Congratulations to JL Daeschler and other North Sea pioneers! Your important contributions to the UK and the world have not been forgotten.
See the attached summary shared by JL and a related 2023 post.
Archive for June, 2025
Tomorrow (18 June) is the 50th anniversary of the first UK North Sea production! ๐๐ฌ๐ง๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ๐
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, UK, tagged 50th anniversary, Argyll field, first oil production, Hamilton Brothers, Scotland, UK North Sea on June 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Opportunity to comment on American Samoa offshore marine minerals sale
Posted in deep sea mining, energy policy, tagged American Samoa, BOEM, lease sale, marine minerals, request for information on June 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »
For those who want to provide input on an American Samoa marine minerals sale, now is your chance. See the attached Request for Information and Interest.
South Pars gas field struck
Posted in energy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Iran, Israeli drone strike, Persian Gulf, South Pars gas field on June 14, 2025| 1 Comment »
Iranian media reports a โmassive explosionโ following an Israeli drone strike on the South Pars gas field in the southern port city of Kangan. According to a 2019 report, the field accounts for 74 per cent of the countryโs gas production.
Judging by available video (below), it appears that onshore processing facilities were struck and not the offshore infrastructure.
Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, James Watt, Hawthorne High, and the OCS oil and gas program
Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Congressman George Miller, Hawthorne High, James Watt, Nancy Reagan on June 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Brian Wilson, the music genius who passed away this week, was indirectly connected (sort of) to the OCS oil and gas program.
In 1983, Secretary of the Interior James Watt, whose overzealous approach to offshore oil and gas leasing galvanized opposition, bizarrely banned the Beach Boys from performing at the National Mall 4th of July concert. This stunned Nancy Reagan and almost everyone else in Washington. Theย Washington Post reported, โa ban on apple pie couldnโt have brought a stronger reaction.โ
Congressman George Miller, who later restored the OCS civil penalties program, dropped the names of Beach Boys songs while commenting on the House floor:
‘I was sitting ‘in my room’ ‘all summer long’ saying, “‘Do you remem- ber,’ Mr. Watt, ‘Do you remember’ those ‘Good Vibrations’ from the ‘Fourth of July’ when all we did was ‘dance, dance, dance,’ ‘all summer long’ to the Beach Boys in the ‘spirit of Americas?”” Miller said according to Congressional records. “But ‘help me, Ronald, help, help me Ronald,’ ‘don’t let him run wild.’ And if you cannot do it alone, get help from ‘Barbara Ann.'”
The White House gave Watt a plaster foot with a hole as a symbolic gesture of his mistake.ย The Beach Boys returned to the National Mall the following, playing in front of a crowd of more than half a million people.
The Beach Boys had another indirect connection to the OCS program in that they attended Hawthorne High with Glenn Shackell, one of our top engineers. Glenn served in Vietnam, studied petroleum engineering at USC, and had an outstanding career in our Pacific Region office. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of oil and gas operations in the Pacific.
Here is a video of Brian Wilson returning to Hawthorne High:
BSEE inspections identify safety device bypass management issues
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged bypassing safety devices, Gulf of America, offshore production, process safety, risk-based inspections, Safety Alert, safety management on June 12, 2025| 2 Comments »
As explained in the attached Safety Alert, BSEE’s risk-based inspection program has identified deficiencies in safety device bypass practices including:
- inadequate documentation
- inoperative data history software
- bypassing more devices than is necessary
- bypassing devices for longer than necessary
- missing audit documentation
- mistakenly bypassing the entire safety system during production
The regulations restricting the bypassing of safety devices are core elements of OCS regulatory and operator management programs. Because they are critical to process safety, these requirements are widely supported and strictly enforced.
“Almost Heaven” for lateral drilling!
Posted in California, drilling, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Russia, Uncategorized, tagged ADNOC, Expand, horizontal reach wells, lateral drilling, longest well, Platform Heritage, Sacate field, Sakhalin drilling, Santa Ynez Unit, Upper Zakum field, West Virginia on June 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“Country roads” take us to Moundsville, West Virginia where new records were set drilling a “postcard well.”
In addition to the records noted in the picture, these impressive company marks were achieved:
- 24-hour footage record: 12,370 feet
- daily footage record: 2,774 feet/day
The record US offshore lateral well is in the Santa Ynez Unit, which has been much discussed on this blog and elsewhere in light of Sable Offshore’s efforts to resume production. In 2010, Exxon drilled a well with a horizontal reach of 6 miles from Platform Heritage into the Sacate field (see the diagrams below).
The worldโs longest horizontal reach well appears to be the O-14 well drilled by the Sakhalin-1 Consortium in the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia, in April 2015. This well had a horizontal reach of 14,129 meters (46,358 feet).
ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, has the world record (2022) for theย longest well (50,000′) in the Upper Zakum field. However, no horizontal reach distance is provided, so it is assumed that the Sakhalin well had the longer reach.
Congratulations Walter Cruickshank!
Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged BOEM, Cape Cod Baseball League, Minerals Management Service, retirement, US Dept. of the Interior, Walter Cruickshank on June 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Congratulations to Walter Cruickshank on his retirement from the U.S. Dept. of the Interior!
Walter’s policy acumen, in depth understanding of the offshore program, and balanced perspective on energy development earned him the respect of the political leadership from both parties, a rare achievement. As a result, Walter served more time as Director and Deputy Director of both the Minerals Management Service and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management than any other individual. He also served as Acting Secretary of the Interior during the latest transition, a first for a career offshore program employee.
Walter earned a Bachelor of Arts in Geological Sciences from Cornell University and a Doctorate in Mineral Economics from the Pennsylvania State University (We Are!). Although his Federal career spanned more than 40 years, he has rather remarkably retained his intellect and sanity! ๐
Best wishes to Walter going forward. I hope he finds time to root for his Harwich Mariners in the Cape Cod Baseball League!
Consistent with the proud tradition of the OCS program, I am posting the masterpiece “Rig at Sunset” in Walter’s honor.
Rep. Chris Smith: “Radar interference alone enough to pull the plug onโextremely dangerousโ Empire Wind project”
Posted in energy policy, Offshore Wind, tagged Congressman Chris Smith, Empire Wind, litigation, radar interference on June 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Radar interference is one of the key issues in the law suit against the Empire Wind project. Congressman Smith’s press release (attached) focuses on that issue.
In May 2024 a tugboat capsized while towing a platform in the Gulf. Here’s the NTSB report.
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged Baylor j Tregre tugboat, Brazos 538, capsize, Coast Guard rescue, NTSB report, storm, Transco Gas Pipe Line on June 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Attached is the full NTSB report. Here’s what happened:
- In May 2024, the Baylor J. Tregre tugboat was towing a platform on the barge MARMAC 27 to Brazos Block 538 in the Gulf of America.
- The tug capsized in stormy conditions.
- The 4 crew members were rescued by the Coast Guard.
- The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the capsizing was “the mateโs inability to maneuver the tow into the wind due to the overwhelming towline force generated by the towed barge during the sudden onset of severe weather, resulting in unrecoverable heeling.”
Comments:
- Who knew? When a tugboat capsizes while towing a platform on a barge, endangering the crew, that’s a very serious incident. Yet there was no public announcement by the companies involved or the Coast Guard, and there was no media coverage following the incident (May 2024). The NTSB docket includes only the final investigation report.
- The NTSB report says a production platform was being towed, but it was actually a gas transmission platform owned by Transco Gas Pipe Line Co. There is no production in Brazos Area Block 538, an unleased block.
- Here and here are bits of information on the Transco’s Brazos Area 538 Platform modification project.
- Per a 2007 article, Williams’ Seahawk gathering system, which collects deepwater gas production, connects at Brazos Block 538 with a pipeline that transports gas to the Transco processing plant in Markham, TX (see map below).
- The NTSB report lacks context needed to understand the planning process, organizational factors, and timing/urgency of the project.
- The NTSB report attributes the failure to the mate’s inability to respond to the weather conditions, but provides no information on the safety management system, risk assessment, job safety job planning process, crew training, and other project management factors.
- Two of the crew members are suing Trinity Tugs alleging that they suffered personal injuries resulting from the negligence of Trinity and the unseaworthiness of the M/V BAYLOR J. TREGRE.
Comments on the operator responsibility and unlimited liability provisions of Guyana’s Oil Spill Bill
Posted in Guyana, oil spill response, Regulation, well control incidents, tagged Guyana, indemnification, Oil Spill Bill, OPA 90, operator responsibility, OPPR, unlimited liability on June 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Guyana’s Oil Spill Bill (attached) has much in common with the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 that we implemented for US offshore faciities and the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation that I attended in 1990. A couple of issues warrant highlighting:
Operator/licensee responsibility:The definitions correctly establish the operator or license holder as the responsible party. This means that in the event of a well blowout while drilling from a mobile drilling unit, the licensee/operator would be the responsible party. This aligns with the “operator responsibility” mantra that is fundamental to the US offshore program. Drilling and other contractors are managed by the operator and are the operator’s responsibility.
Unlimited liability: The liability section (Part VI) establishes an unlimited liability standard for the responsible party. As previously discussed in more detail, this is a daunting, open-ended obligation that would trouble permittees in any industry. The unlimited liability provision could preclude responsible independent operators, including Guyanese companies, from seeking licenses.
The unlimited liability standard (par. 17) is qualified with a provision (pasted below) that also favors major international companies.
The unlimited liability provision therefore does not seem to apply to parent companies idemnifying a project. This was a point of contention during the parliamentary debate. The Kaieteur News delves into the issue and is not entirely convinced by the Government’s defense. Their article closes as follows:
It is important to note that stakeholders have argued that since ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (the responsible party) does not have adequate assets, the burden of oil spill-related costs could be left on Guyana, especially in the absence of unlimited coverage from the parent company. These and other โflawsโ have prompted Guyanese to urge President Irfaan Ali not to assent to the Bill, passed in the National Assembly on May 16, 2025. Be that as it may, the Ministry maintained that the โrobust statutory framework now established protects Guyana and its people.โ
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 