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Archive for the ‘energy policy’ Category

Trinidad is all in on deepwater exploration; sweet deal for Exxon

Posted in energy policy, Guyana, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , on August 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Trinidad’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissesar: “Trinidad will not wait for the end of any energy era,” she said. “Our principle is simple: investment goes where it is welcomed and stays where it is well treated.”

The PM of a country with an oil production history that predates the Drake well in Pennsylvania leaves no doubt about her support for deepwater development. Her candid and clear messaging is most refreshing.

Consistent with her policy guidance, T&T signed a Production Sharing Contract with Exxon for a massive deepwater tract (Block Trinidad and Tobago Ultra Deep 1, map below). Per Ms. Persad Bissessar:

“Today’s signing underscores our government’s commitment to strengthening national energy security and to unlocking the full value of our hydrocarbon resources through discipline, policy, competitive terms and trusted partnerships.”

The contract is an impressive achievement for Exxon, which was awarded the block non-competively through direct negotiation rather than bid rounds. The spectacular deepwater results offshore Guyana were a major selling point for Exxon, which promoted its leadership in understanding Caribbean offshore geology.

Although another Guyana is unlikely, the enormous lease block presents a great opportunity for Exxon. The consolidated block spans 7,765 square kilometers in the Eastern Tobago Basin in water depths exceeding 2,000 meters. By comparison, Trinidad and Tobago’s total surface area is about 5,128 square kilometers and a typical Gulf of America lease block is only 23 sq km. (Think about that! The size of US offshore lease blocks, which are the world’s smallest, needs to be reconsidered.)

Based on press reports, Exxon will carry out seismic acquisition within 12 months, followed by geological and geophysical studies, and drill up to 2 exploratory wells during the initial phases of the contract. (Reports differ as to whether one of those wells is mandatory, but presumably that won’t be an issue.)

Does this impressive deal reduce the likelihood that America’s largest oil company, which has essentially abandoned the Gulf of America except for its (fading?) carbon disposal ambitions, will participate in the upcoming Gulf lease sale? Politically, failure to participate would not seem to be very astute given the Administration’s promotion of domestic production and energy dominance.

Oil Now map
T&T – Exxon signing cermony

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The winds of change! 😉

Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

2023 vs. 2025: Not so subtle changes

BOEM tweet (12/8/2023): Offshore wind is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a new clean energy industry, tackle the climate crisis, and create good-paying jobs, while ensuring economic opportunities for all communities.
BOEM tweet (7/31/2025): America’s offshore energy resources are powering the nation. In FY2024 that looks like 668M barrels of oil, 700B cubic feet of natural gas
BSEE 2023 logo
BSEE 2025 logo

BTW, the new BSEE logo appears to have been influenced by the masterpiece Rig at Sunset 👍 😉

Rig at Sunset

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Dept. of the Interior is reconsidering approval of US Wind Construction & Operations Plan

Posted in energy policy, Offshore Wind, Regulation, tagged , , , , , on August 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

A new court filing (attached) informs that the Dept. of the Interior is reconsidering the Construction & Operations Plan (COP) approval for US Wind’s Maryland Offshore Wind (“MarWin”) Project (maps above). That approval is the subject of litigation filed by Ocean City MD and others.

The key section of the Federal government’s filing is pasted below.

  1. An extension in this case is necessary as Interior intends to reconsider its COP approval and move in the District of Maryland—the first-filed case—for voluntary remand of that agency action. See, e.g., Util. Solid Waste Activities Grp. v. EPA, 901 F.3d 414, 436 (D.C.Cir. 2018) (recognizing that administrative agencies have the authority to reconsider their decisions). The outcome of Interior’s reconsideration has the potential to affect the Plaintiff’s claims in this case.
Maryland Offshore WindDownload

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Nantucket Current opinion piece challenges Select Board rhetoric

Posted in climate, energy policy, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , , , on August 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Victoria Bonnet’s piece in the Nantucket Current challenges certain assertions made at the Select Board’s July 29 press conference. Key points:

“The government documents for ALL the Atlantic projects make it clear that there will be no benefit to climate change from implementing wide scale offshore wind.”

“And how is it possible that an attorney representing an island that is receiving the full brunt of the environmental impacts from this massive industrial project is lecturing the press that historic preservation can co-exist with offshore wind? The sight of just the first 40 towers from Vineyard Wind makes it clear they can’t.”

“Blindly following public relations statements about offshore wind as a critical solution to climate change that must be implemented immediately is how we got here in the first place. It has become clear that Nantucket receives no benefits from, but is significantly harmed by, Vineyard Wind. Our Select Board’s role should not be to advocate for any energy source that harms Nantucket.”

“Dawn Hill, a signatory to the Good Neighbor Agreement and the current Select Board Chair, was a bright spot in the meeting. Her acknowledgment that the project is way more impactful than communicated at the time the Good Neighbor Agreement was signed gives hope that more rational thinking and action is on the way.“

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Denmark relies heavily on imported power

Posted in climate, energy policy, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , on August 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

As indicated in the Jens Christiansen graphic above, Denmark’s net imports exceeded 80% of demand several times in July. Per Jens, a Danish physicist, “this is the downside of being a wind leader we have to talk about.”

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JL laments the loss of Scottish jobs

Posted in climate, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, UK, tagged , , , , on August 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

North Sea pioneer, JL Daeschler, reports from Scotland that “more than 13,000 Scots oil and gas jobs have been lost in the space of just one year while over 40% of the UK’s energy needs is being imported ….”

The UK’s self destructive energy policy, while sadly not unique, is particularly troubling because of the North Sea’s enormous contribution to the domestic economy over the past 50 years. As Gillian Bowditch aptly commented:

“We all want to protect our environment and Scotland, with its vast natural resources and expertise in energy, should be leading the way. Instead, we have squandered an opportunity in favour of a facile show of moral posturing.”

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MV Times raises more Vineyard Wind transparency questions

Posted in decommissioning, energy policy, Offshore Wind, Regulation, tagged , , , , , on August 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

MV Times -blade replacement continues

MV Times: “The recent site visit raised questions on the production of the wind farm. The Times has been able to neither verify the report independently nor confirm disparities between visuals on the ground and the Iberdrola report.”

  • Avangrid, an Iberdrola subsidiary and one of Vineyard Wind’s developers, reported that 17 out of 62 turbines were currently sending power to the Massachusetts grid.
  • The MV Times counted between five and nine turbines spinning at different points, and for different intervals, in their two hour visit.
  • BOE comment: Although there are many possible reasons for this discrepancy, it’s reasonable to question the absence of turbine output data. Developers assert that generator specific data are sensitive and could have market implications. However, these turbines are operating on public lands and were in part publicly funded. Output data and other performance metrics clearly have policy implications.
  • Note that Iberdrola “expect[s] no impact from new federal budget legislation, as it doesn’t impact 1,000 megawatts under construction.”

An MV Times photo of a Vineyard Wind substation is pasted below. These substations are large structures. Per the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) for Vineyard Wind, the topsides for a conventional electrical service platform (ESP) (also known as an offshore substation or OSS) are 45 x 70 x 38 m, which is larger in surface area than a typical 6-pile oil and gas platform (~30 x 30 m), and is comparable in size to a large jackup drilling rig.

Decommissioning financial assurance requirements were relaxed to reduce development costs, thus increasing taxpayer liability risks. This policy decision should be reviewed.

Vineyard Wind substation

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Kudos to Kiwi common sense!

Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on August 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

USGS diagram

New Zealand may again issue new oil and gas permits following yesterday’s action by parliament.

The extent to which this will result in new exploration remains to be seen. Increased natural gas production is the primary objective.

USGS (2020) undiscovered resource estimates are encouraging. The fully risked total for natural gas is 17 Tcf (mean), with a range of 7.9 to 31.1 Tcf. See the table pasted below.

Policy shift at a glance:

April 2018: New Zealand is halting all new offshore oil and gas exploration to become a global leader in the fight against climate change, the centre-left government said Thursday, but opponents accused it of “economic vandalism”.

June 2024: The country’s coalition government is preparing to invite energy companies to resume exploration in the three major offshore fields that supply most of its gas. It comes after National Grid operator Transpower was last month forced to warn families to limit their electricity usage to avoid a shutdown during a cold snap.

July 31, 2025: Parliament reverses the law banning new offshore oil and gas exploration permits.

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BOEM Rescinds Designated Wind Energy Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf

Posted in energy policy, Offshore Wind, tagged , , on July 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“By rescinding WEAs, BOEM is ending the federal practice of designating large areas of the OCS for speculative wind development, and is de-designating over 3.5 million acres of unleased federal waters previously targeted for offshore wind development across the Gulf of America, Gulf of Maine, the New York Bight, California, Oregon, and the Central Atlantic.”

full announcement

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Nantucket gives Vineyard Wind 2 weeks to respond to demands

Posted in energy policy, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , , , on July 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

On Tuesday morning, the Nantucket Select Board blasted Vineyard Wind and gave the company 2 weeks to respond to their 15 demands. The Nantucket Current provides good coverage of the press conference. The specific demands are listed below.

  1. Text emergency notifications to designated Town officials within 1 hour.
  2. Alert the same officials when blade monitors detect anomalies.
  3. Share with Nantucket the content of any written communications with or from federal agencies regarding project failures that have impacts on Nantucket.
  4. Email detailed monthly project updates to the Select Board and Town Manager.
  5. Present updates and take public questions at Select Board meetings upon request and no less than quarterly.
  6. Respond to written questions from the Select Board within three business days.
  7. Provide relevant project reports within 1 week of submission to any agency.
  8. Share all studies or data reports on adverse effects within five business days of receipt.
  9. Disclose correspondence with regulatory agencies within 15 business days.
  10. Notify the Town if the company is asserting any confidentiality claims to shield public disclosure of reports or data in regulatory filings.
  11. Pay liquidated damages ($250,000) per violation of the above communication protocols.
  12. Pay liquidated damages ($25,000) per turbine per day) for each day that turbine lights are on without the Aircraft Detection and Lighting System (ADLS) being active.
  13. Within 2 months, initiate a process to seek public input on new emergency response plans—including blade failure scenarios.
  14. Establish and maintain a $10 million escrow fund to ensure coverage of cleanup costs from future failures.
  15. Permanently suspend new projects if any future incident forces beach closures or shellfish harvesting bans for seven consecutive days or 14 total days in any 6-month period.

I observed the press conference on the Town’s YouTube channel, and my sense is that this may be Vineyard Wind’s last chance to amicably resolve these issues. Board member Dawn Hill, who now regrets signing the increasingly unpopular Good Neighbor Agreement with Vineyard Wind, didn’t hold back when she said:

“These wind turbines are bigger, brighter, and much more impactful than we ever thought, and not to mention the environmental hazard from failures. But my choice would be with our new, federal administration to really wake up and try and put an end to these things, because they’re not worth it to the coast of the United States.”

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