Here are the stories making the business headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Middle East business is booming for Star Trek-inspired Vulcan
Vulcan Completion Products (VCP), the Star Trek-inspired engineered product supplier to the global oil and gas industry, is enjoying considerable success in the Middle East.
The Aberdeenshire firm has recently won new contracts worth nearly £10 million in the region.
VCP said its new work “extends and deepens” relationships with existing clients in the area.
It's reported in the Press & Journal that the projects will be delivered over the next two to three years.
Meanwhile, VCP is also planning to expand its research and development (R&D) facilities in Westhill, near Aberdeen, in early 2024.
And it said it will be increasing its headcount to match an upturn in business and product development.
The company currently employs 21 people, which is up from nine last year.
Former Bank of England governor hits out at PM for net zero delays
Mark Carney has said that Rishi Sunak made a mistake by watering down Britain’s net zero pledges.
The former Bank of England governor warned that delaying net zero deadlines and approving new oil and gas drilling would harm investment into the UK.
Speaking at an event held by The Policy Institute, Mr Carney claimed that big businesses were already prioritising investment in countries that have clear climate commitments at the expense of Britain.
He said: “What I find when speaking to companies is their first question is: ‘Am I getting clean power?’ If you start throwing that into doubt it becomes a much more difficult discussion.”
Mr Carney, who led the Bank of England between 2013 and 2020, said that Britain had been “forging a consensus around net zero” but now “the Government has now fallen back a bit”.
Regulator sues Musk to force testimony in X probe
Financial regulators in the US are suing Elon Musk after the billionaire said he would no longer cooperate with its investigation into his purchase of Twitter, now known as X.
The BBC reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked a federal court to order him to comply with their request that he sit for a third session of testimony about the deal.
The move to sue followed receipt of a letter from a lawyer for Mr Musk, which said he refused to appear as requested.
It accused the SEC of "harassment".
A fifth of young adults don’t touch alcohol, Drinkaware finds
One in five young adults are teetotal and under-25s are less likely to drink alcohol than any other generation, a report has revealed.
Growing numbers of young people are giving up alcohol, although those who do drink are more likely to binge, according to an annual survey in the UK by the charity Drinkaware.
Twenty-one per cent of those aged 18 to 24 said that they did not drink, up from 14 per cent in 2017.
The proportion of non-drinkers in this age group, known as Generation Z, was higher than in any other — in comparison, only 13 per cent of over-25s said they were teetotal.