Posted in accidents, drilling, tagged aban pearl, drilling rig, investigation, offshore safety, sinking, venezuela on June 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Now that we are friends with Venezuela, can someone in the Administration ask them to release the report on the sinking of the Aban Pearl semisubmersible drilling rig in May 2010? This incident is of great interest to operating companies, safety regulators, and contractors worldwide.
Posted in drilling, Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged Borr Drilling, Cantium, jack-up rig, Lars Herbst, Odin, Pensacola on June 12, 2026| 1 Comment »
Lars Herbst saw this “beauty” while sitting at a rooftop “establishment” in Pensacola. Reminded him of our temporary Pensacola office and Destin Dome drilling. Lars had visions of returning to work as Pensacola District Manager! 😉
Upon returning to his senses, Lars reports that it’s the Borr jack-up rig Odin purchased from Noble’s fleet. The rig was brought from Mexico to Pensacola for modifications, and will be under contract to Cantium to drill in the GOA, but not the Eastern GOA!
Posted in California, drilling, energy policy, Regulation, tagged DOT, drilling technology, hyperbole, Sable Offshore on June 10, 2026| 3 Comments »
DOT and others shouldn’t make statements they can’t back up (see the X post below).
As a supporter of responsible offshore oil and gas operations, I find statements like this to be irresponsible and embarrassing. Sable Offshore is not using newer or safer drilling technology than is used in many other areas.
Posted in drilling, Offshore Energy - General, tagged AI, Exxon, geophysics, Guyana, identifying discoveries, oil and gas, Oil Now, seismic data on June 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Oil Now Guyana reports that an Exxon artificial intelligence model built using Guyana’s offshore seismic data was able to identify already-discovered crude oil accumulations with a 90% success rate.
Neil Chapman, Exxon: “…in Guyana, we have built an agent, a model…which if we give it the seismic data that we’ve run and we say, go find the crude oil, it can find all the crude oil that we’ve already found with a 90% success rate.”
(Note: Humans are also great at identifying discoveries after the fact 😉. How many false positives were there?)
Chapman said the company has also used artificial intelligence to review well data from across the industry.
“We have analyzed the well data from 50,000 wells that have been drilled in the industry all over the world, 50,000,” Chapman said. “It would have taken us 15 years to do that analysis. We’ve done it in a matter of weeks.”
Despite the many advances in exploration technology over the years, one caveat remains unchanged: “We don’t know if they’re going to be successful or not until you drill a hole, you can never be sure,” Chapman said.
AI should enhance not just geophysical interpretations, but all aspects of offshore exploration and production including site surveys, well planning and construction, drilling, well control, structure designs, production and pipeline monitoring, and safety management. Hopefully, the net result will be increased production at lower cost with improved safety and environmental performance, and that the workforce will not be reduced, but will become more efficient.
Posted in climate, drilling, energy, tagged gyrotron, millimeter wave drilling, Quaise Energy, Star Wars, supercritical water, superhot geothermal on February 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Superhot geothermal is exciting because of the unlimited potential, universal availability, Star Wars drilling technology, and the dynamics of supercritical fluids.
There are still hurdles to clear, and commercial power generation is 5+ years away, but the promise is tantalizing.
Posted in drilling, Jamaica, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Jamaica, piston coring, United Oil and Gas, Walton Morant License on January 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »
A research vessel departed Trinidad last weekend bound for Jamaica to conduct seabed surveys, starting this week, aimed at confirming whether oil-like substances detected beneath the island’s waters are commercially viable crude.
“This survey represents a key milestone in advancing our Jamaica exploration programme,” said Brian Larkin, CEO of United Oil & Gas.
The piston coring survey will involve the collection of 40–60 seabed core samples across the Walton and Morant Basins, accompanied by bathymetric, multibeam echo-sounding, and heat-flow surveys.
The data will be analyzed for geochemical and thermal signatures to confirm the presence of thermogenic hydrocarbons, assess source rock maturity, and refine basin modeling, materially enhancing the definition of key prospects, including Colibri and Oriole.
Posted in drilling, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged Bill Clements, JL Daeschler, Malaysia, Miri, safety, Sedco on January 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Per JL Daeschler, Sedco’s Far East, North Sea, and South America operations were all run from Dallas in the late 60’s. In 1970, an old schoolhouse became Sedco’s corporate headquarters (see picture and narrative pasted above). Thank you Bill Clements for saving this historic building – what a beautiful headquarters for the challenging and booming offshore industry!
JL: After 2 years with SEDCO in Miri, East Malaysia (1971) I moved to Brownsville Tx. But in 1979 I returned to the old school house in Dallas in secondment to Sedco Hamilton Production Services from Hamilton Brothers Oil & Gas. The main objective of the joint venture was promotion of floating production systems and in particular use of semi sub technology. One project assignment was the BP “Buchan” field in the North Sea. (Note: this work was a precursor to the deepwater floating production units that are now the method of choice for deepwater development in the Gulf.)
JL is pictured (right below) on the Sedco 135 during operations offshore East Malaysia.
Wisdom from JL: Rules were pretty simple, as you can read on the rig wall in the picture. No App, pin, or password…. In fact no internet and mobile phone, just a radio operator.
Safety was grounded in the attitude and respect of 100 + people living and working together (47 working / 47 sleeping and 6 managing and protecting others. More difficult was the integration of the visiting contractors, logging/cementing / diving / VIPs. (Still true today!)
No division amongst ages, nationality ( sometimes 6 of them) religions, Job position , and ethnicity. Just get along and do what you get paid for!
Safety issues were dealt with immediately with short, unscheduled “toolbox” meetings – less reporting and more fixing.
(As an aside, Dan Bourgeois and I were on assignment to Petronas in 1977 and visited their East Malaysian operations. Does anyone in Petronas remember us? 😉)
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, drilling, tagged Bill Clements, deepwater drilling, Governor of Texas, JL Daeschler, leadership, offshore drilling, Sedco on January 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Bill Clements founded the Southeast Drilling Company (SEDCO) in 1947 with two partners and a loan. Clements grew the business from three used drilling rigs into a global leader and a deepwater pioneer. Through SEDCO, Clements developed strong international relationships that included the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi. Clements went on on to serve as Deputy Secretary of Defense. He served as Governor of Texas from 1979-91.
BOE contributor and pioneering subsea engineer, JL Daeschler, fondly recalls working for Clements:
“He looked after the employees well, knew everyone by name on all his rigs, and was very encouraging. He was a great leader for the emerging deepwater industry. I often discussed a project with him on early Saturday morning office calls. Despite worldwide rig locations and time differences, he was able to read and digest all the morning reports. He conducted crisp executive meetings every Friday – very few speakers and to the point. He was no time waster. I learned a lot!
Posted in drilling, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, well control incidents, tagged 2001 crew picture, Deepwater Horizon, Indian Ocean, macondo, transocean, victims on December 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »
This picture was posted on the “Rig Pigs” Facebook page by Huston Funk. Per Huston: “First crew photo from the Deepwater Horizon. Taken in the Indian Ocean after we had left Singapore.”
Commenters identified 3 Macondo victims in the photo: Jason Anderson, Don Clark, and Stephen Curtis 🙏
Tribute to the Deepwater Horizon victims
Posted in accidents, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged BSEE, Deepwater Horizon, EDS, Emergency Disconnect Sequence, riser disconnect, Safety Alert on December 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Several BSEE Safety Alerts have just been released. Of particular importance to those interested in deepwater drilling is the attached alert describing two separate Emergency Disconnect Sequence (EDS) incidents.
The EDS (see the diagram above) is a critically important safety protocol that ensures that a well is sealed and the riser and rig are disconnected from the blowout preventer in the event of a well control emergency, unforeseen weather/ocean conditions, loss of power, or positioning system malfunction. Note that the Macondo blowout could have been prevented if the Deepwater Horizon crew had activated the EDS in a timely manner.
The two EDS events cited in the Safety Alert were presumably the March 28, 2025 and March 5, 2024 incidents investigated by BSEE district offices. The drillships were the Stanley Lafosse and the Deepwater Poseidon The investigation reports provide detailed information on these incidents.
Unintended riser disconnects not associated with EDS activations are a related safety and pollution concern that necessitated the issuance of a 2000 Notices to Lessees that was subsequently updated:
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 