Here are the stories making the business headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Profits surge at UK North Sea’s fifth largest producer
Neo Energy, the UK North Sea’s fifth largest producer, has reported a huge boost to its production and profits.
The Aberdeen-headquartered firm, owned by Norwegian private equity house HitecVision, gave a glimpse of its finances in consolidated group accounts just published by Companies House.
Neo’s pre-tax profits totalled £2.3 billion, up from £445.1 million the year before.
But tax of nearly £1.6bn significantly impacted the end-of-year balance sheet. Neo’s tax figure includes the energy profits levy, or “windfall tax”.
Click here to read more in today's P&J.
UK house prices ‘still have further to drop’
House prices were unchanged last month, defying predictions of another drop, but they are unlikely to have reached the bottom just yet.
The average price of a house in the UK is now £257,808, according to Nationwide, the high street mortgage lender.
In percentage terms and after adjusting for seasonal factors, there was no change month-on-month after an 0.8 per cent reduction in August. Economists had expected another fall of 0.4 per cent last month.
Compared with this time last year, house prices are 5.3 per cent lower, the same annual figure that was recorded in August. Economists had been looking for the year-on-year rate of decline to worsen to 5.7 per cent.
Oil cartel leader warns of prolonged high prices
The price of oil will continue to stay elevated as demand for energy increases, says the secretary general of Opec+.
"We see demand growing about 2.4 million barrels a day," Haitham Al Ghais told the BBC.
Saudi Arabia said it would be cutting its production of crude oil by a million barrels a day to boost prices.
The International Energy Agency said the decision by Saudi Arabia and Russia - two major oil producers and members of Opec+ - to cut production could cause a "significant supply shortfall" by the end of this year.
Food prices fall for first time in two years
Fierce competition between supermarkets has led to the first monthly drop in food prices for more than two years, an industry body has said.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said prices in September were down 0.1% from the previous month.
Prices of dairy goods, margarine, fish and vegetables - which are often own-brand lines - all saw falls, it said.
Grocery inflation - the annual rate at which food prices are rising - remains high but is starting to ease.
Employers who spy on staff threatened with fines amid rise in home working
Employers who spy on staff have been threatened with fines by the privacy watchdog amid a rise in home working.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has said it will “take action” against companies that conduct “excessive” monitoring of workers following an uptick in bosses tracking calls, messages and keystrokes since Covid.
Emily Keaney, deputy commissioner at the ICO, told the Telegraph: “As the data protection regulator, we want to remind organisations that business interests must never be prioritised over the privacy of their workers.
“We are urging all organisations to consider both their legal obligations and their workers’ rights before any monitoring is implemented. While data protection law does not prevent monitoring, our guidance is clear that it must be necessary, proportionate and respect the rights of workers. We will take action if we believe people’s privacy is being threatened.”