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.
Archive for 2022
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 »
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.
Shell pipelines expected to be back in service today
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged Chevron, Equinor, Gulf of Mexico production, Mars, Olympus, Shell pipeline, Ursa on August 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »
But late Thursday, a Shell spokesperson said that repairs were underway and that the company expected both pipelines to be back in service Friday.
CNN
This is a good example of the interconnectivity of deepwater projects with major Shell, Chevron, and Equinor facilities shut-in as a result of a relatively minor downstream pipeline incident.
Mars crude price appears to have reacted to the shut-in news:
Onshore pipeline leak shuts-in major Gulf of Mexico assets
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Gulf of Mexico, Mars, Olympus, pipeline, production shut-in, Shell, Ursa on August 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »
A small pipeline leak (estimated 2 bbl spill) at an onshore booster station is having a major impact on Gulf of Mexico production. Per Reuters, as much as 600,000 bopd could be temporarily shut-in. GoM production averaged 1.6 million bopd in May.
These major platforms are reported to be shut-in:
- Shell: Mars, Ursa, and Olympus
- Chevron: Jack/St. Malo, Tahiti, and Big Foot
- Equinor: Titan
Shell, the pipeline operator, did not provide an estimate on the resumption of production.
179 Proposed House Amendments to H.R. 5376 – Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (Schumer-Manchin bill)
Posted in climate, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Amendments, Congressman Roy, Inflation Reduction Act on August 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »
They are listed here. This one is the most entertaining 😀
AMENDMENT TO SENATE AMENDMENT TO H.R. 5376
OFFERED BY MR. ROY OF TEXAS
Strike line 1, page 1, and all that follows.
Still waiting for…
Posted in accidents, CCS, decommissioning, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, Regulation, tagged aban pearl, BSEE, CCS, flaring, Hogan and Houchin, Huntington Beach, incident data, offshore pipelines, Russell Peterson, Trinity Spirit, USCG on August 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »
- 2021 (entire year) and 2022 (first half) BSEE incident tables. If safety is the highest priority, these data should be updated quarterly.
- IRF 2021 safety performance data
- An international treaty (accompanied by a standard) on disclosing major offshore accidents and the collection and release of incident data. (Also, see this related post.)
- Hogan and Houchin decommissioning update, most notably the financial responsibility aspects
- Huntington Beach pipeline spill report
- Workable California decommissioning legislation
- ONRR flaring and venting data (update: ONRR advises that they anticipate publication of these data in September.)
- DOI statement on the Sale 257 carbon sequestration bids
- Definitive casualty information and report on the 2-2-2022 Trinity Spirit FPSO fire
- Updated DOI-DOT offshore pipeline regulations
- Coast Guard report on the May 2008 Russell Peterson liftboat tragedy
- Updated US Coast Guard Subchapter N regulations
- Information on the mysterious sinking of the Aban Pearl semi-submersible in May 2010.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 