Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

Archive for 2022

Update on important exploratory well offshore Jamaica

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, tagged Colibri, Daryl Vaz, Jamaica, offshore drilling, United Oil and Gas on August 10, 2022| 1 Comment »

Jamaican Energy Minister Daryl Vaz “cautiously anticipates a play-opening exploration well declaration by 2024.”
bnamericas

With extensive seismic data coverage, including 2,250 km² of 3D data, numerous plays and prospects have already been identified and mapped across the area – leading to over 2.4 billion barrels unrisked mean prospective resources being assigned to the licence. The drill-ready, high-impact Colibri prospect alone contains mean prospective resources of 406 mmbbls.
United Oil & Gas

The Colibri prospect is in 750 m of water, and according to this article, would be developed with a tenstion-leg platform if a commercial discovery is made.

BOE will be following this interesting project closely.

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IER quantifies value of increased US oil production

Posted in energy policy, tagged IER, oil boom value, savings analysis on August 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »

This interesting IER analysis of the US oil boom follows the methodology used by the White House to justify the unprecedented SPR withdrawals.

The bottom line is a $2/gallon savings to consumers totaling more than $2 trillion. As is the case with natural gas, most of the production boom is attributable to operations on private lands, without which we would be in deep economic trouble.

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Shale gas production, mostly on private lands in TX, PA, and LA, made this possible

Posted in energy policy, gas, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Marcellus Shale, offshore gas, shale gas revolution on August 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Where would we, and the world, be today without the shale gas revolution? 12.5 years after posting about this amazing success story, I’m still waiting for the national celebration!

For a reminder about the environmental advantages of natural gas in general, and nonassociated offshore gas in particular, see this post.

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New “milestones” for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Posted in energy policy, tagged depletion, milestones, Strategic Petroleum Reserve on August 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Largest-ever one year decline – 151.4 million bbl or 24.4% (see table below)
35.3% decline since 2010 (see chart below)
69 consecutive weeks of decline – 4/9/2021 to 7/29/2022
For the first time, broke the 500 million barrel threshold (on the downside): 6/24/2022
Lowest inventory since 5/17/1985 when the reserve was still being filled

7/30/2021	621.3 million bbls
7/29/2022	469.9 million bbls

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China claims almost the entire South China Sea and its estimated 11 billion bbls of oil and 190 tcf of gas

Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged claims, disputes, oil and gas, South China Sea on August 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The dashed red line outlines China’s claim. Needless to say, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam differ with China’s creative interpretation.

Map Source: CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, PERMANENT COURT OF ARBITRATION

In recent years, satellite imagery has shown China’s increased efforts to reclaim land in the South China Sea by physically increasing the size of islands or creating new islands altogether. In addition to piling sand onto existing reefs, China has constructed ports, military installations, and airstrips—particularly in the Paracel and Spratly Islands, where it has twenty and seven outposts, respectively.
Global Conflict Tracker

Never mind that Beijing’s claims are fundamentally incompatible with established international law on maritime boundaries, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which China has ratified and by which it professes to abide. Never mind, as well, that the claims have been ruled fraudulent by an international tribunal in The Hague.
ForeignPolicy.com

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Alarmist leasing rhetoric resurfaces as Sale 257 nears reinstatement

Posted in CCS, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Lease Sale 257, Manchin, Schumer on August 7, 2022| 1 Comment »

Tucked into the end of the nearly $370 billion deal struck last week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is a requirement for the Interior Department to reinstate a massive 80 million-acre Gulf of Mexico lease sale that a federal judge blocked earlier this year for violating NEPA.
E&E News

Tracts covering 1.7 million acres received bids at Lease Sale 257. 30.5% of those tracts received bids for CCS purposes, leaving about 1.2 million acres receiving bids for oil and gas exploration. Nonetheless, some continue to distort the magnitude of this rather ordinary lease sale. It’s also important to note that the number of active US offshore leases has declined by 72% since 2011, and is now under 2000 for the first time in decades.

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An example of why it is important for the Lease Sale 257 decision to be reversed, either by appeal or legislation

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged BHP, East Breaks, Hoodoo, Lease Sale 257, Westwood on August 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Westwood has highlighted 13 wells planned for the remainder of 2022 as ‘key wells to watch’. These include a number of frontier play tests, for example Raia offshore Mozambique, and Pensacola, offshore UK; extensions of proven plays, including Zanderij offshore Suriname and Hoodoo, US Gulf of Mexico; and large prospects in proven plays, such as Wei, offshore Guyana.
Westwood

The Hoodoo prospect cited by Westwood is operated by BHP and is in East Breaks Blocks 699 and 700. At Sale 257 (11/17/2021), BHP was the sole bidder on 4 blocks just to the north of this prospect. The lease sale was vacated by a Federal judge in January. If the vacature of Sale 257 is not reversed, either by appeal or legislation, one or both of the following outcomes could easily occur:

BHP loses the opportunity to potentially develop those blocks as part of or in conjunction with the Hoodoo project.
Based on their knowledge of the BHP bids, which are public information, other companies could submit bids for these blocks in a future sale. BHP would have to defensively raise their bids or lose the blocks to another company.

Either outcome would be unfair to BHP and would discourage investment in OCS exploration and development.

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Funding studies to support a pre-determined narrative

Posted in climate, energy policy, tagged DOE, electric grid, Green Pork, renewables on August 4, 2022| Leave a Comment »

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), today announced $26 million to fund projects that will demonstrate that America’s electricity grid can reliably run with a mix of solar, wind, energy storage, and other clean distributed energy resources.
DOE

Shouldn’t the research precede DOE’s declaration of victory?

Rest assured that none of the studies will question the reliability of a grid dependent on DOE’s preferred energy mix; nor will they raise concerns about the associated economic, national security, or environmental risks. These are the types of projects that the WSJ calls “Green Pork.”