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Archive for the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ Category

2023: first zero fatality year on the US OCS since at least 1963!

Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , on January 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The 3rd quarter update by Jason Mathews and a followup inquiry confirm that there were no work-related fatalities associated with US OCS oil and gas operations in 2023! This major achievement deserves public recognition given that the zero fatality goal has long eluded offshore operators, contractors, and regulators.

In a proper safety culture, continuous improvement is the primary goal, and both good and bad outcomes must be carefully assessed. The 2023 zero-deaths milestone is thus tempered by life threatening incidents such as those described in the attached safety alert and investigation report. Address these issues, identify other potential problem areas, and continue to drive the culture forward. Be proud and confident through training, planning, and achievement, but be wary!

bsee-safety-alert-477-hazards-of-working-in-confined-spacesDownload
hi-a-379-wt-offshore-04-sep-2023Download

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How did the govt fare on the Sale 259 bid rejections?

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Keathley Canyon and Walker Ridge bids at Sale 259: blue=1 bid, red=2 bids, green=3 bids

Based solely on a comparison of the bids (Sale 261 vs. Sale 259), the Sale 259 rejections were, on balance, to the benefit of the public (table below). On the plus side:

  • Assuming all of the high Sale 261 bids are accepted, the net gain to the US Treasury is $8,749,365
  • Of the 14 tracts with rejected high bids at Sale 259, 8 received bids at Sale 261
  • Seven of those 8 bids were higher than the Sale 259 high bids, and 5 of those 7 were more than $1 million higher.
  • The Sale 259 bid rejections in the Keathley Canyon and Walker Ridge areas proved to be 100% beneficial. All 6 of those tracts received much higher bids at Sale 261.
  • The best BOEM decisions were the rejections of the Sale 259 bids for AT 5 and WR 795 and 796. The Sale 261 high bids on these 3 tracts were $10.8 million higher than the Sale 259 bids.
  • WR 795 and 796 were single bid tracts at Sale 259.
  • AT 5 received 3 bids at Sale 259. BOEM rejected the high bid despite the competitive bidding. That proved to be the right call given that the Sale 261 high bid was $3.5 million higher.

On the other hand:

  • None of the 5 Green Canyon rejections received any bids at Sale 261.
  • The high bid for GC 777 was rejected twice (Sales 257 and 259) at a cost of $1.8 million, the BP/Talos high bid at Sale 257. At sale 259, BP was the sole bidder for GC 777, and their bid was only $583,000, less than 1/3 of their Sale 257 bid. GC 777 received no bids at Sale 261.
  • The worst BOEM Sale 259 decisions were the rejections of the DC 622, GC 547, and GC 591 bids at a cost of $4.6 million ($5.2 if the Sale 261 bid for DC 622 is rejected).
  • This is not to say that the tracts with rejected bids will not ultimately be leased. However, the uncertainty regarding future sales changes the historic GoM leasing dynamic. The next opportunity for purchasing unleased tracts is a troubling unknown. Absent leasing and exploration, their resource and revenue potential will never be known.
area and blockSale 259 high bid – companySale 261 high bidgovt gain (loss)
DC 6222,101,836 – Shell615,628* – Shell(1,486,208)
GC 173307,107 – Woodsideno bid(307,107)
GC 5471,783,498 – Chevronno bid(1,783,498)
GC 5911,291,993 – Chevronno bid(1,291,993)
GC 642605,505 – Anadarkono bid(605,505)
GC 777583,103 – bpno bid(583,103)
AT 51,551,130 – Anadarko5,215,628* – Shell3,664,498
AT 133607,107 – Woodsideno bid(607,107)
KC 745707,777 – Beacon2,422,222 – Beacon1,714,445
KC 789707,777 – Beacon2,143,299 – Beacon1,435,522
WR 794724,744 – Beacon1,487,624 – Beacon762,880
WR 795774,242 – Beacon5,301,107 – Woodside4,526,865
WR 796774,242 – Beacon3,310,107 – Woodside2,535,865
WR 750724,744 – Beacon1,498,555 – Beacon773,811
*The BOEM sale 261 bid summary misidentifies the DC 622 and AT 5 bids as being for MC 622 and GC 5 respectively. The corrected identification above is based on the “Blocks Receiving Bids” file correlated with the block number and company code.

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October GoM oil production held near 2 million bopd. Two consecutive years with no tropical storm impacts.

Posted in climate, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , on December 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

EIA reports October production of 1.959 million bopd. September production was revised down from 2.000 to 1.999 million bopd, a very slight but symbolically significant change. Foul play? 😉

For the past 2 years, no tropical storms have significantly impacted Gulf of Mexico production. Don’t expect this to be reported elsewhere 😉

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Saluting the Christmas lease sale (261)

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

  • Biggest prize at the holiday party went to Anadarko: Mississippi Canyon 389 – 5 bids, $25.5 million high bid
  • Biggest holiday shopping spree: Shell’s 65 high bids accounted for 24% of the sale’s high bids (excluding CCS bids).
  • Big spender award: Hess – $88.3 million on only 20 high bids. Does Chevron approve? 😀
  • Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi: Strong performance by Woodside. 18 high bids, $24.8 million
  • Heia Norge!: Equinor continues to shine in the GoM! 13 high bids, $20.6 million
  • Spirit of America award to Red Willow Offshore which is owned by the Southern Ute tribe. 22 high bids!
  • Deepwater independents for (energy) independence: Beacon, Murphy, LLOG, Kosmos, Talos, Houston Energy, Ridgewood, QuarterNorth, Alta Mar, CSL, CL&F, and Westlawn
  • Smart shelf shoppers: Arena, Byron, Focus, Cantium
  • Even pace wins the race: Another solid lease sale for bp – 24 high bids.
  • So happy together 😀: Chevron and Hess combined for 48 high bids, $114 million
  • Coal in their stockings? Repsol (Sale 261) and Exxon (Sales 257 and 259) made up their own rules for acquiring carbon dumping leases. Perhaps some solid carbon in their Christmas stockings would be appropriate.
  • Christmas in July?: A lease sale in 2024 is needed. Sometime near the 4th of July holiday would be good. It’s up to you Congress!

Holiday greetings to our friends around the world!

Stocking stuffer for that special person! 😉

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Looking at the “top 10” Sale 261 bids

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , on December 21, 2023| 1 Comment »

It’s always interesting to compare the high bids with the “runner-up” bids on the same tracts. Usually the gap is large and, as indicated in the table below, that is the case with the Sale 261 “top 10.” This tells us that bidding is independent, that tract evaluation is far from an exact science, that information and expert opinions differ, and that companies have different business and bidding strategies.

Particularly interesting in this sale were the tracts that both Hess and Chevron, its future parent, sought to acquire. Chevron and Hess bid against each other on two of the “top 10” tracts, and Hess outbid Chevron by wide margins. Will this affect post-merger relationships? 😉

In a future post, we’ll look at the 14 rejected Sale 259 high bids and the bidding on these tracts in Sale 261.

blockhigh bid
(million $)		company2nd highest bid
(million $)		company
MC 38925.5Anadarko1.9LLOG
GC 18821.0Hess4.8Chevron
GC 15118.0Hess3.0Anadarko
GC 72317.2Anadarko (55%)
Chevron (45%)		2.0Equinor
GC 11614.0Hess7.5Anadarko
GC 72212.0Equinor1.4Chevron (55%)
Anadarko (45%)
GC 727.5Hesssingle bidder
GC 2327.0Hess1.1Chevron
GB 7016.7Shellsingle bidder
KC 2105.3Shellsingle bidder

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Lease Sale 261 observations

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , on December 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

  • Good prep by the BOEM leasing staff. On time. Quality live stream. Smooth bid reading by Jim Kendall and Bernadette Thomas.
  • Strong sale: $382.2 million in high bids vs. $263.8 for Sale 259. Anything over $300 million would have been considered a good sale.
  • 26 companies participated (updated from pre-sale stats)
  • Strong participation by the GoM stalwarts: Shell, Chevron, Oxy/Anadarko, BP, Woodside (BHP), Equinor, Talos, LLOG, Walter, Kosmos, Beacon
  • Kudos to Arena, Byron, Cantium, Focus for keeping the shelf alive
  • Contrary to the regulations, it looks like we once again have a company seeking to acquire oil and gas leases for carbon disposal purposes. This time it’s Repsol which was the sole bidder for 36 low-value nearshore tracts in the Mustang Island and Matagorda Island areas (red blocks at the western end of the map above). At least Repsol also bid legitimately on 5 deepwater tracts.
  • Exxon was a complete no show, as was ConocoPhillips.

Complete sale statistics will soon be available at BOEM.gov.

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Carol Hartgen and the 5 Year OCS Leasing Program

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , on December 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Foreground (L to R) Lucy Querques Denett, Carolita Kallaur (RIP), Carole Hartgen, Vicki Agnew (RIP); Rear (L ro R) David Sutfin, Willie Taylor; photo credit: Keith Good

As we await Lease Sale 261, Carol Hartgen, my long-time colleague and founder of the 5 year OCS leasing program, voiced astonishment that the new 5 year plan was only for the purpose of scheduling 3 lease sales required by Congress as prerequisites to offshore wind lease auctions.  Carol provides some historical context:

I couldn’t believe the release of the final Five Year Program as just a necessity to hold offshore wind sales.  Back in 1969, Carolita Kallaur, Joan Davenport and I worked on a 5-year schedule based on the supply and demand needs of the nation. That approach, which developed into the elaborate process in the OCS Lands Act and the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act, is a thing of the past. Over.those 50 plus years, politics from both sides of the aisle always drove the changes

Related: How NOT to manage our oil and gas leasing program

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Presale (261) statistics vs. Sale 259

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , on December 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

261 (presale)259
tracts receiving bids311313
no. of bids352353
companies bidding2032
<400 m water depth52107
>400 m water depth259206

Comments on the preliminary stats:

  • total tracts receiving bids and total no. of bids nearly identical to the previous sale (259 in March 2023)
  • disappointing drop in the no. of companies bidding
  • 83.8% of the Sale 261 tracts receiving bids are in >400m vs. 66.8% for Sale 259 (this may in part explain the drop in participation)

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DOI publishes backhanded 5 year leasing plan

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, tagged , , on December 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

The announcement boasts about “the fewest oil and gas lease sales in history” while seemingly apologizing for holding any sales at all.

Consistent with the requirements of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) concerning offshore conventional and renewable energy leasing, the Department of the Interior today published the final 2024–2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (Program) with the fewest oil and gas lease sales in history.

These three lease sales are the minimum number that will enable the Interior Department’s offshore wind energy program to continue issuing leases in a way that will ensure continued progress towards the Administration’s goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030.  

DOI

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Offshore cousins are keeping pace

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , on December 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »

The Gulf of Mexico and Norwegian branches of the offshore family have a long record of technological innovation and production leadership.

As a followup to our last GoM-Norway update, the respective oil production rates are presented below. The Gulf of Mexico now has a small edge as a result of new production from deepwater facilities.

Natural gas is a different story, and Norway’s offshore gas production is much higher. US gas production (second chart below) has been dominated by the onshore sector since advances in horizontal drilling and well stimulation procedures triggered the shale gas revolution twenty years ago.

If you get a chance to visit Stavanger, the Norwegian Oil Museum is highly recommended. See the short video below.

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