China also has boosted annual coal production by 490 million tonnes since last year, enough to meet demand from Germany and Russia combined, the coal mine safety bureau said this month, describing coal as “still our country’s most important source of power”.
The country has continued to develop new coal-fired plants, with construction on the second phase of the Zheneng Liuheng coal-fired power station in eastern China’s Zhejiang province beginning at the start of this month. New coal-fired power construction was at its highest since 2016 last year.
Reuters
Archive for August, 2022
Meanwhile, China’s coal consumption continues to soar
Posted in climate, energy policy, tagged China, coal on August 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Eastern Mediterranean continues to shine, but the end-game remains uncertain
Posted in energy policy, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged Cyprus, EastMed pipeline, Eni, Israel on August 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Eni announces another deepwater gas discovery:
- Offshore Cyprus
- Cronos-1 well; Block 6 on map
- 2287m water depth
- >2.5 tcf
The challenge is getting the 100+ trillion cubic feet of gas to European markets. The East Med Poseidon Gas Pipeline (map below) makes the most sense, but the current US administration inexplicably opposes this project. Other options include LNG via Egypt, a pipeline to Turkey, and a floating LNG facility.
Is the Sale 257 victory dance premature?
Posted in CCS, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged BOEM, CCS, DOI, Inflation Reduction Act, Lease Sale 257 on August 22, 2022| 1 Comment »
Contrary to some media reports and industry comments, the Inflation Reduction Act does NOT require the Department of the Interior (DOI) to award leases to the high bidder on each Sale 257 tract. The legislation requires DOI to accept the highest valid bid for each tract.
As BOE has previously explained, the 94 carbon sequestration bids were clearly not valid, and leases should not be awarded. These bids accounted for 30.5% of the entire sale in terms of the number of tracts receiving bids. (More on the CCS bids.)
There is also the matter of fair market value. Only 9 of the 214 (non-CCS) tracts received more than one bid and none received more than 2 bids. DOI/BOEM may determine that some of the bids did not pass the fair market value test. Are such bids “valid” under the terms of the IRA legislation? Note that 7 of the 93 high bids submitted at the previous sale (Lease Sale 256, November 2020) were rejected on fair market value grounds. All 7 were single bid tracts.
Lastly, there is the unresolved matter of the decision by Judge Contreras to vacate Sale 257. While the legislation seems to clearly supersede that decision, who knows what might happen next on the litigation front.
The reef effect is more powerful than we thought😉, attracting even onshore fauna
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, rigs-to-reefs, Uncategorized, tagged Gulf of Mexico, offshore deer, rigs-to-reefs on August 19, 2022| Leave a Comment »
This deer was encountered 1.5 miles offshore during a fishing trip. The deer was brought to shore and released. Happy ending!
Georges Bank Monitor
Posted in Georges Bank, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Georges Bank drilling, Georges Bank Monitor, North Atlantic, USGS on August 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »
One of the purposes of this blog is to help preserve history that would have otherwise been lost.
Attached is a USGS North Atlantic District newsletter from the Georges Bank drilling days.
More buzz about ultradeep geothermal
Posted in climate, drilling, energy, tagged gyrotron, Ken WIsian, Quaise Energy, ultradeep geothermal, UT Austin on August 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Quaise Energy’s ultradeep geothermal energy concept is most intriguing and media interest continues to build. Ultradeep geothermal has a big advantage over other renewable concepts which have much greater space and aesthetic challenges and suffer from intermittency. As is very well explained in the quote below, it’s now up to Quaise to demonstrate gyrotron drilling and the associated technology in pilot projects.
“A lot of the technology advances [needed] are coming into that proof step where you’ll have physical proof that they work. So I would say we are ready to launch, if we can just bring together the right utility, the right contract and engineering expertise, and the right site to launch the proofs to show that this can be done,” said Ken Wisian, a geothermal geophysicist and associate director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, Austin. “The picture could be accelerating dramatically over the next few years. We just need the proof projects to land.”
altenergymag.com
Very good article on California decommissioning
Posted in California, decommissioning, Offshore Energy - General, tagged California platforms, decommissioning, Milt Love on August 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »
This Montecito Journal article explains the ecological importance of California offshore platforms and summarizes the challenging regulatory issues associated with their decommissioning.
According to a paper published in 2014 by marine ecologist Dr. Jeremy Claisse of Cal Poly Pomona, the oil and gas platforms off the coast of California are the most productive marine habitats per unit area in the world. “Even the least productive platform was more productive than Chesapeake Bay or a coral reef in Moorea,” said Dr. Love. (Milt Love, UCSB biologist)
Got smart-pigged 😀
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, Uncategorized, tagged colonoscopy, pipeline inspection, smart pig on August 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The internal inspection of my pipeline (colon) went well. Dr. Axelrad is an excellent smart pig operator.
Inflation Reduction Act: BOE’s top 3 takeaways
Posted in climate, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged flaring, Inflation Reduction Act, Lease Sale 257, offshore oil, Offshore Wind on August 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »
- The flaring provision complicates compliance and may increase safety risks: (p. 649) Exception 1 exempts “gas vented or flared for not longer than 48 hours in an emergency situation that poses a danger to human health, safety, or the environment.” This is inconsistent with the carefully constructed BSEE regulations which allow limited (48 hours cumulative) flaring for certain operations (e.g. during the unloading or cleaning of a well, drill-stem testing, production testing, and other well-evaluation testing). Such flaring is essential but not normally “an emergency situation.” The bill could thus compromise safety by unnecessarily restricting or complicating well operations and by limiting flaring in circumstances where such flaring reduces safety risks.
- Time for BOEM to get to work 😉: (p. 650): Per our previous post, the highlight section of the bill (from an offshore oil and gas standpoint) reinstates Lease Sale 257 (GoM) and requires that the scheduled 2022 lease sales 258 (GoM) and 259 (Cook Inlet) be held by 12/31/2022. Lease Sale 261 (GoM) must be held by 9/30/2023.
- Petty but perhaps necessary: p. 655: The provision restricting wind leasing when no oil and gas lease sale has been held in the prior year is in the final bill.
Shell restarts Mars pipeline
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged Gulf of Mexico oil production, Mars pipeline, Shell on August 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Assuming no significant tropical storm shutdowns this month, we should get a good read on the impact of the pipeline outage when the EIA production data for August are posted.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 