Posted in hurricanes, tagged hurricanes, Joe Bastardi, tropical storm on August 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I fully expect feature number 4 to be a TC by Wednesday and Hurricane by Friday as it threatens the NE Caribbean first. Eventual track toward Bahamas SE US in 10-15 day period. Feature in Africa develops, stays way out. 1,2,3 weaker right now
Joe Bastardi Twitter
Posted in accidents, California, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged Amplify, Huntington Beach, pipeline spill on August 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Martyn Willsher, Amplify’s President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are pleased to have reached an agreement in principle regarding the civil litigation resulting from the Southern California Pipeline Incident last October. Although we are unable to provide additional detail at this time, we negotiated in good faith and believe we have come to a reasonable and fair resolution. We will continue to vigorously pursue our substantial claims for damages against the ships that struck our pipeline, and the Marine Exchange of Southern California that failed to notify us of the anchor strikes.”
Amplify Energy
Posted in energy policy, tagged depletion, dubious milestones, energy security, SPR, Strategic Petroleum Reserve on August 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The SPR withdrawals are scheduled to end just prior to the mid-term elections. What happens if oil markets tighten further, perhaps with OPEC assistance?
Remember that the SPR was intended to diminish the vulnerability of the United States to the effects of a severe energy supply interruption!
Updated SPR “milestones”
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Andrew, safety valves on August 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »
After devastating South Florida during August 25, 1992, Hurricane Andrew struck Gulf of Mexico facilities the following day. Sustained winds were 140 mph with gusts to 160 mph, and significant wave heights were 35-40 feet. About 700 platforms were exposed to hurricane force winds. 241 platforms and 83 pipeline segments incurred substantial damage.
All workers had been evacuated from the offshore facilities without incident. Surface and subsurface safety systems performed as intended, and there were no uncontrolled flows from production wells. According to respondents to a JP Kenny survey for MMS, 2698 valves were closed during the storm as follows:
| valve type | activated | failed |
| subsurface safety valves | 716 | 0 |
| master surface safety valves | 729 | 5 |
| wing surface safety valves | 460 | 0 |
| pipeline shutdown valve | 415 | 0 |
| pipeline check valve | 378 | 0 |
The five MSSV failures were at facilities directly in the path of the eye in an area where the storm damage was most severe.
The valve performance reporting was associated with a research project and was thus voluntary. It’s therefore important to give credit to the companies that participated (a number of which no longer exist): Amoco, Aquila Energy, BP, Chevron, Four Star O&G, Gulfstream, Houston Expl., Kerr-McGee, Mobil, Pennzoil, Samedan, Shell, Sonat, Stone, Tennessee Gas PL, Texaco, and Unocal.
Also, in reviewing the survey responses it’s clear that there was some confusion about what to report. Most facilities were completely shut-in well ahead of the storm’s arrival and the survey requests information on valves that were shut-in (presumably automatically) during the hurricane. Reporting was therefore inconsistent, and the total number of shut-in valves was under-reported.
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged Anadarko, offshore compliance, Oxy, Warren Buffet on August 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »
It was revealed on Friday that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) has received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval to acquire up to 50% of Occidental Petroleum’s (NYSE: OXY) common stock.
StreetInsider.com
Oxy (Andarko) fared very well in BOE’s mid-year review and apparently the “Oracle of Omaha” noticed. 😉
Posted in conferences, energy policy, Norway, tagged Elon Musk, energy security, ONS 2022, Zelenskyy on August 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Energy security will be a featured topic at the conference. Note the lineup for the Zelenskyy session:
President Zelenskyy will be introduced by the Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and will be followed on stage by Elon Musk, Ben Van Beurden (CEO, Shell), Patrick Pouyanné (CEO, TotalEnergies) and Anders Opedal (CEO, Equinor) among others.
ONS 2022
Posted in climate, energy policy, tagged China, coal on August 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
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
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:
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.
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.
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!
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 