a Pulitzer Prize winner penning commercial copy and could fall foul of the King Midas in reverse syndrome.

A good reporter may recognise a story, but will the best story best serve the needs of the client? Could the natural instinct to pursue the hard-hitting intro hit the firm you’re supposed to be representing more than the reader?

PRs without a journalistic background can write as well as, and in some cases better than, the reporters who alter their prose, and the best ones get their client’s message over  in a way that suits the journalist’s  requirements. Just don’t expect the journalist to admit it.

It’s a sad fact that beauty normally comes at the price of fragility, and often vulnerability to the actions of you, me and the rest of society.

Obvious topical examples include pandas, polar bears or the earth itself. But what’s true of the natural world is equally applicable to beautiful concepts that society has developed for itself.

Democracy is an equally topical case in point, judging by the recent experiences of Russia or Egypt.

So too is Wikipedia.

Why Wikipedia? And, for that matter, what has its beauty, or lack of it, got to do with communications or PR?

I will get to these questions before things get ugly, so to speak, but first let’s cast a lustful eye at a few of Wikipedia’s vital statistics.

In barely a decade, it has become a multi-lingual, international go-to reference site for about half a billion people a year, with tens of thousands of active contributors working on nearly 20 million articles. What’s more, its open-house culture means that hundreds of thousands of visitors each day make edits, additions and updates to its diverse content.

It’s a thing of beauty – a living, voluntary, global collaborative bee-hive of knowledge.

And that’s another thing about beauty; it’s something we can’t buy, despite the lures of collagen, peroxide or botox.

Of course, it is never without the odd flaw. In Wikipedia’s case, innaccuracies and worse can be injected by accident or by internet vandal ‘trolls’, though these are normally sieved-out as articles develop, meaning that newer pieces need looked at slightly more sceptically, while older pieces grow fulsome, fair and full of links to pukka published reference sources.

Some have argued that this IT imposter can never be a true encyclopedia, being too susceptible to mistakes and mistreatment, and at the minimum it needs hedged with legal and regulatory safeguards to succeed. Interestingly though, when the science journal Nature compared its accuracy with Encyclopedia Britannica, they found the same ratio of ‘serious’ errors per article for both.

That stands in Wikipedia’s favour , given that its articles average double the length of those in the good old EB.

So far, so good.

Then, enter the Beast, in the shape of certain PR professionals.

Well-known agency Bell Pottinger has recently found itself at the centre of a not-so beautiful web of controversy, following revelations in the Independent newspaper that its directors have been taped claiming to undercover reporters that they could ‘sort’ individual Wikipedia entries for clients.

Then, it was alleged that another leading PR professional had become very busy as an online ‘reputation cleanser’, doctoring dozens of Wikipedia entries for a range of wealthy businesspeople and even a belted earl.  This apparently included removing controversial personal details and softening negative references to certain business activities.

Crude interference of this kind, along with other unethical online practices like posting fake product reviews or blogs, looks increasingly out-dated and unsustainable but, nevertheless, will always pose a potential threat to the delicate but ever more globally robust health of web resources like Wikipedia.

And it reminds us starkly of what we should – or should not – promise potential PR clients.

The rightful claim, and unique benefit, of good public relations and marketing activity is that it can help people, organisations, businesses and their products to get noticed and get the reputations that they deserve – so that they say what they are, and are what they say.

Anything else is simply a business of cosmetics, applying façades of beauty which, as we know all too well, go no deeper than the skin.

A discussion with a client last week about cultural sensitivity reminded me of my time in Saudi Arabia.

Few British managers would have experience of everyone in a meeting room standing up as you entered the room: officer on deck! The respect given to a senior manager in the Middle East is quite amazing. And spending time sharing a meal with your team is always appreciated…or sitting having normal client meetings at Midnight in a Jeddah warehouse during Ramadan, for example. You are working on their time and fitting into their culture.

The ability to understand these cultural differences and a willingness to be part of where you are makes an ex-pat experience very rewarding. However, it is a skill set under-used at home! Departments, teams and companies have their own cultures. They have a shared set of values and a commonality in how they deal with non group members and each other.

It is a wise manager who learns to adopt and adapt to these situations to understand, possibly change, and certainly manage the “cultural” plethora presented to them.

So, we might know about exchanging business cards properly with a Japanese businessman (accept with two hands, read carefully and place on table in front of you or carefully into card holder – the British way of throwing it over the table is not on), but do we think enough about the culture of a client or our own despatch or QC departments, for example, to ensure we are achieving all we can?

Why is this “internal cultural” understanding important?

By understanding, you will be able to adapt your behaviour to the situation. No one is suggesting you change your values or modus operandi completely. But you should recognise the need to adapt.

For example, you are asked to lead a project team made up of very task orientated people. They all want to do before they plan or consider the outcome etc. Build on that strength, manage the situation by making the planning a positive “doing thing” rather than a stage before really getting the job done as they will see it. This way you get your planning done, you have not slowed down the momentum and you look culturally aligned in the action stakes and not a bureaucrat! Everybody wins!

Your marketing department are organising a golf day….happens all the time. Think about your clients….who allows this kind of participation from client managers? Is it the type of culture where you should ask your contact’s boss or even boss of boss? Having developed that cultural sensitivity will prevent a faux pas and will enhance your personal and company reputation.

How you get to that position is through listening, questioning and observing.

For a new client , arrive 10 minutes early and get a sense of the place from reception and receptionists. Look at the clothes, the security set up, the way people address each other, stuff on the walls, magazines laid out, the welcome extended, and so on. You learn so much in reception. Then with your contact, ask! What is it like here, what are the values? Are the website values walked as well as talked?

None of your business? I don’t think so.

Internally, in your own organisation, it is about using eyes and ears to observe, listen and learn.

So, never shake an Arab woman’s hand until offered, but do listen to any team member’s interaction to see a culture in action. Only one will get you into trouble!

Whether you voted for devolution way back in September 1997 or not, the Scottish Parliament has had a profound effect on all of our lives. Perhaps most importantly, the sense of reaffirmation of national identity was captured by Dr Winnie Ewing, the Parliament’s most senior member, at its first meeting in May 1999 when she declared that: “The Scottish Parliament, which adjourned on 25 March 1707, is hereby reconvened”.

Of course, this modern Parliament is a very different constitutional animal from its predecessor. No matter. This was the beginning of an exciting new political era for Scotland and opened the door to devolved legislation that should be ‘fit for Scotland’s purpose’ as opposed to what ‘fits England’.

Whilst Westminster still covers such issues as International Relations, social security, financial markets and the Union between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, matters ranging from education, through the health service to management of the countryside are devolved to Holyrood. We no longer have to depend on Members of the Westminster Parliament to fight our ‘minority’ corner against the ‘majority’ of ‘English’ members on these more local matters. Scotland IS different and, love it or hate it, the Scottish Parliament is far more likely to understand our needs and hopefully administer the budget to fit those requirements.

As someone who has campaigned, in various guises, on behalf of Scotland’s people since the Scottish Parliament’s inception in ’99, I have been fascinated to see how it developed from arguably a Chamber of over promoted ‘coonsilors’ to a place of gravitas and influence – and it will be interesting to see how the huge new intake of MSPs develop over the coming months.

Many of the MSPs I became friendly with in the early days after devolution are now Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries in their own right, and the depth of their thinking and understanding of the issues has grown along with their promotions. What has struck me more than anything though, is how approachable they are and how willing to listen and amend their thinking they have always been. No one, however, should make the mistake of thinking that changing minds is either easy or that the legislation is perfect; but both are there for the influencing.

Many years ago as a novice ‘lobbyist, I once made the mistake of allowing my nerves to get the better of me in a meeting with a Westminster politician and I quickly realised I must have come across as angry and aggressive – even though I eventually won my case. It will never happen again. Of course, when we go to see a politician we go because we want change of some sort and it CAN be nerve racking but Andrew Thin (currently Chairman of Scottish Natural Heritage) gave me some very good advice: “In order to have influence, you have to be liked” – of course you also have to command respect.

Whether you require change at EU level – which is the most complicated political arena in our sphere – at Westminster, Holyrood or even local government level, facts, examples, friendliness and deep breaths have a large part to play in the influencing game, as does knowing exactly who you need to speak to, how you are going to do that and being aware of the political agendas at play.

After their historic win in May this year, the SNP’s Richard Lochhead MSP (Member for Moray and Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment) said in a letter to the Scottish Farmer: “The SNP’s victory was truly historic and Scotland will never be the same again. Rural Scotland is now a sea of yellow and played a pivotal role in delivering the nation’s first ever majority Scottish Government.”

Those of us who seek to influence this “sea of yellow” will be holding First Minister Alex Salmond firmly to the spirit and words of his victory speech: “Although the SNP has a majority of the seats, we don’t have a monopoly of wisdom.”

Only by continuing to listen to those who DO have wisdom and experience can this Government hope to realise their leader’s promise that: “This party, the Scottish party, the national party, carries your hope. We shall carry it carefully and make the nation proud.”

I for one, wish them luck.

Geva Blackett is the Lucid expert on Public Affairs and has many years of experience as a lobbyist operating at Holyrood, as well as the Westminster and European Parliaments.

Having a well penned feature land on the desk can make a features editor’s heart soar like an eagle — especially if it comes with good quality, free-to-use colour photographs.

But submitted features regularly fall short, often for simple reasons such as timing.

Deadlines can be set months in advance. July, for example, is when many Christmas preview shows are staged, and decisions can be made then as to what is published in December.

Building contacts will help you become familiar with deadlines.

However, it’s also worth keeping an eye on current events taking place within popular culture.

A soap story-line involving issues as diverse as eating disorders to glamping holidays can spark interest in the subject and be considered good ‘feature’ material and required for publication while still a hot topic.

Good geographic knowledge is also important, especially when targeting regional publications. Ensure you know where the publication will be sold before taking any “local” line.

Regularly read your target publication to learn what style of features it favours; the word counts and lay-out.

If writing about people give us much information as possible; age, occupation, where they live, if they have family/pets, unusual hobbies and so on.

Find a “hook” that will grab the attention and write as if telling a story to a best pal. Include humour, if appropriate.

Pitch the article with a call or email but leave a gap of a few days before following up. Never send it to more than one person within the same organisation.

Ensure you include contact details: email; land-line and mobile numbers, and be willing to re-jig the article to suit the publication’s style or perhaps to tie-in with a current event, and you may soon find yourself in print.

Susan Welsh is a features writer for the Press and Journal. She has been a journalist for 15 years and was formerly features editor of the Aberdeen Evening Express. She has written on topics as diverse as spending the night in the late Queen Mother’s home, the reputedly haunted Castle of Mey; make-up for men; and why Bill Wyman was happy to leave the Rolling Stones.

Some hints and tips for musicians and their managers on getting better exposure in the music press:

1. Think of how you promote yourself as an extension or embodiment of how you want to present yourself as an artist. Not so much musically, but in terms of your overall professional ethos, and how you’d like press, promoters etc to see you. Concern for quality, attention to detail, accuracy and an appreciation of the bigger picture into which you fit are just as relevant and important in the writing of your publicity material, the selection of your photographs and your all-round willingness to fulfil your side of the logistical bargain, as they are when it comes to your performance onstage.

2. Put yourself in the shoes of the people your biog/press release etc is aimed at – starting with those who know absolutely nothing about you. If you were them, what would you want/need to know? Outline the narrative behind who and where you are as an act – not at exhaustive, blow-by-blow length, but covering the key sequence of events, and being specific about dates and other facts. Anticipate the questions a journalist might want to ask: if you end up being interviewed, and you’ve already supplied all the basic information about when, how and why you formed, what your influences/inspirations are, your highlight achievements to date, and whatever noteworthy/colourful quirks you might possess, then you can use the time during the interview to elaborate on all this, and/or talk about things in more interesting depth.

3. Do your homework and plan ahead. Depending on their format and how often they come out, publications and radio/TV programmes all have different lead times when scheduling coverage. Find out the name of the specific individual you need to contact (arts editor, music editor, programme producer, producer’s PA?), and find out how much advance notice they like to work with – too much can be as unproductive as too little. As a basic rule of thumb, the less often a publication/programme happens, the more notice they need, eg monthly magazines plan much further ahead than daily newspapers. Be patient and prepared to drip-feed – you might send in publicity about two or three gigs and only end up getting a response the fourth time: there’s always a lot of competition for coverage, but even if it seems that a journalist/editor/producer is ignoring you, the fact of your existence (and of course your consistently polished, professional, entertaining promo material) will be noticed and should cumulatively bear fruit.

Sue Wilson is a freelance arts journalist of 20 years’ standing, whose work has appeared in the Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, the Sunday Herald, the Guardian, the Independent, Songlines magazine and other publications.

We often look to promote our regions, projects or businesses through a tightly drawn descriptive phrase or brand to help them stand out. But there can be a fine line between finding a strapline or tag with an immediate, widely understood connotation and simply resorting to common, or even spent currency.

Lately, the ‘energy hub’ positioning has been applied thick and fast to aspiring countries, regions and projects from the whole of Turkey to the East of England and even to a humble buildings-and-environment laboratory in Salford.

So where’s the harm in applying this type of blunt and easy descriptor, or encouraging the media and others to apply it because we don’t supply something more appropriate?

No harm, perhaps, but certainly no marketing gain, as we simply huddle in the same congested marketplace.

The ‘energy hub’ term has also arisen sometimes in relation to an area which is close to my own heart – Scotland’s Highlands and Islands. This is a region whose unique natural resources and pioneering achievements truly invite clear differentiation to customer and supply chain audiences.

For instance, it is the first region in the world to pilot deepwater offshore wind production; undertake grid-connected testing of full-scale wave and tidal energy devices; and achieve commercial-scale leasing of marine energy sites, sufficient to match the power of several nuclear power stations.

But how do you find a realistic promotional ‘shorthand’ to distinguish a region like this and reinforce market perceptions, stimulating interest, engagement and investment in its current momentum and future potential?

In my view, by summoning up and confidently deploying a descriptive catchline which is itself a first, as well as being realistic and useable by the region’s businesses, and is credible to its target audiences.

Such a tool is only one part of the marketing mix, of course, but it would help project this region into its own competitive space and out of the crowded centre ground – or hub, you might say.