Posted in Canada, drilling, Guyana, Offshore Energy - General, tagged 3000 m, 500 km, Exxon, Newfoundland, Orphan basin, Stena Drillmax 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.
Posted in Canada, energy policy, Guyana, Offshore Energy - General, tagged CNOOC, Exxon, Guyana, Hess, Nexen, Shell, Stabroek Block on March 25, 2024| 4 Comments »
State-owned Chinese National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) has now joined Exxon in filing an arbitration claim to establish their right over Hess’s share of the prolific Stabroek block offshore Guyana. How did CNOOC acquire its 25% share in the block?
So, an apparent afterthought in CNOOC’s takeover of Nexen has (1) proven to be extremely profitable, (2) given the company and the Chinese government leverage in the Exxon-Chevron supermajor dispute, and (3) opened the door for CNOOC to increase their interest in the massive Stabroek field.
Posted in California, Canada, energy policy, Regulation, Uncategorized, tagged California, Fraser Institute, North America, perception index, upstream oil and gas, Wyoming on March 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The Fraser Institute’s 2023 Canada-US Energy Sector Survey of senior executives in the upstream oil and gas sector provided data for assessing the competitiveness of US and Canadian jurisdictions. The resulting perception index (below) ranked Wyoming at the top with a score of 100.0 and California at the bottom with a score of 0.0. Perhaps one or more of the respondents have been mired in the California decommissioning quagmire. ☹
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Canada, tagged Bay du Nord, CNLOPB, Equinor, Hebron, Hibernia, Newfoundland, resource estimates, Suncor, Terra Nova on February 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The CNLOPB has announced contingent resources of 340 million bbls for the Cambriol discovery which would be co-developed with 2 nearby discoveries as part of Equinor’s Bay du Nord project. Per CNLOPB estimates, this brings the Bay du Nord resource total to 1.132 billion bbls. Equinor has announced that 2 exploratory wells will be spudded this summer. Positive results would further strengthen the case for Bay du Nord development.
| contingent resources per CNLOPB (million bbls) | |
| Bay du Nord | 407 |
| Cappahayden | 385 |
| Cambriol | 340 |
| project area total | 1132 |
Meanwhile, Terra Nova production is ramping up after a long hiatus for FPSO refurbishment, remarkable Hibernia has produced more than double the original resource estimate of 520 million bbls and is still producing about 60,000-70,000 bopd, and Hebron is impressively producing about 120,000 bopd on average.
There is indeed reason for optimism about North America’s only Atlantic production in what is arguably the continent’s (world’s?) most challenging operating environment.
Posted in accidents, Canada, Offshore Energy - General, tagged artifacts, Charles Smith, Marine Institute, Newfoundland, Ocean Ranger on February 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Short answer: Yes!
A good article and video on the topic are linked. During my last visit to St. John’s, the late Charles Smith gave me an excellent tour of the Marine Institute that is featured in the video. The Institute is an outstanding training facility that has reduced operating risks offshore Newfoundland and elsewhere.
Posted in Canada, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Newfoundland, in situ burning, ohmsett, dispersants, oil spill response, Edward J. Tennyson, NOBE, remote sensing, Valdez spill on October 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Edward J. Tennyson passed away last Friday at his Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia home. Ed worked in the Department of the Interior’s offshore program for more than 20 years, and arguably has done more than any single individual to advance oil spill response capabilities. A few of Ed’s many achievements:
Ed was an entertaining and informative speaker and was often called upon to brief congressional panels, and discuss his research at public meetings and professional conferences. He was rightfully a media darling and was often contacted for comments on oil spill response matters. Perhaps his most famous quote was in the Wall Street Journal during the Valdez spill in Prince William Sound. Ed described the spill response as follows: “Like mowing a 40 acre field with a 1/4 inch lawn mower.” 😉
RIP Ed, you made a difference!
Posted in Canada, drilling, Offshore Energy - General, tagged bp, Ephesus well, Newfoundland, Trove on August 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Newfoundlander Howard Pike shared this interesting video.
Posted in Canada, climate, flaring and venting, Gulf of Mexico, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Endicott, flaring data, Hibernia, Northstar, ONRR, Shenzi, venezuela, White Rose, World Bank on July 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »
World Bank flaring data have some limitations as discussed in a previous BOE post. However, they provide an objective means of estimating and comparing flaring volumes worldwide, and therefore merit close attention.
The latest World Bank data tell us that significant gas flaring issues persist. Worldwide, 138,549 million m3 of gas were flared in 2022. This equates to a massive 4 tcf, the equivalent of the reserves in a major gas field and more than 5 times the total gas production in the Gulf of Mexico in 2022.
The top ten “flarers” are listed below. Each of these fields flared from 19 to 42 bcf. For comparison, the top ten GoM gas producers in 2022 produced 10 to 57 bcf, so single fields are flaring more than GoM companies are producing in total. Assuming for discussion purposes a gas-oil ratio of 1000 cu ft/bbl, all of the gas associated with 19 million to 42 million barrels of oil production was wasted from each field.
Posted below are the World Bank’s flaring intensity data (m3 of gas flared per bbl of oil produced) for the 10 countries with the highest flaring volumes. Venezuela’s flaring intensity rose to 44.6 m3/bbl in 2020, before declining moderately the following 2 years. 44.6 m3/bbl equates to 1575 cu ft/bbl. This gas flaring to oil production ratio implies that a very high percentage of Venezuela’s associated gas production was flared.
Here in North America, we have flaring issues of our own. Mexico’s Cactus Field is a top ten flarer (first table above) with 534.5 million m3 flared in 2022. The World Bank also lists 6 Permian Basin fields with >50 million m3 of gas flared in 2022.
Zeroing in on the US/Canada offshore sectors, fields with >1 million m3 of gas flared (2022) are listed below. Four of the top 7 are offshore Alaska and Newfoundland where the gas cannot currently be marketed and reinjection, field use, and flaring are the only options. Can production from these fields be better managed to reduce flaring volumes?
| field | operator | m3 (millions) | f3 (millions) |
| White Rose (Nfld) | Cenovus | 41.69 | 1472 |
| Hibernia (Nfld) | HMDC | 40.99 | 1448 |
| Shenzi | BHP | 31.34 | 1107 |
| Northstar (AK) | Hilcorp | 11.23 | 397 |
| Constitution | Oxy | 10.76 | 380 |
| Pompano | Talos | 10.54 | 372 |
| Endicott (AK) | Hilcorp | 10.07 | 356 |
| Ursa | Shell | 8.19 | 289 |
| Marmalard | Murphy | 6.62 | 234 |
| Lucius | Oxy | 3.09 | 109 |
| Marlin | Oxy | 3.08 | 109 |
| Mars | Shell | 2.2 | 78 |
| Holstein | Oxy | 1.48 | 52 |
The extraordinary 1.1 bcf of gas that was flared at the Shenzi field may help explain the large (1 bcf) increase in oil well gas flaring in the Gulf of Mexico in 2022. Based on the World Bank data and ONRR data for the GoM, Shenzi accounted for 16% of GoM oil-well gas flaring in 2022. As noted in that post, more regulator/industry transparency on lease and field specific flaring is needed. ONRR’s posting of flaring and venting data is a positive step, but it doesn’t include lease specific data and doesn’t explain major flaring episodes.
Posted in Canada, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, Regulation, tagged Argentia, Jones Act, monopiles, Newoundland, Wind Energy on July 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The Jones Act, protectionism at its finest, was enacted 113 years ago, and stipulates that vessels which transport merchandise or people between two US points must be US built, flagged, owned, and crewed. Congress tightened the screws further by ordaining that offshore energy facilities, including wind farms, are US points. That precludes the transportation of wind turbine components from US ports to offshore wind farms.
The Jones Act has thus provided an opportunity for the Port of Argentia, a former US Navy base in southeast Newfoundland, and the port is set to become a key node in the offshore wind supply chain. Monopiles constructed in Europe will be stored in Argentia, until they are delivered to US wind farms in the North Atlantic. Kudos to the folks at the Port of Argentia for taking advantage of this opportunity.
Posted in accidents, Canada, IRF, Offshore Energy - General, tagged comparing risks, IRF, Newfoundland, offshore safety, RigZone, Scotian Shelf on February 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »
An international regulatory colleague brought this puzzling RigZone article to my attention. Quotes:
“From one perspective, one can look at the overall absence of risk – from this perspective, we can easily say that either the United Kingdom’s North Sea or Canada’s Nova Scotian continental shelf is the safest region for offshore oil and gas operations right now,” Robak told Rigzone.
“Canada’s offshore industry accounts for approximately one million barrels per day, and its geographic location along the Nova Scotian continental shelf has been a benefit in that there is little to no risk to its continued operation on a day-to-day basis,” Robak said.
Comments:
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 