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Archive for the ‘Canada’ Category

Update on the high potential Orphan Basin well

Posted in Canada, drilling, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , on August 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

To find the sole exploratory well being drilled in the vast North American Atlantic, you have to exit “wind-only” US waters, head NE to St. John’s, NL (advancing your watch by 1.5 hours 😉), and transit another 317 miles NE to the Stena DrillMAX working for Exxon in the Orphan Basin.

The latest (8/20/2024) CNLOPB report (below) is that operations are ongoing. The well was spudded 3 months ago. That is about all they can disclose without compromising confidentiality. Even seemingly innocuous information like the current and projected well depth provides the opportunity to speculate about geologic conditions and current well activities.

We can assume that there have been no safety or environmental incidents to date, because the CNLOPB does a good job of posting such information in a timely manner.

Previous posts on this well

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GE Vernova says engineering is fine, blames Canada? Any comments from the CVA? Nantucket to renegotiate “Good Neighbor Agreement.”

Posted in accidents, Canada, energy policy, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , , , on July 25, 2024| 1 Comment »

Quotes from Nantucket Current article (emphasis added):

“While we continue to work to finalize our root cause analysis, our investigation to date indicates that the affected blade experienced a manufacturing deviation,” said GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik. “We have not identified information indicating an engineering design flaw in the blade or information of a connection with the blade event we experienced at an offshore wind project in the UK, which was caused by an installation error out at sea. We are working with urgency to scrutinize our operations across offshore wind. Pace matters here. But we are going to be thorough, instead of rushed.”

“It’s been 11 days since the event, and just to reinforce from the start, we have no indications of an engineering design flaw,” Strazik said. “We have identified a material deviation or a manufacturing deviation in one of our factories that, through the inspection or quality assurance process, we should have identified. Because of that, we’re going to use our existing data and reinspect all of the blades we’ve made for offshore wind. For context, this factory in GaspĂŠ, Canada where the material deviation existed we’ve made about 150 blades. 

Any comments from the CVA, assuming there was one?

Meanwhile, Nantucket will renegotiate their “Good Neighbor Agreement” with Vineyard Wind. Is this a lesson for other municipalities?

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2nd high stakes exploration well spudded offshore Newfoundland

Posted in Canada, drilling, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , on July 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Odfjell Hercules

Per the CNLOPB weekly activities report, Equinor spudded the important Sitka C-02 well in the Flemish Pass area on July 10, 2024. This well will help clarify the resource potential in the Bay du Nord project area with the goal of better defining development plans.

Meanwhile, operations on Exxon’s important Persephone well in the Orphan Basin have now been ongoing for 2 months. Some type of announcement by Exxon is expected after operations are completed and the well has been plugged.

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Newfoundland offshore production – cause for optimism

Posted in Canada, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , on May 29, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Hebron gravity based structure

While checking for updates on the important Orphan Basin well, I looked at Newfoundland production data and found it surprisingly encouraging:

  • The pioneering Hibernia field has produced more than double the original resource estimate of 520 million barrels, and is still chugging along at about 60,000 bopd.
  • Hebron, the current top producer, is holding strong at 100,000+ bopd.
  • White Rose, which was in danger of being abandoned, is poised for a renaissance with the installation of the West White Rose concrete gravity structure.
  • Terra Nova is once again producing at near 2019 levels after a four year hiatus. The Terra Nova story has many important technical, management, regulatory, safety, and logistical elements, and presents good case study opportunities for Newfoundland academics (Memorial University?).

With prospects for production at Bay du Nord brightening and interesting targets like the Orphan basin being explored, pessimistic forecasts for Newfoundland’s resilient offshore sector may be a bit premature.

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Stena DrillMAX onsite in Orphan Basin; govt resource assessment report explains why

Posted in Canada, drilling, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on May 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Per rig tracker data, the Stena DrillMAX has been on location at Exxon’s Orphan Basin wellsite since Sunday (19 May). The site is 317 miles (510 km) NE of St. John’s in Block 1169 (~3000 m water depth).

Per this very good resource assessment report for the Govt. of Newfoundland and Labrador, “the Orphan Basin area demonstrates a potentially prolific petroleum system with four main plays (reservoirs and associated seals) sourced by various source rocks (Upper Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Paleogene).“

Unrisked resource estimates (theoretical pending confirmation by drilling) at the 90, 50, and 10% probability levels for the Orphan Basin blocks offered for licensing in Nov. 2022:

Taking into account the risks of the geologic model not accurately reflecting the reservoir, seal, charging, and trap components of the petroleum system, the probability of finding 13.5 billion drops to 16% (see plot below). This is still a high probability for a massive wildcat discovery.

This is why you move a state-of-the-art drillship thousands of miles to drill a single exploratory well at a remote location in the North Atlantic. The most likely outcome is negative or inconclusive findings, but the potential for such a major discovery justifies the investment.

The PGOS curve quantifies the probability of success in finding the identified volume of resources in the new Orphan Basin blocks (e.g. there is a 34% chance of finding 4.7 billion BOE and a 16% chance of finding 13.5 billion BOE).

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The Stena DrillMAX is on the move

Posted in Canada, drilling, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , on May 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The DrillMAX has exited Bulls Bay and is en route to the Orphan Basin, where Exxon will drill a high potential exploratory well. As of this morning at ~1000 GMT, the drillship was headed north at 7.7 kts (see map).

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No reports to date that this weekend’s solar storms disrupted drilling operations

Posted in Canada, drilling, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Last year, there were reports that a level 3 geomagnetic solar storm rendered GPS signals unreliable and caused the brief suspension of at least one drilling operation in Canada (tweet below).

This weekend’s solar storms were level 5, the highest category (see chart below), but there have been no public reports to date of suspended drilling operations.

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Stena DrillMAX update

Posted in Canada, drilling, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on May 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

According to rig locator data, the DrillMAX is moored in Bay Bulls, Newfoundland in preparation for transit to the site of Exxon’s high potential exploratory well in the Orphan Basin.

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High potential deepwater exploratory wells at opposite ends of the Pan American Atlantic while the US Atlantic remains “wind-only”

Posted in Canada, drilling, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The Valaris DS-17 drillship is now on location to drill the Algerich-1 well for Equinor 315 km from Mar del Plata in 1527 m of water at Block CAN 100.

Concurrently, at the opposite end of the Pan American continents, the Stena DrillMAX is closing in on Exxon’s Orphan Basin location offshore Newfoundland to drill another high potential well.

Meanwhile, the US Atlantic is “wind-only,” despite high deepwater oil and gas potential. The late Paul Post, an esteemed colleague and the leading expert on the petroleum geology of the US Atlantic, believed the deepwater US Atlantic could contain >20 billion BOE. No other Pan American nation has completely closed its Atlantic margin to oil and gas exploration.

Can a nation with a debt of $35 trillion afford to ignore oil and gas resources that will remain in high demand for decades?

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Well to watch: Stena Drillmax en route to Newfoundland to drill in the Orphan basin for Exxon

Posted in Canada, drilling, Guyana, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , on April 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The DrillMAX is en route from Guyana to drill the Persephone wildcat well 500 km NE of Newfoundland in the highly prospective Orphan basin (3000 m water depth). This looks like the farthest from shore any well has been drilled in the Atlantic. The late spring date is prudent.This is definitely a well to watch because of the resource potential and difficult operating conditions.

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