Ignorantbliss

How do surveyors get their valuations? - in the current market a tad optimistic asking for over £425k+ - 45 Forest Road Kintore considering what you can get for that money elsewhere in the area.

Apparently Aberdeen council need experts now to tell them how healthy the Aberdeen economy is instead of listening to local business - "Prominent experts appointed to advise on Aberdeen economy". The background of the appointed experts is an eye-opener - I wonder if they have ever set foot here in any meaningful way in their lifetime! Guardian article discussing this a bit more.... "Aberdeen joins councils raising money by selling bonds as cuts bite".

Pretty detailed article on the Aberdeen economy - "Aberdeen, the city that looks like it's in the middle of a boom rather than an oil and gas slump"

Another hotel and another 50 flats to add to the glut - Bon Accord Centre redevelopment in Aberdeen approved

Dandara fined £9,000 for misleading customers for providing misleading information relating to the sale of homes at its Stoneywood Estate in Aberdeen - link here

Don't often drive that way, but yesterday passed through Westhill. Was surprised to see a big new hotel being built on Straik Road (next to the Westhill Service Station) - I thought the Hilton out there was closing/for sale due to lack of hotel demand?. Anyway, my god, what a monstrosity of a building - looks like its made of prefabricated containers all stuck on top of each other. And who in the council allowed them to use bright orange cladding for the outside of the building?! I sincerely hope for the sake of the owners of the houses across the road that this is not the final colour scheme - not conducive for house prices for sure.

Neighbor told us yesterday that Baker Hughes have been sending out "at risk" letters this week so that's another place letting people go.

The location of the companies main HQ will also play a part. Companies with a USA HQ (e.g. Halliburton, Schlumberger etc) generally get headcount reductions mandated down to them by HR in the USA with little or no input allowed from UK management/HR, irrespective of the impact on operations ("if there is an issue, we can handle any extra workload from the USA or UAE"). In my friends case, the UK operations were seen to be an easy hit for a number of reasons, including higher average base salary and a perceived better reception from the media and politicians back in the home country "USA first". On plus side, the UK employees got a much more generous redundancy package that their US equivalents - but most of that extra money was thanks to European Employment Law. Bizarrely, the company did not mind the big layoff payoffs as they got a large tax benefit in the USA - bit like that story of Trump's losses being used to offset future profits. Another factor that makes them layoff people without a whim is that one of the key metrics senior management performance in the USA is measured on is "revenue per head" - and they are measured on that on a monthly basis. So, in times of falling revenue, the only way those managers can keep their jobs is to get rid of people as fast as possible - irrespective of the problems it causes in the future with loss of experience etc. Nothing like a redundancy consultation process to make you aware of how cynical the whole oil industry is - just remember there is no such thing as company loyalty in these big multinationals!

Should clarify that it's supposedly a small consultancy office in Bridge of Don that is closing (not a base....doh) and not the manufacturing base on Woodside Road.

Baker Hughes are actually closing another three facilities in Aberdeen (they closed the Westhill office last year) - Balgownie, one of the Bridge of Don bases and the big base at Stoneywood (next to BP). The closure of the Stoneywood facility is due by the end of December and the staff based there are supposedly going to be redeployed at the remaining facilities in the likes of Portlethen and Kirkhill - though as there are few spaces in there for additional personnel the omens are not good for the Stoneywood people. They have already started demolishing part of the Stoneywood facility (old portacabins nearest BP car park) and the for sale sign I hear is already up. The closure of Stoneywood strongly indicates that they consider Aberdeen is finished as a major business base - they purpose built Stoneywood around 2002 to act as the main showcase operational HQ for the UK and they got the adjoining portacabin site from DrilQuip to allow the construction of an extension to allow the closure of Balgownie & Westhill. I hear nowadays that Baker has stopped considering the UK as a separate marketing/operations region and they have lumped the UK sector in with Norway with all the key management and decisions now being based/made in Stavanger - expect to see more of the Aberdeen bases work transferred to Norway in the months/years ahead unless there is a sudden change in UK D&E activity. So more empty offices coming onto the market - or will they demolish the lot and build more rabbit hutches like those on the old BP site?