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On February 12, 2024, the bankruptcy court approved the sale of certain Cox Operating assets to Natural Resources Worldwide LLC (NRW), a company that had no prior offshore experience. NRW contracted with Array Petroleum to operate 154 Cox legacy platforms (per MMA data). NRW is listed as the operator of just one platform.
The bankruptcy court had previously approved the sale of Cox assets in 6 Gulf of America fields to W&T Offshore.
As noted in previous posts, the Cox legacy of non-compliance has continued under new ownership. In 2026 YTD, Array Petroleum accounted for 52% of Gulf of America Incidents of Non-Compliance (INCs) while operating only 12% of the platforms, and producing only 0.06% of the oil and 0.17% of the gas (2025 production data). Their 2026 YTD INCs/inspection ratio is 7.55 times the Gulf average and 14.6 times the Gulf average if Array inspections are excluded.
The only platform operated directly by NRW was cited for 3 INCs on 2 inspections.
Per MMA data, W&T operates 117 platforms in the Gulf. The number of platforms that were included in the acquisition of the 6 Cox fields is unknown. W&T’s INC/inspection ratio in 2023, the year before the Cox acquisition, was 0.72 (80/111), which was better than their 2026 performance (0.94), but worse than the Gulf-wide 2023 average of 0.57. So W&T’s compliance relative to other Gulf operators was about the same before and after the acquisition.
According to the borehole file, neither Array, NRW, nor W&T conducted any drilling operations in 2026 YTD.
Kudos to the MMA inspectors for their diligence in identifying INCs and issuing citations. The 2026 YTD data table is below.
| W | CSI | FSI | total INCs | facility insp | INCs/isp | |
| Array | 403 | 115 | 4 | 522 | 88 | 5.93 |
| NRW | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1.50 |
| W&T | 38 | 46 | 4 | 88 | 94 | 0.94 |
| GoA total | 653 | 296 | 56 | 1005 | 1280 | 0.785 |
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation | Tagged Array Petroleum, bankruptcy, compliance, Cox Operating, INCs, inspections, Natural Resources Worldwide, violations, W&T offshore | Leave a Comment »
Quotes and graphics from S&P Global:
“Profound growth of LNG is exceeding all expectations,” said Daniel Yergin. “Economic gains in terms of jobs, GDP and labor income are on track to surpass all prior expectations, while the abundance of U.S. gas means that domestic prices remain among the lowest in the world.”
“More than 45 years of identified commercial gas resource in the United States at today’s production levels and the world’s most interconnected pipeline network are what enable both exports and low domestic prices,” said Eric Eyberg, Vice President, Gas and LNG, S&P Global Energy. “Since 2010, domestic prices have trended downward even as demand for U.S. gas has grown 70 percent. The recent Iran conflict has proven the U.S. domestic gas market resilient to external shocks relative to global gas and other commodities. U.S. Henry Hub gas prices declined during the conflict.”
More than 50 years ago as a graduate student, I wrote a paper entitled “The Use of Natural Gas in Improving Air Quality.” My professor, Dr. Richard Gordon, a brilliant economist who greatly influenced my thinking about energy, liked the paper (grade of 93), but thought I was too optimistic about the availability of natural gas (the title page and his comment are captured below). The sense at the time was that natural gas was a premium energy source in short supply, but technical innovation unlocked massive shale gas resources and justified my optimism.
BOE has been celebrating the natural gas revolution since the blog began in 2010. Methane (CH4) is essentially a hydrogen transporter that emits far less CO2 than other fossil fuels when burned. Natural gas’s other important air quality advantages – low NOx, SO2, and particulate emissions – have far greater significance from a human health standpoint. (Many in the US and Canada learned a lot about particulates last weekend!)
The environmental case for offshore natural gas is particularly strong. However, Gulf of America gas production has struggled to compete with the onshore shale sector. Total Gulf production fell to 757 bcf in 2025. 91% of that gas production was from oil wells, primarily high rate deepwater wells.
Sobering resource conservation and emissions fact: The top two 2025 flarers, Russia and Iran, each flared 300 bcf more than the entire 2025 gas production in the Gulf of America. On top of that, keep in mind that the World Bank flaring estimates are probably low.
Posted in natural gas, flaring and venting | Tagged natural gas, shale gas, LNG, Russia, flaring, Iran, US production, air quality | Leave a Comment »
See attached. This is a well written directive. Kudos to the authors.
Retaining the revenue management functions in ONRR is prudent.
There has been no specific announcement regarding the MMA Director, but a quote in the American Samoa lease sale announcement cites Matt Giacona, Acting MMA Director. Congrats to him.
Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation | Tagged BOEM, BSEE, Marine Minerals Administration, Matt Giacona, MMS, ONRR, SECRETARIAL Order 3451 | 1 Comment »
The cessation of production at Platform Holly 10 years ago has contributed to the periodic surges in natural seepage that soil Santa Barbara area beaches (see the Instagram post above).
The correlation between production at Platform Holly, which lies just offshore from the Univ. of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), and seepage in the Coal Oil Point area (map below) was apparent to those who worked at Holly. That association was confirmed by UCSB studies:
“Emeritus Professor James Boles collected and analyzed decades of data on methane seeping from the seafloor southeast of Platform Holly, just offshore from Isla Vista. He and colleagues Grant Garven at Tufts University and Chris Peltonen at Beacon West Energy Group determined that production of oil and natural gas from the platform reduced natural methane seepage into the waters of the Santa Barbara Channel, confirming earlier regional studies. The findings appear in the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology.“
This blog called Platform Holly a “net negative hydrocarbon polluter,“ because production from Holly reduced natural seepage and methane pollution from shallow formations beneath the Channel. Steel subsea pyramids (“tents”) installed by Arco in 1982 collected seafloor methane seepage, an added environmental benefit from the platform operations. As described in a 2014 presentation posted by the California State Lands Commission,“production at Platform Holly has resulted in significant improvement in local air quality.”
Further per UCSB:
After combing through 20 years of data, the authors found that production at Platform Holly significantly reduced the amount of methane seeping into the tents. For example, production from a well drilled 1 kilometer beneath the tents immediately reduced the natural seepage. In contrast, the seepage increased when production ceased from that well. “This indicates a direct link between the oil reservoir and the natural seepage in the area,” Boles noted.
Production at Holly ceased 10 years ago; the tents have been removed and the platform is being decommissioned. However, methane bubbles in the Channel and periodic beach tar will continue to remind us of Holly’s positive environmental legacy.
Posted in California, Offshore Energy - General, seeps | Tagged beach tar, Coal Oil Point, methane emissions, natural seeps, negative polluter, Platform Holly, Santa Barbara Channel, subsea tents, UCSB | Leave a Comment »
The Proposed Notice is attached:
- Two large lease areas (map above)
- 20 year primary term
- Minimum Bonus Bid Amount: $3,000,000 for each lease area
- Oral auction bidding to be livestreamed at https://www.boem.gov.
Royalty rates
- 2% on all mineral production during the first five years of production
- 5% on production in years 6+
Rental and Minimum Royalty rates:
Note the names of the Protraction Diagrams on p. 3 of the Notice! Who could resist operating in Flowery Flounder or Dusky Frillgoby! 😉
Posted in deep sea mining, energy policy | Tagged American Samoa, Flowery Flounder, lease sale, marine minerals, MMA, royalty, sale terms | Leave a Comment »
Sable Offshore and Exxon had alleged that Santa Barbara County’s refusal to transfer title and permits for Santa Ynez Unit facilities from Exxon to Sable amounted to an unconstitutional taking of their property rights. Judge Gee disagreed.
As colorfully put by Nick Welsh at the Santa Barbara Independent, Judge Gee told Sable and Exxon to “go pound sand” (not literally, but the judicial equivalent). The judge refused to even allow Sable to amend their filing. The judge will however allow Exxon to file an amended complaint, given that the company still has vested rights to the facilities and is still on the hook for the decommissioning costs.
As always with these Santa Ynez Unit matters, there is much more to come!
Posted in California, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines | Tagged Exxon, Judge Dolly Gee, ownership transfer, permits, Sable Offshore, Santa Barbara County, Santa Ynez Unit | Leave a Comment »
The World Bank (WB) Global Gas Flaring Tracker is the only worldwide flaring data source. Offshore and onshore data are segmented, so offshore flaring can be considered separately for each country.
The WB estimates that 21600.03 million cu m (762.5 bcf) of gas were flared at offshore locations worldwide in 2025. This is an increase from 2024 when the total offshore flaring volume was 21159.91 million cu m.
The flaring totals for prominent offshore producers are entered in the table below. Also included are the largest offshore flares for each country.
Unsurprisingly, Norway led the pack in minimizing offshore flaring. Their total of 36.11 million cu m (1.3 bcf) is very impressive for such a large producer. The US offshore total of 160.95 cu m (5.7 bcf) is also quite respectable relative to production.
At the other end of the scale are Iran – 3329 million cu m (118 bcf), Nigeria – 2566 (91 bcf), Angola – 2300 (81 bcf), and Mexico 2068 (73 bcf). These 4 countries accounted for nearly half of all 2025 offshore flaring. They were also massive offshore flarers in 2024: Iran – 3753 million cu m, Nigeria – 2867, Angola – 2040, and Mexico – 2223.
If both onshore and offshore flaring are considered, Iran flared 29931 million cu m in 2025. That equates to 1.057 trillion cu ft!
| 2025 WB flaring total million cu meters | largest flare | largest flare volume | |
| Angola | 2300.26 | Lombo East | 862.02 |
| Australia | 268.36 | Santos | 61.89 |
| Brazil | 969.16 | Albacora Leste | 118.93 |
| Canada | 145.12 | Terra Nova | 95.83 |
| China | 535.56 | Weizhou 12-1 | 68.26 |
| Congo, Rep. | 788.98 | Kitina | 384.12 |
| Gabon | 368.91 | Tchatamba Marin | 37.46 |
| Ghana | 351.81 | Sankofa East | 184.97 |
| Guyana | 227.38 | Yellowtail | 164.06 |
| Indonesia | 292.16 | Belida | 30.84 |
| Iran | 3329.19 | Foroozan | 1360.09 |
| Libya | 313.78 | Bouri | 74.07 |
| Malaysia | 1459.32 | Kasawari | 205.8 |
| Mexico | 2067.62 | Akal | 386.44 |
| Nigeria | 2565.88 | Oso | 308.37 |
| Norway | 36.11 | Balder | 6.38 |
| Qatar | 688.19 | Ras Laffan LNG | 54.65 |
| Russia | 227.27 | Yuri Korchagin | 82.07 |
| Trinidad | 87.66 | Atlantic LNG | 53.23 |
| UK | 234.08 | Penguins | 22.94 |
| US | 160.95 | NA* | 22.77 |
The WB tracker identifies the Gulf of America facilities with the highest flaring volumes. The 2025 list is pasted below. Repeat top ten Gulf flarers from 2024 were Vito (14.55 million cu m in 2024), Pompano (11.68), and Lucius (5.72).
Per the WB tracker, the Terra Nova FPSO, offshore Newfoundland, was the top North American offshore flarer by a considerable margin (data for Canada below). Terra Nova was also the top flarer in 2024 (95.56 million cu m).
The location of the only flare identified offshore California corresponds with that of the Dos Cuadras field in the Santa Barbara Channel. The estimated 2025 flaring volume was 0.10 million cu m.
The WB flaring tracker is an excellent data source, but doesn’t capture vented gas and likely understates the total volume flared. The WB estimated that 160.95 million cu m (5.68 bcf) were flared at US offshore facilities in 2025. This compares with the 9.7 bcf (flaring and venting) and 8.0 bcf (flaring only) totals derived from ONRR data (chart below). The flaring difference is not surprising given that the WB numbers are dependent on satellite imagery and the ONRR data are from mandated/audited production reports. A previous comparison also showed that the WB flaring estimates are significantly lower than the ONRR numbers. From a regulatory oversight perspective, this is rather reassuring given that the reverse (WB>ONRR) would imply serious reporting issues.
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Norway, Regulation, flaring and venting | Tagged Angola, Dos Cuadras field, flaring, Gulf of America, Iran, Mexico, Newfoundland, Nigeria, Norway, Terra Nova, World Bank | Leave a Comment »
The attached letter to the General Accountability Office (GAO) asserts that there were “deeply entrenched ethical issues and conflicts of interest within the former Minerals Management Service (MMS),” and implies that these issues were among the factors contributing to the tragic Macondo well blowout.
I retired from MMS shortly before the Macondo well blew out on April 20, 2020, and testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on May 11, 2010. My comments on MMS employee ethics still stand and are reiterated below:
I also want to express my disappointment in certain media comments directed at my former MMS colleagues. These comments have not only been ill-informed and unsubstantiated, but malicious. Without hesitation, I can tell you that MMS regulatory personnel–inspectors, engineers, scientists, and others–are 100% committed to their safety and pollution prevention mission. MMS inspectors are themselves exposed to risks every day when they fly offshore and inspect facilities. MMS personnel have repeatedly made personal sacrifices to support the regulatory mission. After Ivan, Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike, MMS employees worked to restore oil and gas production essential to our economy, even when their personal lives had been disrupted by the onshore impacts of these hurricanes. These personnel work under strict ethics standards, and despite a few isolated and highly publicized incidents that occurred more than four years ago, conduct themselves with the highest degree of professionalism. While a critical review of the entire offshore regulatory regime is necessary and appropriate, unsubstantiated accusations and personal attacks are not.
The comprehensive Chief Counsel’s Report, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, was the only inquiry to consider whether ethical lapses were a contributing factor to the blowout. In the “Regulatory Observations” chapter, the Chief Counsel addressed ethics concerns directly (p. 261):
“In recent years various bodies have concluded that certain MMS offices and programs have violated ethical rules or guidelines. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, some questioned whether ethical lapses played any role in causing the blowout. The Chief Counsel‘s team found no evidence of any such lapses.“
This blog closely followed the Macondo blowout. I have read all of the investigation reports and many of the court documents. I also served on the defense team for Bob Kaluza, the BP Well Site Leader who was fully acquitted after being shamefully prosecuted in the wake of the blowout. My thoughts on the Macondo tragedy are summarized in a six part series.
Because of the false ethics narrative and scapegoating of MMS, experts who should have been directing the well control efforts, were pushed to the back of the bus shortly after the blowout began. Had that not been the case, I believe the top kill operation would not have been aborted in late May and the well would have been killed 48 days sooner, reducing the oil spill volume by at least 2.4 million bbls. (See the analysis by Dr. Mayank Tyagi and his colleagues at LSU.) Also, keep in mind that the USCG Incident Commander almost required BP to resume flow from the well after the capping stack successfully shut-in the well on 7/15/2010, and would have likely done so were it not for forceful input from an engineer from the former MMS.
The consolidation of BOEM and BSEE into a single bureau makes sense. As I previously commented:
This is an excellent step that many OCS program veterans have been advocating. In addition to the inefficiencies associated with overlapping and intertwined BOEM and BSEE responsibilities, the associated regulatory fragmentation is a significant safety risk factor.
The primary OCS functions including leasing, resource evaluation, economic analysis, permitting, inspection and enforcement, investigations, environmental assessment, spill response preparedness, promulgation of regulations, technology assessment, research,and decommissioning, are inextricably linked, cannot be effectively segmented, and should not be stovepiped.
Finally, with regard to the reorganization planning questions posed at the end of the attached letter, perhaps GAO should first consider the abrupt, unplanned termination of MMS. At a 2011 Ministerial Forum in Washington, an international offshore safety expert criticized that rash decision noting – “It took 87 days to stop the blowout, but only 30 days to get rid of the regulator.”
Posted in accidents, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation | Tagged Bob Kaluza, BOEM, BSEE, Chief Counsel, Deepwater Horizon, GAO, macondo, MMS, offshore safety, Regulation, regulatory fragmentation | Leave a Comment »
On July 13, 2024, a Vineyard Wind (VW) turbine blade shattered and spread debris on Nantucket beaches and throughout the region.
“As was widely reported in national and local news, in July 2024, one of the GER offshore blades collapsed and fell into the waters off Nantucket, necessitating a massive environmental cleanup, and a six-month construction hiatus during which GER performed a “root cause” analysis. That analysis concluded that 68 of the 72 GER blades installed at the Project (nearly all manufactured by GER in Gaspé, Canada) were also defective because they were inadequately bonded together, and were so poorly made that they were beyond repair. GER’s remediation plan required it to remove all of the blades and to replace all Gaspé blades with others manufactured at a different facility in Cherbourg, France.“
Unsurprisingly, VW has found their contractor GE Renewables to be solely responsible for this troubling incident. However, as lessee and operator VW bears ultimate responsibility for all lease activities including the work of contractors, project design and management, fabrication and installation oversight, selection of the certified verification agent, and incident response.
Meanwhile, the Federal ( BSEE) investigation report has still not been issued. That report should provide an independent assessment of concerns discussed on this blog including quality control, regulatory departures, debris recovery, and environmental impacts. The investigation is significant, not only for VW, but for other offshore wind projects planned or under construction, in the US and worldwide.
Keep in mind that the lengthy and complex National Commission, BOEMRE, Chief Counsel, and NAE reports on the 2010 Macondo blowout were published 6 to 17 months after the well was shut-in.
Posted in accidents, Offshore Wind | Tagged 2024, BSEE, GE Vernova, investigation, July 13, macondo, turbine blade failure, Vineyard Wind | Leave a Comment »
United O&G 2025 Financial Summary:
- Loss after tax: ($1.25m) (2024: $2.44m loss)
- Group cash balances at 31 December 2025: $1.7m (2024: $0.8m)
“The company currently has no revenue and is operating at an annual loss and shows a current net liability as at 31 December 2025. Its only funding options are through warrant exercises, a Jamaican farmout deal covering back and future work program costs, or equity financing.”
The company’s future is dependent on finding a partner to fund an exploratory well. In that regard, United’s optimism has yet to result in a farmout deal after years of trying. The discovery risks seem comparable to those of other prospective frontier wildcats. So why have they been unable to find a partner? Are their terms unreasonable?
This outsider continues to wonder why United has been granted multiple license extensions, the latest through 1/31/2008. Does the govt have that much confidence in a company that is dependent on finding a partner to fund an exploration well? Should the Govt of Jamaica have allowed the license to expire and negotiated directly with larger companies? Was the govt concerned about administrative or political constraints associated with re-offering the massive license area?
I have been following this story for 5 years, and am still hopeful for a positive outcome for Jamaica.
Posted in Jamaica, Offshore Energy - General | Tagged farmout, Jamaica, United Oil and Gas, Walton Morant License | Leave a Comment »
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 