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On Monday, Sable got a boost from Judge Wilson, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Judge Wilson denied a request by the California Department of Parks and Recreation (and other State agencies) to enjoin Sable Offshore from restarting or continuing the operation of oil pipeline segments withing Gaviota State Park.
Sable got another boost from Chevron, which agreed to buy 20,000 bopd from Sable for its El Segundo refinery.
Not to be denied, the California Attorney General filed the attached lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The AG argues that US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has no authority under the Defense Production Act (DPA) to excuse Sable from compliance with state and federal laws and court orders. The lawsuit alleges that the DPA Order violates the Administrative Procedure Act and infringes on California’s sovereign power under the Tenth Amendment.
The suit also alleges that the Order violates the constitutional Separation of Powers by purporting to override not only state law and a preliminary injunction issued by the Santa Barbara Superior Court, but also a judicial Consent Decree approved by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California that expressly acknowledged and approved the State’s role in reviewing and approving any planned restart of the onshore pipelines.
The AG asks the Court (p. 33) to issue a judicial declaration that the Wright Order is unconstitutional and/or unlawful because it violates the APA and the U.S. Constitution.
Read the Court filing for full details, and stay tuned. No doubt there will be more swings in momentum going forward.
Posted in California, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General | Tagged California AG, Chevron, Chris Wright, Dept. of Energy, El Segundo, Gaviota State Park, March Madness, Sable Offshore, TRO denied | Leave a Comment »
Per the Dept. of the Interior:
- TotalEnergies commits to invest approximately $1 billion—the value of its renounced offshore wind leases—in oil and natural gas and LNG production in the United States.
- Following their new investment, the United States will reimburse the company dollar-for-dollar, up to the amount they paid in lease purchases for offshore wind.
- Specifically, TotalEnergies will invest $928MM, in the following projects in 2026:
- The development of Train 1 to 4 of Rio Grande LNG plant in Texas;
- The development of upstream conventional oil in Gulf of America and of shale gas production.
- Following theseTotal investments, the U.S. will terminate the following leases and reimburse the company:
- Lease No. OCS-A 0535 (now 0545). The lease is located in Carolina Long Bay area. This lease was fully executed by TotalEnergies Renewables USA, LLC on June 1, 2022, after payment of $133,333,333.
- Lease No. OCS-A 0538. The lease is located in the New York Bight area. The lease was fully executed by Attentive Energy, LLC on May 1, 2022, after payment of $795,000,000.
- Total pledges not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States.
Comments:
- This is a good deal for Total.
- They grossly overpaid for these leases during an offshore wind bidding frenzy.
- In particular, the bid of $795 million for the New York Bight lease seemed irrational even at the time of the sale (more so now).
- Construction had not begun on either wind project.
- The LNG project looks like a good investment, and there are good opportunities to buy into deepwater and onshore shale projects.
Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind | Tagged $1 billion, Attentive, Carolina Long Bay, Doug Burgum, leases terminated, LNG, New York Bight, Offshore Wind, Total | 1 Comment »
Norway has always been ahead of the pack when it comes to worker accommodations. Gulfaks B (pictured) is a concrete, gravity-based platform installed nearly 40 years ago, but the living quarters and amenities are updated and first class. A Gulfaks B worker provides a tour in the video embedded below.
Posted in Norway, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized | Tagged accommodations, Gulfaks B, North Sea, Norway, tour | Leave a Comment »
For friends of Glenn Shackell and others interested in the plight of helicopter door gunners in Vietnam, Andrew Konczvald shared an informative, but rather horrific, video that I have embedded at the end of Glenn’s tribute.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Glenn Shackell, helicopter door gunner | Leave a Comment »
Not offshore, but close😉 Fond memories of my stay at NPRA many years ago.
Strong participation; nice mix of big dogs – Exxon, Shell, ConocoPhillips (CPAI), and Repsol – and independents.
Stats – 3/18/2026 NPRA lease sale:
- Tracts offered: 625
- Tracts receiving bids: 187
- Sum of high bids: $ 163,696,722.2
- Highest bid: $ 3,649,920.00 by Epoch Resources
- Companies participating: 11
- Total bids: 430
| Company | High Bids |
| North Slope Exploration | 78 |
| Shell/Repsol (joint bids) | 42 |
| CPAI | 30 |
| Exxon | 24 |
| Epoch | 8 |
| Peritas | 2 |
| Beacon | 1 |
| Oil Search | 1 |
| SE Partners | 1 |
Posted in Alaska, energy | Tagged Alaska, CPAI, Epoch Resources, Exxon, North Slope, NPRA, oil and gas lease sale, Repsol, Shell | Leave a Comment »
Per EIA data, the Appalachia, Permian, and Haynesville regions accounted for 67% of the total marketed gas production in the US in 2025 and 81% of the growth last year.
In 2025, more natural gas was produced in the Appalachia region of the Northeast than in any other US region, accounting for 31% of marketed natural gas production. (See the chart below.) Were it not for pipeline capacity limitations, recent growth in Appalachia production would have been greater.
OCS gas production, 80% of which is now associated gas from deepwater oil wells, continues to lag the shale basins. This is a big change from 25 years ago when the OCS produced more gas than any state but Texas. (See the chart below.) Interest in ultradeep (subsurface) OCS shelf gas prospects remains scant despite favorable demand forecasts and technological advances.
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Meanwhile, New York continues to block development of the State’s ample shale gas resources. foregoing the economic and environmental benefits.
Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines | Tagged Appalachia Region, Haynesville, leading natural gas producer, Marcellus Shale, New York, OCS gas, Pennsylvania gas, Permian, Utica shale | Leave a Comment »
Although bidding at Sale BBG2 was rather subdued, Gulf heavyweights BP, Chevron, Shell, and Oxy/Anadarko, along with increasingly important Woodside Energy, competed for the 4 red blocks in the Green Canyon area (map above and table below). These elephant hunters presumably see excellent Paleogene (Wilcox) prospectivity in those blocks.
17 of the sale’s 38 bids (45%) and $32.8 milion of the sale’s $47 million in high bids (70%) were for these 4 blocks. BP’s $21 million bid for GC 404 was by far the sale’s highest bid.
| Green Canyon Block No. | No. of bidders | High Bidder | Bid |
| 404 | 5 | BP | $21,009,990 |
| 405 | 2 | BP | $885,99 |
| 448 | 5 | Chevron | $4,967,067 |
| 492 | 5 | Chevron | $5,887,188 |
At this time, the high costs and technical complexities (e.g. deepwaterand high pressure/high temperature reservoirs) limit Wilcox development to major oil companies and well financed, technically savvy independents. Expect some of the international majors that did not participate in BBG2 to acquire lease interest at a later date, which will again raise questions about the merits of joint bidding restrictions.
Imbedded below is a good presentation on the Paleogene Wilcox by Dr. Mike Sweet, Univ. of Texas:
Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General | Tagged BBG2, bp, Chevron, Dr. Mike Sweet, Green Canyon, lease sale, Paleogene, Shell, sweet spot, Wilcox, Woodside | Leave a Comment »
Add the unprecedented events of the last two weeks to the long and troubled history of the Santa Ynez Unit dating back to the Offshore Storage & Treatment facility days. There are no parallels in the history of the US OCS program.
To date in March:
3/3/2026: The Dept. of Justice issues an opinion asserting that, under the Defense Production Act of 1950 (DPA), an order issued by the President or his delegee would preempt California laws currently impeding Sable from resuming production and operating the associated pipeline infrastructure.
3/13/2026: Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issues an order to Sable invoking the DPA to immediately prioritize and allocate pipeline transportation services for hydrocarbons from the SYU through the Santa Ynez Pipeline System (SYPS).
3/14/2026: A letter from California Parks and Recreation demands that Sable remove all four miles of its pipeline from Gaviota State Park.
3/14/2026: Sable resumes the transportation of Santa Ynez Unit oil through the SYPS from Las Flores Canyon (LFC) to Pentland Station. Prior to resuming hydrocarbon transportation from LFC to Sable’s sales point at Pentland Station, Sable had approximately 540,000 barrels of processed crude oil in storage at LFC, representing more than the line fill volume for the SYPS between LFC and Pentland Station.
3/16/2026: Sable resumes oil production at anticipated rate of 50,000 bopd and expects first sales by April 1, 2026. Production ramp-up is anticipated to proceed with full production resumption at Platforms Harmony and Heritage this month and Platform Hondo in June 2026
Posted in California, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, Regulation | Tagged Chris Wright, Dept. of Justice, DPA, Gaviota Park, Los Flores Canyon, production resumes, Sable Offshore, Santa Ynez Unit | Leave a Comment »
Per Recharge: The first blade break at the wind farm was probably caused by a manufacturing defect, and the second was damaged during installation. According to regional newspaper Jämtlandstidning, local residents were complaining about not getting sufficient information about the third such incident.
“We don’t know what’s happening because we’re not told anything,” Terese Björk, who witnessed the broken blade on Friday, told the newspaper.
This is reminiscent of the delay in informing the public about the Vineyard Wind GE Vernova failure. The investigation report about that incident has still not been issued nearly two years after the blade failure.
Posted in accidents, Offshore Wind, Wind Energy | Tagged incident details, public not informed, Sweden, turbine blade failure, Vineyard Wind | Leave a Comment »
This follows the directive from Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Friday.
However, quoting Nick Welsh of the Santa Barbara Independent: “With Sable Offshore, one thing’s for certain; there’s always more to come.”
Posted in California, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, Regulation, Uncategorized | Tagged Chris Wright, resumes production, Sable Offshore, Santa Ynez Unit | Leave a Comment »
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 