Here are the business stories making the headlines in Scotland and the UK this morning.
£11billion of offshore projects
UK North Sea projects totalling £11billion could be sanctioned by the end of 2024, according to research from Rystad Energy.
Energy Voice says that Equinor's Rosebank scheme makes up the lion's share of this pipeline of work, with Cambo and Clair Phase 3 also contributing.
Alaskan leases cancelled
US President Joe Biden's administration has cancelled oil and gas leases in an Alaskan wildlife refuge.
The interior department said revoking the drilling leases granted under ex-President Donald Trump would preserve 13million acres of wilderness.
But the BBC says Mr Biden has not reversed his recent approval of an £6.4billion drilling project in the same region.
Electrification scheme proving tough
A mammoth North Sea electrification scheme - targeted for start-up in 2028 - is proving a tough nut to crack.
Glenn Brown of Harbour Energy , told the Offshore Europe conference in Aberdeen that the firm is having "difficulty" with the Central North Sea Electrification project.
Energy Voice says Harbour has other irons in the fire though, having secured two licenses in the INTOG offshore wind leasing round.
UK is 'completely uncompetitive'
EnQuest CEO Amjad Bseisu has warned that the UK is "completely uncompetitive" for upstream oil and gas investment.
Energy Voice says the head of the North Sea operator set out challenges for the sector while speaking at Offshore Europe - and the predominant issue is the windfall tax.
Network Rail at High Court today
Network Rail has been accused of failing to warn a train driver that the track was unsafe before a fatal derailment near Stonehaven in 2020.
Three men died in the crash, which took place following a landslide.
The BBC says Network Rail is due to face charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act at the High Court in Aberdeen today.
Driver Brett McCullough, 45; conductor Donald Dinnie, 58; and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died when the train derailed.
Widespread doctoring of number plates
Up to one in 15 motorists - some two million - could be doctoring their number plates to avoid being caught by cameras enforcing Ulez zones and speed limits, a police investigation has suggested.
UK Government advisers have warned that controls on the sale of fake plates are so lax that the number of motorists seeking to evade detection is expected to rocket following the expansion of automatic number plate recognition cameras to police new Ultra Low Emission Zone areas and 20mph speed limits.
The Telegraph says fake number plates can be bought for as little as £10 from any of the 40,000 largely-unregulated sellers while reflective "stealth" tape to make plates invisible to ANPR infrared cameras can be purchased online for just £80.
New chairman for NatWest
NatWest Group has appointed a new chairman to replace Sir Howard Davies following the Nigel Farage debanking scandal.
Rick Haythornthwaite will join the bank's board on January 8 and take over from Sir Howard as chairman in April next year.
It comes after the taxpayer-backed lender was plunged into a crisis triggered by the debanking of former Brexit Party leader Mr Farage by Coutts, the private bank that NatWest owns.
Dame Alison Rose, NatWest's chief executive, and Peter Flavel, the boss of Coutts, were forced to resign over the scandal.
The Telegraph says Mr Haythornthwaite is one of Britain's most-experienced businessmen, having led the boards of companies including MasterCard, British Gas-owner Centrica and Network Rail.
Less financial resilience
Winter will be harder for many households because they have less financial resilience to deal with high energy bills, MPs have been told.
Charities said that energy debts were higher than a year ago and people were making "dangerous choices" as they tried to keep bills down.
That included people cooking on barbecues to avoid using gas.
The typical household energy bill will fall in October, but remains high by historical standards.
Energy regulator Ofgem's price cap, which affects 29million households in England, Wales and Scotland, means a home using a typical amount of gas and electricity and paying by direct debit currently pays £2,074.
The BBC says this will fall to £1,923 between October 1 and December 31.
Freddie Mercury's garden door sells for £412,750
Few are deserving of the word icon, but in Freddie Mercury's case it "could not be more appropriate".
So began the auctioneer Oliver Barker's introduction to the first sale of the Queen singer's personal collection at Sotheby's in London.
Kicking off the sale, which contains some 35,000 items in 1,500 lots that will be sold across six separate auctions, was the sale of Mercury's garden door.
The Telegraph says that 14 minutes of bidding was interspersed with gasps of shock and laughter as the item climbed from £11,000 and was eventually sold for £412,750.
The door - one of 59 lots sold on Wednesday evening - became historically significant after it turned into a place of pilgrimage for Mercury's fans after his death in November 1991, with many leaving graffiti messages to pay him tribute.