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Per the preliminary EIA data for April, Gulf of America OCS facilities produced an average of 2.107 million bopd in April. This surpasses the previous record of 2.060 million bopd set in January.
Meanwhile, the Sable bump is now evident in the EIA’s Pacific OCS production data with a ~50% March-April increase from January-February. A bigger increase should be apparent when the May numbers are posted. How will Sable fare in the upcoming court battles?
Posted in California, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General | Tagged 2.1 million bopd, California OCS, Gulf of America, new record, oil production, production jump, Sable Offshore | Leave a Comment »
Gulf of America flaring and venting data for 2019-2025 are summarized in the attached table. The preferred performance indicators are the percentages of produced gas that are flared and vented both for oil-well gas (OWG, also known as associated or casinghead gas) and gas-well gas (GWG or non-associated gas).
The flaring and venting table was compiled using monthly data submitted to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR). This is the best data source because reporting is mandatory and strictly enforced, and flaring and venting are accounted for separately. All volumes are in millions of cubic feet (MMCF).
The venting and flaring volumes are segmented for both OWG and GWG production. Venting produced gas (mostly methane) is a more significant environmental concern from both air quality and greenhouse gas (GHG) perspectives.
Observations and Comments:
- The total volume of gas flared and vented in 2025 was 9.7 bcf (chart 1). 80% of that volume was flared, leaving 20% vented. OWG flaring (chart 5) reached a new high of 7.785 bcf in 2025, a near record oil production year for the Gulf.
- Total venting and flaring in 2025 increased by 819 million cubic feet vs. 2024. However, the 7-year trend line remains favorable (chart 1).
- Thinking that 2019, a record year for total flaring and venting, may have biased the trend line, I extended the chart back to 2015, the first year for which I have ONRR data. As you can see in chart 2, the overall trend is still favorable.
- The % of produced gas that was flared or vented remains persistently above the historical 1.0% target (chart 3). Flared/vented volumes were below 1% of production prior to 2018.
- The higher flaring/venting % may be because most gas production is now from oil wells, which typically have higher flaring rates associated with processing upsets.
- The flaring and venting gap between GWG and OWG has narrowed, largely because of an increase in GWG flaring/venting. The combined rate for GWG more than doubled over the 7 year period, rising to 0.81% vs. 1.34% for OWG. (chart 3)
- Total venting rose to 1.7 bcf in 2025, the highest venting volume in 3 years.
- The % of GWG being vented doubled over the past 5 years to over 0.50% (chart 4). The growth in venting warrants further investigation.
- The % of OWG vented increased slightly to 0.20%. Further reduction in OWG venting had been expected given that OWG production is increasingly from deepwater facilities with modern flaring systems.
- A 2020 Univ. of Michigan study found “Large, older facilities situated in shallow waters tended to produce episodic, disproportionally high spikes of methane emissions. These facilities, which have more than seven platforms apiece, contribute to nearly 40% of emissions, yet consist of less than 1% of total platforms.”
- Platform specific data would be helpful in further assessing flaring/venting sources and trends.
Posted in climate, flaring and venting, Gulf of Mexico, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General | Tagged flaring, flaring charts, flaring table, gas well gas, Gulf of America, oil-well gas, venting | Leave a Comment »
Duke Energy will voluntarily terminate its offshore wind lease located in Carolina Long Bay.
“This settlement allows Duke Energy to refocus $129 million in ways that directly benefit our customers and communities in the Carolinas,” said Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of Duke Energy Carolinas. “Under the agreement, Duke Energy will reinvest nearly $129 million in additional generating capacity, which may include advancing new nuclear and natural gas generation, and grid enhancements to strengthen reliability, support continued growth in the Carolinas and keep costs as low as possible.”
Both Carolina Long Bay leases have now been terminated. In March, Total had agreed to relinquish its Long Bay lease.
Posted in energy policy, Offshore Wind | Tagged buyback, Carolina Long Bay, Duke Energy, TotalEnergies, wind lease | Leave a Comment »
Sable Offshore began ramping up production at Platform Harmony last May delivering oil and gas to their Los Flores Canyon Processing Facility. In March, they resumed transportation to the Pentland pipeline segments and achieved first sales.
Below are BOEM production data for Harmony through March 2026. Harmony production was expected to increase to 22,000 bopd in May. Similarly, Sable forecasted Heritage production of 30,000 bopd for that month. The actual production numbers should be available in a month or two.
Nothing in the March production data for Harmony is particularly surprising. The gas-oil ratio (GOR) of ~1000 cu ft/bbl is rather typical for oil production in the region, as is the water cut, although less water production would be preferred. Produced water is not discharged from the platform, but is injected subsurface through disposal wells.
Posted in California, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, Regulation | Tagged gas oil ratio, Platform Harmony, Platform Heritage, production ramp up, Sable Offshore, Santa Ynez Unit, water cut | Leave a Comment »
After 41 years of offshore safety leadership, Mike Saucier, an outstanding engineer and manager, is retiring from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).
Like many of the offshore program’s stalwarts, Mike earned a petroleum engineering degree from the Louisiana State University (LSU). In 1984, he began his Federal career in the Houma District Office of BSEE’s predecessor, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), where he was mentored by the great John Borne.
Mike has held many important engineering and supervisory positions including Drilling Engineer and District Manager in the highly regarded Houma District Office, Regional Supervisor for Field Operations, Regional Supervisor for District Field Operations, Acting Deputy Regional Director for District Operations, and Senior Technical Advisor for the Office of the Director. When the New Orleans District Manager retired during a hiring moratorium, Mike stepped up and assumed those duties as well.
Mike impressed his colleagues with his commitment to safety achievement, the essential core element of the offshore program. His diligence, and his firm, fair, and consistent enforcement of the safety and pollution prevention regulations, earned him respect throughout the offshore industry.
Mike is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys hunting and fishing, and has 4 grandsons to mentor in those skills. Note the impressive achievements cited in the Order of the Alligator certificate (below) 😉. The Order of the Alligator recognition is most fitting given Mike’s alligator hunting expertise, which greatly impressed those of us who were unfamiliar with such exploits!
In recognition of Mike’s outstanding career, the Board of Directors of the former Minerals Management Service (fMMS) has unanimously voted to induct Mike into the fMMS Hall of Fame! Mike receives (is sentenced to? 😉) lifetime membership in the fMMS and a registered copy of the offshore world’s prized masterpiece, the painting Rig at Sunset 😉. (image and short explanation below).
Congratulations to Mike! You made a difference!
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Regulation, Uncategorized | Tagged Hall of Fame, LSU, Mike Saucier, MMS, offshore safety, Order of the Alligator, retirement, Rig at Sunset, safety leader | Leave a Comment »
BOEM’s Decision Information Matrix for Sale BBG2 is attached. As previously noted, 2 of the 25 high bids were rejected: Keathley Canyon Block 828 ($1,101,202) and Atwater Valley Block 63 ($650,018).
The rejected bids were significantly below both BOEM’s Mean of the Range-of-Value and Lower Bound Confidence Interval for these single bid tracts (table below).
| Block No. | Company | no. of bids | bid | MROV | LBCI |
| AT 63 | LLOG | 1 | $650,018 | $2,400,000 | $1,800,000 |
| KC 828 | LLOG | 1 | $1,101,202 | $24,000,000 | $23,000,000 |
In the case of Keathley Canyon 828, BOEM’s valuation is more than 20 times the high bid. BOEM valued this block far higher than any other block in the sale.
KC 828 had been previously leased and that lease expired on 9/3/2025. The lease block was part of LLOG’s Buckskin field. Apparently, the lease expired due to inactivity given that the last well reached total depth more than a year prior to the expiration date. LLOG wanted the lease back. BOEM’s rejection sends a message that the price went up (by a lot 😉).
Finally, why didn’t any other company bid on KC 828, a block that has been publicly reported as being part of the Buckskin field?
Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General | Tagged Atwater Valley, bid rejections, BOEM, Buckskin field, Keathley Canyon, LBCI, Lease Sale BBG2, LLOG, MROV | Leave a Comment »
My colleague Keith Meekins shared an informative AAPG article about the importance of Miocene reservoirs in offshore oil and gas production worldwide.
“The Miocene delivered a significant amount of sand with excellent reservoir characteristics around the world,” noted Erik Scott, exploration geologist and consulting geologist/sedimentologist.
“Generally, hydrocarbons are coming from deeper, older rock – the Cretaceous, the Jurassic. By the time these source rocks get to the (hydrocarbon) generation window, the Miocene reservoirs are in place,” Scott said.
“Generally, the Miocene deposits are surrounded by fine-grained muds that produced sealing potential,” he noted.
More:
- Miocene reservoirs account for more than 40 percent of established hydrocarbon reserves in the deepwater Gulf. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management identifies more than 9 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable Miocene resources.
- Recently, Eni found a giant Miocene natural gas accumulation in the Kutei Basin offshore Indonesia with an estimated 5 trillion cubic feet of gas and 300 million barrels of condensate in place.
- Azule Energy, equally owned by Eni and BP, made a recent Miocene oil discovery with an estimated 500 million barrels of crude offshore Angola.
Keith points to RTM (reverse-time migration) as an important factor in helping to unlock Miocene resources. RTM produces dramatically improved images below salt bodies and in areas of complex overburden. Per AAPG, Talos Energy used reprocessed RTM seismic to identify a bypassed Miocene fault-block closure in the Green Canyon Area of the Gulf. This structure had previously been invisible.
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General | Tagged Erik Scott, Gulf of America, Miocene, oil reserves, reservoirs, reverse time migration, RTM, Talos | Leave a Comment »
JL Daeschler shared an interesting opinion piece. He and I are in general agreement with the author, Steve Sasanow. Key points:
- Steve finds Equinor’s recent comment that the days of big offshore finds are over to be disingenuous. He correctly notes that this view has been echoed for decades. (Although the end of Gulf of America oil production has been predicted for 40 years, 2025 was a near record year.)
- Offshore Norway, it was only in 2010 that the giant Johan Sverdrup field was ‘found’ by Equinor. Two super-majors – Exxon and Total – missed the reservoir and abandoned further exploration in the area. (How many times have we heard similar stories in the oil patch?) Equinor, then Statoil, made a relatively small find in the middle of the reservoir and was planning a limited subsea development. Geophysicists from partner Lundin created a better picture of what was in place – nearly 3 billion barrels with peak production of 750,000 b/d three years ago. Just this week, Equinor announced Phase 4 of production through further subsea development.
- Who heard much about Guyana a decade ago?
- How about the major new discoveries offshore Brazil? See the video below.
- New production offshore Namibia, South Africa, and Mozambique looms. Finds off Indonesia and Timor Leste, and even the Falklands, await development.
- “So guys, stop making out that life is tough. It might be challenging, but it has always been thus. Big risks and big rewards.”
- On BP’s announcement that they were reorganizing into upstream and downstream divisions: “Wow – what a great idea! How come no one ever thought of this before? Imagine this scenario – oil companies making money on both sides of the price cycle – upstream when the price of oil is high and downstream when it is lower. Amazing – NOT!” 😉
Posted in Offshore Energy - General | Tagged Brazil, Equinor, Guyana, Mozambique, Namibia, new discoveries, Norway, offshore oil, South Africa | Leave a Comment »
In the ongoing Santa Ynez Unit production restart saga, John Smith informs that a California Appellate Court ruled against Sable Offshore by a vote of 2-1, with a strong dissent from one of the three judges.
The decision (attached) affirms the California Coastal Commission’s regulatory authority over Sable’s Los Flores Canyon pipeline repairs, meaning that Sable could be ordered to cease operating the pipeline. However, this is just one element of a complex legal maze. An important case regarding PHMSA’s emergency special permit for the pipeline will be heard by the Federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in July.
The dissenting judge’s opinion beginning on p.15 of the attachment sets the stage for the upcoming arguments in the 9th Circuit. Excerpt:
“But first, a dose of reality. The repair work has been done. It is a “fait accompli.” And, pursuant to federal intervention, oil is now flowing in the pipeline without incident. The supremacy clause of the United States Constitution takes precedence. The federal Government trumped the state’s Commission “cease and desist” order and it trumps the preliminary injunction order. Based upon these events, the trial court should vacate the preliminary injunction, dismiss the matter as moot, and nullify the civil penalties.”
Posted in California, energy policy, pipelines, Regulation | Tagged 9th circuit, California Appellate Court, California Coastal Commission, PHMSA, pipeline repairs, pipeline restart, Santa Ynez Unit | Leave a Comment »
In the attached complaint, BP Hancock LLC alleges Vineyard Offshore, a Vineyard Wind parent company, is delinquent in paying rent for its space in the famous John Hancock Tower (now known as 200 Clarendon Street) in Boston.
Vineyard Wind had leased 28,370 square feet of space, constituting the entire eighteenth floor of the tower.
Per the complaint:
- As of the date of this Complaint, Tenant owes Landlord $824,338.99 in Rent, Additional Rent, and late fees.
- Furthermore, Tenant remains obligated to replenish the Security Deposit in the full amount of $386,810.00 as provided under Section 16.26 of the Lease.
As many of you know, Vineyard Wind is engaged in an ugly dispute with its primary contractor, GE Vernova, which was ordered to continue work on the project even though Vineyard Wind stopped making payments.
Particularly troubling from an OCS policy perspective, BOEM waived the “pay as you build” decommissioning financial assurance requirement for Vineyard Wind and subsequently relaxed financial assurance requirements for all offshore wind projects.
Posted in decommissioning, energy policy, Offshore Wind | Tagged delinquent, GE Vernova, John Hancock Tower, rent payments, Vineyard Wind | Leave a Comment »
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 