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Pointing to the potential financial implications for GE Vernova, Recharge News cites this serious fraud accusation by Vineyard Wind (VW):
“This exceptional misconduct includes [GE Vernova’s] intentional scheme to falsify critical quality assurance data… and to intentionally misrepresent the quality of those blades to [Vineyard Wind] in a brazen fraudulent, and willful breach of the TSA, ultimately resulting in the catastrophic blade failure…”
Recharge also discusses the findings of the Project Engineer appointed by VW to resolve claims between parties. Under the terms of the contract, the engineer’s determinations are binding unless overturned in arbitration.
- The engineer determined that GE Vernova was liable for project delays, blade defects, vessel costs, and a $185m rescission of previously certified payments.
- The damage claims issued by the project engineer total $853m.
- On the basis of those determinations, VW withheld 100% of the outstanding invoices issued by GE Vernova. Even netted against sums allegedly owed to GE Vernova, VW says the turbine maker owes around $545m.
- Per the contract, there are no limitations on liability in cases of “fraud, gross negligence, deliberate default or willful misconduct.”
My take: VW’s charges against GE Vernova will be resolved in the courts. However, VW is the lessee and operator, and is thus the party responsible to the Federal govt for project safety and environmental protection.
- Operator responsibility is a fundamental tenet of the OCS regulatory program. As lessee/operator, VW bears ultimate responsibility for project safety and environmental protection.
- VW is responsible for contractor selection, management, and oversight.
- If a contractor violates a regulation, the violation notice is given to the operator. If a contractor causes pollution, the operator is responsible for the cleanup.
- DNV, the Certified Verification Agent (CVA) hired by VW, was required to verify the design, fabrication, and installation procedures. Did they raise any issues to VW and the regulators?
- At VW’s request, BOEM waived a Fabrication and Installation Report (FIR) requirement so the project could stay on schedule. The FIR addresses quality assurance measures, so the waiver is highly relevant and concerning.
- Did the division of responsibilities between BOEM and BSEE weaken regulatory oversight? BOEM, ostensibly just the leasing bureau, should not have been authorized to grant departures that could affect structural integrity and operational safety.
- It’s surprising that VW has not been cited for civil penalties resulting from the blade failure and the resulting environmental damage.
- How can a judge prevent a contractor from stopping work for an operator that has filed serious fraud allegations against the contractor, has stopped making payments, and has, along with the Governor, declared the project to be complete?
Lastly, nearly two years after the blade failure, we are still awaiting BSEE’s investigation report.
Posted in accidents, Offshore Wind, Regulation | Tagged BOEM, BSEE, CVA, DNV, fraud charges, GE Vernova, investigation report, lessee, litigation, responsible party, Vineyard Wind, waiver | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday’s mandated One Big Beautiful Bill sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge turned out to be a one-on-one competition between an Alaskan independent and a State agency! Only 5 of the 58 tracts received bids, and the high bid was $1.7 million.
The competitors:
- HEX Energy, an Alaskan independent: 4 bids, 2 high bids
- Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), the state government’s economic development agency: 5 bids, 1 high bid
The implications for Arctic offshore sales are not good, but oil companies can be fickle, and opinions and investment strategies are subject to change, especially in the Arctic.
Posted in Alaska, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General | Tagged AIDEA, ANWR, Arctic offshore, HEX Energy, lackluster, lease sale | Leave a Comment »
Posted in California, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General | Tagged Chris Wright, Doug Burgum, Los Flores Canyon, Sable Offshore, Santa Ynez Unit, visit | Leave a Comment »
Nothing tilts public opinion more than high gasoline prices, or worse yet shortages! Hence the 1975 legislation establishing the SPR, the massive SPR drawdown in 2022, and this year’s withdrawals.
Looking back to the halcyon days of the US offshore program, it was the gas lines in the 1970s that drove the remarkable and rather unlikely growth in the program during the Carter Administration (1977-1981). A few highlights from those four years:
- 15 lease sales including 3 offshore Alaska, 3 in the Atlantic, and 1 offshore California
- Drilling activity in all 4 regions: GoM, Pacific, Alaska, and Atlantic
- Natural gas discovery in the Mid Atlantic (Hudson Canyon Unit)
- North, Mid, and South Atlantic District offices for permitting and inspections
- 5300 well starts including 97 in water depths > 1000′
- 314 new platforms including Cognac, the world’s first platform in > 1000′ of water
Perhaps unthinkable today, the Governor of Massachusetts from 1979-1983, Ed King, was a strong supporter of offshore drilling. Absent that support, the exploratory drilling on Georges Bank would probably have never occurred. /s/ Nostalgic Old Man 😉
Posted in Alaska, California, energy policy, Georges Bank, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General | Tagged Atlantic, Ed King, gas lines, Georges Bank drilling, Gulf of America, history, OCS oil and gas program, Pacific, Strategic Petroleum Reserve, withdrawals | 2 Comments »
Those who have been following the Santa Ynez Unit saga should take a look at Sable’s informative PowerPoint update (attached). The presentation includes reserve data, well operation plans, production forecasts, financial and legal updates, and regional energy supply information.
Also, Sable CEO Jim Flores has announced that Energy Secretary Wright and Interior Secretary Burgum will be visiting the project this week. Transportation Secretary Duffy was also expected, but he will not be attending.
Posted in California, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation | Tagged California, Chris Wright, Doug Burgum, finances, oil and gas reserves, production, Sable Offshore, Santa Ynez Unit, update | Leave a Comment »
The subject IEc report for the US Coast Guard may be of interest to BOE followers. The Coast Guard is requesting comments by July 28, 2026. You can download the full report (129 pages) here.
The report is intended to update the Coast Guard’s methodology for estimating the cost savings resulting from spill prevention regulations. The paragraph pasted below is a good summary of the objective.
The offshore industry could benefit from this report, because the estimated cost of spills >100 gallons is reduced, dramatically so when the DWH/Macondo blowout is excluded (see the second table below). That reduction would support regulatory reform initiatives, and could thus generate some controversy.
My main concern is that there is only a single distance-from-shore category for offshore spills (see text below). The natural resources damage from a spill 3 miles from shore will almost always be much greater than from an equivalent volume spill 100 miles from shore.
The single-offshore-category issue is illustrated in the 2 tables pasted below. The first table presents a summary of expert opinions on the smallest spill size that is likely to result in measurable natural resource damages. The mean response to Question 3 (offshore) is 7782 gallons. A spill of that size occurring 3 miles from shore is much more likely to result in resource damage than a spill originating 50 or 100 miles from shore.
In the second table, note the new methodology results in the same cost estimates for large nearshore/coastal spills as for offshore spills. Again, this is presumably because there is only a single offshore category.
The public comments on this report should be interesting.
Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, oil spill response, Regulation | Tagged benefits of avoiding spills, oil spills, regulations, report, US Coast Guard | Leave a Comment »
Massachusetts Judge Peter Krupp confirms that GE Rewables (GER) can’t quit now, but must continue working on the Vineyard Wind (VW) project! As we approach the 2 year anniversary of the blade failure, this ugly legal dispute among the responsible parties is another black eye for the troubled project.
Judge Krupp: In discussing irreparable harm in the April Memorandum, I found that the project “is at a critical phase,” that GER’s termination “would set the project back immeasurably and threaten VW’s financing,” that the requirements “to bring the project into commercial viability is highly dependent on GER’s capabilities, personnel and technology,” and that “[t]o pretend that VW could go out and hire one or more contractors to finish the installation and troubleshoot and modify GER’s proprietary design without GER’s specialized knowledge is fanciful.” Nothing has been brought to my attention that would alter any of these conclusions.
Project completion declarations by VW and Gov. Healey did not reflect the reality of the project (expected grandstanding, nothing to see there 😉):
Moreover, the fact that VW declared the COD (Commercial Operation Date) – or that Gov. Healey and VW’s parent commented on it – does not change the reality on the ground. It does not change the fact that the Project requires GER’s expertise and proprietary know-how to bring the turbines up to operational capacity.
The judge’s order is attached.
Posted in Offshore Wind | Tagged can't quit project, court order, GE Vernova, injunction, Vineyard Wind | Leave a Comment »
BOEM Press Release: “The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced today the critical role of offshore leasing, resource assessment and long-term planning in supporting record oil production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, which reached more than 714 million barrels in 2025.”
Was 2025 a record OCS oil production year? No, 2025 came very close, but barring belated revisions, 2019 retains the record.
Did 2025 oil production exceed 714 million barrels? Not even close according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), which reported a final OCS production total of 692.6 million barrels for 2025. The Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR), to whom all production data must be reported, has yet to post their final 2025 numbers, but they are normally very close to the EIA totals. Also, ONRR’s fiscal year totals do not suggest calendar year production in excess of 700 million barrels. BOEM’s announced 714 million barrel CY 2025 total is more than 60,000 bopd higher than the actual EIA CY or ONRR FY daily averages, and even exceeds the total posted in BOEM’s data center.
See the 2019 and 2025 oil production totals in the table below. The BOEM 2025 numbers appear to be erroneous.
| Oil Production (includes condensate in all cases) | 2019 | 2025 |
| Gulf of America OCS | ||
| ONRR | 692,681,303 | not yet posted; fiscal year total was 681,760,441 |
| EIA | 692,831,000 | 692,634,000 |
| BOEM | 693,004,577 | 707,847,938 |
| All OCS including Pacific & Alaska | ||
| ONRR | 697,610,350 | not yet posted; fiscal year total was 686,544,402 |
| EIA | 697,217,000 | 697,020,000 |
| BOEM | 697,933,210 | 712,543,491 |
On the plus side, per EIA’s latest update, Jan. 2026 was a record production month for the Gulf. January’s ave. production of 2.060 million bopd surpassed the Aug. 2019 ave. of 2.044 million bopd.
Barring significant tropical storm shut-ins over the next 6 months (hurricane season starts today!), a production record in 2026 seems like a good possibility.
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General | Tagged 2025 production, BOEM, EIA, ONRR, record production | Leave a Comment »
As part of the recent focus on decommissioning and financial assurance requirements, I looked at borehole data for platforms A, B, and C on Lease OCS-P 0241 in the Santa Barbara Channel. Platform “A” is where a well blew out in 1969, permanently scarring the US offshore program. Observations:
- There are 140 completed and unplugged wells on the 3 platforms. None of the wells on these platforms have been permanently plugged and only one is temporarily abandoned.
- The latest available production information (2024 data) indicates ave. daily oil production of 3791 bopd for the lease, including 1901 bopd from Platform A, the highest production for any platform in the region in 2024.
- 41 of the lease’s completed (unplugged) wells are on Platform A.
- The number of these wells that are currently producing is not publicly available.
- 30 of the completed Platform A wells were drilled prior to 1985.
- The blowout well was the 5th well drilled from platform A. All 4 of the wells drilled prior to the 1/28/1969 blowout are still unplugged:
- well A-20: spudded on 11/19/1968, reached total depth on 12/2/1968
- well A-41: spudded on 11/27/1968, TD on 12/19/1968
- well A-25: spudded on 12/18/1968, TD on 12/28/1969
- well A-38: spudded on 1/12/1969, TD on 1/24/1969
- Note how quickly the wells were drilled. The wells were shallow (2299-4051′ true vertical depth), and the operator (Union Oil) saved time by omitting a casing string. (This decision was a root cause of the blowout and thus changed history 😡)
Lease documents and regulations at 30 CFR § 250.1710 require that all wells be permanently plugged within one year of lease termination. For leases like 0241 that are still active, 30 CFR § 250.1711 stipulates that BSEE will order a well to be permanently plugged if the well poses a hazard to safety or the environment, or is not useful for lease operations and is not capable of oil, gas, or sulphur production in paying quantities. In the Gulf of America Region, the policy is to require wells that have not been used in the past 5 years to be permanently plugged. Allowing old wells to remain unplugged is neither prudent nor consistent with the regulations.
Posted in California, decommissioning, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, well control incidents | Tagged decommissioning, Dos Cuadras field, Lease OCS-P 0241, Platform A, Santa Barbara blowout, well plugging and abandonment | Leave a Comment »
Sable Offshore (SOC) surged 12% on Thursday. Here’s why:
Judge Stephen V. Wilson, US District Court for the Central District of California ruled that Sable’s pipeline doesn’t imminently harm Gaviota Park. Judge Wilson said the state “is grasping at straws,” for evidence of real environmental harm, and the federal consent decree governing the terms of the system’s restart is controlled by the California Office of the State Fire Marshall, not the parks department.
The judge didn’t rule on the larger question of whether the Defense Production Act order to restart the Las Flores pipeline system was lawful.
Posted in California, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, Regulation | Tagged California, Gaviota State Park, Judge Stephen Wilson, no imminent harm, Sable Offshore | Leave a Comment »
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 