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Part 2: Gulf of America flaring and venting (2019-2025) – charts and summary table

Posted in climate, flaring and venting, Gulf of Mexico, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , on June 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Part 1

Gulf of America flaring and venting data for 2019-2025 are summarized in the attached table. The preferred performance indicators are the percentages of produced gas that are flared and vented both for oil-well gas (OWG, also known as associated or casinghead gas) and gas-well gas (GWG or non-associated gas).

The flaring and venting table was compiled using monthly data submitted to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR). This is the best data source because reporting is mandatory and strictly enforced, and flaring and venting are accounted for separately. All volumes are in millions of cubic feet (MMCF).

The venting and flaring volumes are segmented for both OWG and GWG production. Venting produced gas (mostly methane) is a more significant environmental concern from both air quality and greenhouse gas (GHG) perspectives.

Observations and Comments:

  • The total volume of gas flared and vented in 2025 was 9.7 bcf (chart 1). 80% of that volume was flared, leaving 20% vented. OWG flaring (chart 5) reached a new high of 7.785 bcf in 2025, a near record oil production year for the Gulf.
  • Total venting and flaring in 2025 increased by 819 million cubic feet vs. 2024. However, the 7-year trend line remains favorable (chart 1).
  • Thinking that 2019, a record year for total flaring and venting, may have biased the trend line, I extended the chart back to 2015, the first year for which I have ONRR data. As you can see in chart 2, the overall trend is still favorable.
  • The % of produced gas that was flared or vented remains persistently above the historical 1.0% target (chart 3). Flared/vented volumes were below 1% of production prior to 2018.
  • The higher flaring/venting % may be because most gas production is now from oil wells, which typically have higher flaring rates associated with processing upsets.
  • The flaring and venting gap between GWG and OWG has narrowed, largely because of an increase in GWG flaring/venting. The combined rate for GWG more than doubled over the 7 year period, rising to 0.81% vs. 1.34% for OWG. (chart 3)
  • Total venting rose to 1.7 bcf in 2025, the highest venting volume in 3 years.
  • The % of GWG being vented doubled over the past 5 years to over 0.50% (chart 4). The growth in venting warrants further investigation.
  • The % of OWG vented increased slightly to 0.20%. Further reduction in OWG venting had been expected given that OWG production is increasingly from deepwater facilities with modern flaring systems.
  • A 2020 Univ. of Michigan study found “Large, older facilities situated in shallow waters tended to produce episodic, disproportionally high spikes of methane emissions. These facilities, which have more than seven platforms apiece, contribute to nearly 40% of emissions, yet consist of less than 1% of total platforms.” 
  • Platform specific data would be helpful in further assessing flaring/venting sources and trends.
chart 1
chart 2
chart 3
chart 4
chart 5

2025 flaring_venting – Sheet3Download

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Offshore Safety Leader Mike Saucier is retiring after a Hall of Fame career

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Regulation, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Bryan Domangue presents the coveted Order of the Alligator citation to Mike Saucier
Lars Herbst welcomes Mike Saucier to our prestigious retirement organization (fMMS).

After 41 years of offshore safety leadership, Mike Saucier, an outstanding engineer and manager, is retiring from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

Like many of the offshore program’s stalwarts, Mike earned a petroleum engineering degree from the Louisiana State University (LSU). In 1984, he began his Federal career in the Houma District Office of BSEE’s predecessor, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), where he was mentored by the great John Borne.

Mike has held many important engineering and supervisory positions including Drilling Engineer and District Manager in the highly regarded Houma District Office, Regional Supervisor for Field Operations, Regional Supervisor for District Field Operations, Acting Deputy Regional Director for District Operations, and Senior Technical Advisor for the Office of the Director. When the New Orleans District Manager retired during a hiring moratorium, Mike stepped up and assumed those duties as well.

Mike impressed his colleagues with his commitment to safety achievement, the essential core element of the offshore program. His diligence, and his firm, fair, and consistent enforcement of the safety and pollution prevention regulations, earned him respect throughout the offshore industry.

Mike is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys hunting and fishing, and has 4 grandsons to mentor in those skills. Note the impressive achievements cited in the Order of the Alligator certificate (below) 😉. The Order of the Alligator recognition is most fitting given Mike’s alligator hunting expertise, which greatly impressed those of us who were unfamiliar with such exploits!

In recognition of Mike’s outstanding career, the Board of Directors of the former Minerals Management Service (fMMS) has unanimously voted to induct Mike into the fMMS Hall of Fame! Mike receives (is sentenced to? 😉) lifetime membership in the fMMS and a registered copy of the offshore world’s prized masterpiece, the painting Rig at Sunset 😉. (image and short explanation below).

Congratulations to Mike! You made a difference!

“Rig at Sunset” was painted 50 years ago by a US Geological Survey (USGS) employee who chose to remain anonymous. Initially, the masterpiece was presented to USGS (later MMS) engineers and scientists who had made important contributions to the offshore oil and gas program. Understandably, the intended recipients were so humbled by the magnificence of the painting that they could not accept it. As the painting grew in value and international prominence, framed copies were presented to outstanding retirees and the original painting was kept at a secure, undisclosed location.

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Lease Sale BBG2 decision matrix; BOEM’s KC Block 828 bid rejection is interesting

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The Buckskin field (LLOG) is located in Keathley Canyon blocks 785, 828, 829, 830, 871, and 872 in 6,800 ft (2,073 m) of water. The KC 828 lease expired last year and LLOG’s bid for that block at the BBG2 sale was rejected.

BOEM’s Decision Information Matrix for Sale BBG2 is attached. As previously noted, 2 of the 25 high bids were rejected: Keathley Canyon Block 828 ($1,101,202) and Atwater Valley Block 63 ($650,018).

The rejected bids were significantly below both BOEM’s Mean of the Range-of-Value and Lower Bound Confidence Interval for these single bid tracts (table below).

Block No.Companyno. of bidsbidMROVLBCI
AT 63LLOG1$650,018$2,400,000$1,800,000
KC 828LLOG1$1,101,202$24,000,000$23,000,000
MROV=Mean of the Range-of-Value; LBCI=Lower Bound Confidence Interval

In the case of Keathley Canyon 828, BOEM’s valuation is more than 20 times the high bid. BOEM valued this block far higher than any other block in the sale.

KC 828 had been previously leased and that lease expired on 9/3/2025. The lease block was part of LLOG’s Buckskin field. Apparently, the lease expired due to inactivity given that the last well reached total depth more than a year prior to the expiration date. LLOG wanted the lease back. BOEM’s rejection sends a message that the price went up (by a lot 😉).

Finally, why didn’t any other company bid on KC 828, a block that has been publicly reported as being part of the Buckskin field?

BBG2-Phase-2-Decision-MatrixDownload

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Grateful for the Miocene!

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , on June 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

My colleague Keith Meekins shared an informative AAPG article about the importance of Miocene reservoirs in offshore oil and gas production worldwide.

“The Miocene delivered a significant amount of sand with excellent reservoir characteristics around the world,” noted Erik Scott, exploration geologist and consulting geologist/sedimentologist.

“Generally, hydrocarbons are coming from deeper, older rock – the Cretaceous, the Jurassic. By the time these source rocks get to the (hydrocarbon) generation window, the Miocene reservoirs are in place,” Scott said.

“Generally, the Miocene deposits are surrounded by fine-grained muds that produced sealing potential,” he noted.

More:

  • Miocene reservoirs account for more than 40 percent of established hydrocarbon reserves in the deepwater Gulf. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management identifies more than 9 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable Miocene resources.
  • Recently, Eni found a giant Miocene natural gas accumulation in the Kutei Basin offshore Indonesia with an estimated 5 trillion cubic feet of gas and 300 million barrels of condensate in place.
  • Azule Energy, equally owned by Eni and BP, made a recent Miocene oil discovery with an estimated 500 million barrels of crude offshore Angola.

Keith points to RTM (reverse-time migration) as an important factor in helping to unlock Miocene resources. RTM produces dramatically improved images below salt bodies and in areas of complex overburden. Per AAPG, Talos Energy used reprocessed RTM seismic to identify a bypassed Miocene fault-block closure in the Green Canyon Area of the Gulf. This structure had previously been invisible.

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Gulf of America flaring and venting, 2019-2025 (Part 1)

Posted in energy policy, flaring and venting, Gulf of Mexico, tagged , , , , on June 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Minimizing flaring and venting is important from both environmental and resource conservation standpoints. Flaring and venting volumes are also good indicators of how well production systems are designed, managed, and maintained.

Updated flaring and venting volumes for the Gulf of America have been compiled using monthly data submitted to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR). This is the best data source because reporting is mandatory and strictly enforced, and flaring and venting are accounted for separately.

Below are a few summary charts. Completed tables, similar to those posted for 2024, will be attached for sharing at a later date.

Total venting and flaring (fig. 1) in 2025 increased by 819 million cubic feet (mmcf) vs. 2024. However, the 7-year trend line is still favorable. Thinking that 2019, a record flaring year, may have biased the trend line, I extended the chart back to 2015, the first year for which I have ONRR data. As you can see in the second chart, the trend is still favorable.

80% (7785 mmcf) of the total gas flared and vented in 2025 (9741 mmcf) was flared from oil wells (chart below). That’s unsurprising given that most of the Gulf’s gas production is from deepwater oil wells, and flaring rates are higher for oil wells than for gas wells.

The best performance indicators are the normalized data (i.e. percentages of produced gas that are flared and vented both for oil wells and gas wells). Overall (chart below), flaring and venting volumes remain stubbornly above 1.0% of total gas production, the historical target last achieved in 2015. I’ll separate venting and flaring for both oil and gas wells in a future post.

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Lars Herbst: “What a beautiful sight!”

Posted in drilling, Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , 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!

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The events that led to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve also drove the rapid expansion of the offshore program

Posted in Alaska, California, energy policy, Georges Bank, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 5, 2026| 2 Comments »

Nothing tilts public opinion more than high gasoline prices, or worse yet shortages! Hence the 1975 legislation establishing the SPR, the massive SPR drawdown in 2022, and this year’s withdrawals.

Looking back to the halcyon days of the US offshore program, it was the gas lines in the 1970s that drove the remarkable and rather unlikely growth in the program during the Carter Administration (1977-1981). A few highlights from those four years:

  • 15 lease sales including 3 offshore Alaska, 3 in the Atlantic, and 1 offshore California
  • Drilling activity in all 4 regions: GoM, Pacific, Alaska, and Atlantic
  • Natural gas discovery in the Mid Atlantic (Hudson Canyon Unit)
  • North, Mid, and South Atlantic District offices for permitting and inspections
  • 5300 well starts including 97 in water depths > 1000′
  • 314 new platforms including Cognac, the world’s first platform in > 1000′ of water

Perhaps unthinkable today, the Governor of Massachusetts from 1979-1983, Ed King, was a strong supporter of offshore drilling. Absent that support, the exploratory drilling on Georges Bank would probably have never occurred. /s/ Nostalgic Old Man 😉

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2025 was not a record year for OCS oil production; however Jan. 2026 set a monthly record

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on June 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

BOEM Press Release: “The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced today the critical role of offshore leasing, resource assessment and long-term planning in supporting record oil production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, which reached more than 714 million barrels in 2025.”

Was 2025 a record OCS oil production year? No, 2025 came very close, but barring belated revisions, 2019 retains the record.

Did 2025 oil production exceed 714 million barrels? Not even close according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), which reported a final OCS production total of 692.6 million barrels for 2025. The Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR), to whom all production data must be reported, has yet to post their final 2025 numbers, but they are normally very close to the EIA totals. Also, ONRR’s fiscal year totals do not suggest calendar year production in excess of 700 million barrels. BOEM’s announced 714 million barrel CY 2025 total is more than 60,000 bopd higher than the actual EIA CY or ONRR FY daily averages, and even exceeds the total posted in BOEM’s data center.

See the 2019 and 2025 oil production totals in the table below. The BOEM 2025 numbers appear to be erroneous.

Oil Production (includes condensate in all cases)20192025
Gulf of America OCS
ONRR692,681,303not yet posted; fiscal year total was
681,760,441
EIA692,831,000692,634,000
BOEM693,004,577707,847,938
All OCS including Pacific & Alaska
ONRR697,610,350not yet posted; fiscal year total was
686,544,402
EIA697,217,000697,020,000
BOEM697,933,210712,543,491

On the plus side, per EIA’s latest update, Jan. 2026 was a record production month for the Gulf. January’s ave. production of 2.060 million bopd surpassed the Aug. 2019 ave. of 2.044 million bopd.

Barring significant tropical storm shut-ins over the next 6 months (hurricane season starts today!), a production record in 2026 seems like a good possibility.

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57 years after the Santa Barbara blowout, production continues at Platform A

Posted in California, decommissioning, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , on May 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Santa Barbara Channel, Dos Cuadras Field platforms (L to R): Hillhouse, A, B, and C; Antandrus Wiki photo

As part of the recent focus on decommissioning and financial assurance requirements, I looked at borehole data for platforms A, B, and C on Lease OCS-P 0241 in the Santa Barbara Channel. Platform “A” is where a well blew out in 1969, permanently scarring the US offshore program. Observations:

  • There are 140 completed and unplugged wells on the 3 platforms. None of the wells on these platforms have been permanently plugged and only one is temporarily abandoned.
  • The latest available production information (2024 data) indicates ave. daily oil production of 3791 bopd for the lease, including 1901 bopd from Platform A, the highest production for any platform in the region in 2024.
  • 41 of the lease’s completed (unplugged) wells are on Platform A.
    • The number of these wells that are currently producing is not publicly available.
    • 30 of the completed Platform A wells were drilled prior to 1985.
    • The blowout well was the 5th well drilled from platform A. All 4 of the wells drilled prior to the 1/28/1969 blowout are still unplugged:
      • well A-20: spudded on 11/19/1968, reached total depth on 12/2/1968
      • well A-41: spudded on 11/27/1968, TD on 12/19/1968
      • well A-25: spudded on 12/18/1968, TD on 12/28/1969
      • well A-38: spudded on 1/12/1969, TD on 1/24/1969
      • Note how quickly the wells were drilled. The wells were shallow (2299-4051′ true vertical depth), and the operator (Union Oil) saved time by omitting a casing string. (This decision was a root cause of the blowout and thus changed history 😡)

Lease documents and regulations at 30 CFR § 250.1710 require that all wells be permanently plugged within one year of lease termination. For leases like 0241 that are still active, 30 CFR § 250.1711 stipulates that BSEE will order a well to be permanently plugged if the well poses a hazard to safety or the environment, or is not useful for lease operations and is not capable of oil, gas, or sulphur production in paying quantities. In the Gulf of America Region, the policy is to require wells that have not been used in the past 5 years to be permanently plugged. Allowing old wells to remain unplugged is neither prudent nor consistent with the regulations.

Platform A during 1969 blowout

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More onshore vs. offshore: a look at OCS Sale 235

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , on May 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Permian drilling rig
West Vela drillship made Walker Ridge discovery for Talos

Per yesterday’s discussion comparing recent onshore and offshore lease sales, the investments are really quite different. When you acquire Permian and Delaware Basin shale tracts you are essentially buying oil in place that should be producible with current technology.

At offshore sales, you are typically acquiring the opportunity to learn more, either through site surveys or drilling. Your lease exploration and development strategy will also be influenced by drilling outcomes for similar targets on other leases. A return on your investment is far from certain.

I looked back at the top ten leases (by high bid) issued at Central Gulf Sale 235. That sale was chosen because it was 11 years ago, giving time to explore and initiate development, and the bidding was strong. The top ten leases received bids ranging from $12.8 million to $52.2 million. See the screenshot below.

Surprisingly, only four of the leases were ever drilled and nine of the ten leases have expired. The only lease remaining is the highest bid block (OCS-G 35724, Walker Ridge Block 107, $52.2 million) now owned by Talos (27% and operator), Red Willow (22.5%), Shell (22.5%), CSL (9%), and two investment partnerships. This lease is being held by operations given that a well was drilled within the past year. However, Talos has announced a discovery, and the well has been temporarily abandoned to preserve future utility:

The discovery well was drilled to a total vertical depth of 33,228 feet utilizing the West Vela deepwater drillship and encountered oil pay in multiple high-quality, sub-salt Miocene sands. A comprehensive wireline program was conducted, acquiring core, fluid, and log data to evaluate the reservoir.

So the bottom line is $308.3 million in bonuses for 10 leases, 9 of which have now expired, and one discovery which could prove to be commercial down the road.

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