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Archive for the ‘energy’ Category

The Talos-EnVen merger is a pretty big deal

Posted in decommissioning, energy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , on September 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Sept 22 (Reuters) – Talos Energy Inc (TALO.N) said on Thursday it will buy EnVen Energy Corp, a private producer in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico, in a $1.1 billion deal including debt.

As the data below demonstrate, this is a significant merger from a regional perspective. In 2021, the combined company would have been the sixth largest GoM producer of both oil and gas. The two companies are operating 105 platforms, and their 8 deepwater (>1000′) platforms are 14% of the GoM total. Their compliance records, while not at Honor Roll levels, are better than the GoM average based on INCs/inspection. Some major decommissioning projects loom (see the second table below), and the extent to which the merged company is financially prepared for these obligations is unknown. Particularly noteworthy is the Cognac platform, which was the world’s first platform installed in >1000′ of water.

EnVenTalos
2021 Oil (MMbbls)9.617.5
GoM oil rank137
2022 Gas (Bcf)12.634.8
GoM gas rank169
2021/2022 well starts88
platforms: total1491
platforms >1000′44
BSEE inspections37176
2022 INCs (W, CSI, FSI)12/4/138/23/10
INCs/inspection0.460.40
INC=incident of noncompliance; W=warning; CSI=component shut-in; FSI=facility shut-in

Decommissioning obligations of note:

Platformownertypewater
depth (ft)		installed
Amberjack Talosfixed11001991
VK 989Talosfixed12901994
Ram PowellTalosTLP32161997
GC 18Talosfixed7501986
CognacEnVenfixed10231978
LobsterEnVenfixed7751994
BrutusEnVenTLP29002001
PrinceEnVenTLP15002001
Cognac platform

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EIA: Record US natural gas consumption in 2022

Posted in energy, natural gas, tagged , on September 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »

In our September Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), we expect natural gas consumption to increase by 3.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in the United States during 2022 to average 86.6 Bcf/d for the year, the most annual U.S. natural gas consumption on record. We forecast that U.S. natural gas consumption will increase in all end-use sectors this year. We expect the U.S. electric power sector to grow by 4% in 2022 to 32.1 Bcf/d, exceeding the 2020 record by 1%, which is the highest growth rate among all sectors.

EIA

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More buzz about ultradeep geothermal

Posted in climate, drilling, energy, tagged , , , , on August 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Quaise Energy’s ultradeep geothermal energy concept is most intriguing and media interest continues to build. Ultradeep geothermal has a big advantage over other renewable concepts which have much greater space and aesthetic challenges and suffer from intermittency. As is very well explained in the quote below, it’s now up to Quaise to demonstrate gyrotron drilling and the associated technology in pilot projects.

“A lot of the technology advances [needed] are coming into that proof step where you’ll have physical proof that they work. So I would say we are ready to launch, if we can just bring together the right utility, the right contract and engineering expertise, and the right site to launch the proofs to show that this can be done,” said Ken Wisian, a geothermal geophysicist and associate director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, Austin. “The picture could be accelerating dramatically over the next few years. We just need the proof projects to land.”

altenergymag.com

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Happy Independence Day!

Posted in energy, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on July 4, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Perdido, Gulf of Mexico

Special thanks to the offshore workers who help provide the energy needed for a free and independent society.

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EIA production reports continue to be delayed due to “systems issues”

Posted in energy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , on July 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The April oil production figure for the Gulf of Mexico has thus not yet been released.

These ongoing issues must be rather embarrassing for a data driven agency.

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Ultradeep geothermal update

Posted in climate, drilling, energy, Uncategorized, tagged , , on June 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »

MIT Press

For others who are fascinated by ultradeep geothermal energy, MIT News has posted an update on Quaise Energy. Quaise wants to use x-rays to drill ultradeep geothermal wells at old coal and gas power plants.

“The company plans to vaporize enough rock to create the world’s deepest holes and harvest geothermal energy at a scale that could satisfy human energy consumption for millions of years. They haven’t yet solved all the related engineering challenges, but Quaise’s founders have set an ambitious timeline to begin harvesting energy from a pilot well by 2026.”

Quaise will use conventional rotary drilling technology to reach basement formations before switching to high-power millimeter waves that vaporize boreholes through rock and provide access to deep geothermal heat. See our previous post on this exciting concept.

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Lithium shortage? Petroleum engineers to the rescue!

Posted in climate, drilling, energy, tagged , , , , , on May 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Through her research of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale play, Lee found that highly concentrated lithium was found in the produced water (water produced as a byproduct during the extraction of oil and natural gas) along with produced natural gas and oil.

“We found lithium in the petroleum-based rock brines, which opens new pathways to address the shale plays as a substantial source of lithium, given that they are ubiquitous in the U.S.,” Lee said.

University of Houston

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O Canada!

Posted in Canada, energy, energy policy, Uncategorized, tagged , on May 20, 2022| Leave a Comment »

This graphic uses 2021 EIA data to compare the volumes of crude oil and petroleum products imported by the US from other countries.

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EIA short-term forecast calls for modest growth in US crude oil production

Posted in energy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , on April 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »

U.S. crude oil production in the forecast averages 12.0 million b/d in 2022, up 0.8 million b/d from 2021. We forecast production to increase another 0.9 million b/d in 2023 to average almost 13.0 million b/d, surpassing the previous annual average record of 12.3 million b/d set in 2019.

EIA

The short-term forecast doesn’t say how much of that production will come from the Gulf of Mexico. Last year, EIA forecast 2022 Gulf production to average 1.75 BOPD which seems about right based on the the most recent production data.

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Reminder about the massive natural gas resources in the eastern US

Posted in energy, natural gas, pipelines, tagged , , , , on April 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Linked is a good article by geologist Gregory Wrightstone about the stunning non-conventional natural gas resource potential of the Appalachian Basin of the eastern US. Unsurprisingly, development of these resources is constrained by pipeline capacity and the legal and administrative challenges associated with new pipeline construction. Also note that New York has blocked development of its natural gas resources. Fortunately, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio have shown better judgement.

According to Bill Zagorski, who was given the moniker of the “Father of the Marcellus,” the gas-in-place of the Marcellus dwarfs all conventional fields in the world. The size is so large that the ten largest conventional fields in the world combined do not equal the in-place reserves of the Marcellus. 

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