Shell topped the list followed by Chevron, Oxy/Anadarko, bp, Murphy, and Cantium.
Details and observations will be posted tomorrow.
Archive for the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ Category
Six Gulf of America operators had outstanding safety compliance records in 2025
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged 2025 safety compliance, AnadarkoOxy, bp, Cantium, Chevron, Gulf of America, INCs, Murphy Oil, Shell, top performers on February 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »
AAPG: “A Gulf Coast Gas Crunch is Imminent”
Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, tagged AAPG, BOEM, gas crunch, Gulf of America, Haynesville, ultradeep shelf gas, William DeMis on February 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“We have not been finding enough new fields.” That’s William DeMis, president of Richelle Court, LLC, who said that, in addition to not finding enough, we keep erecting new ways to export what we’re not finding.
The way, he said, to avert the coming shortage is for people to find new sources of gas outside of Haynesville field, which for years, considering its proximity to the Gulf Coast, and the petrochemical plants of Southwest Louisiana, as well as pipelines, made it a swing producer for natural gas.
“But I can tell you from bitter experience over the last three years that finding people to fund greenfield exploration is darn near impossible. There is scant capital to drill natural gas wildcats in the U.S.” said DeMis.
Reiterating that it’s time for another look at ultradeep shelf gas in the Gulf. Should BOEM consider royalty incentives?
EIA production data delayed
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged EIA data delayed, Gulf of America, November2025, oil production on February 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »
October 2025 Gulf of America oil production was the 2nd highest in history. As a result, the November data are much anticipated. Those data have been delayed from the scheduled date of 1/29/2026 until 2/6/2026. See the EIA advisory below
Petroleum Supply Monthly (PSM) data for November 2025 are scheduled for release on Friday, February 6, 2026.
The U.S. Census Bureau will release trade data (both imports and exports) for November 2025 on Thursday, January 29, 2026. As a result, we will delay release of PSM data for November 2025 from the original scheduled release date of January 30, 2026, until Friday, February 6, 2026. The delayed PSM release will allow us time to incorporate export data for November 2025.
Coming next week: 2025 Gulf of America Safety Compliance Leaders
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged 2025 safety compliance, fewest violations, Gulf of America, safety culture, safety leaders, top operating companies on January 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Next week, BOE will rank the 2025 Gulf of America Safety Compliance Leaders according to the number of incidents of non-compliance (INCs) per facility inspection.
How is your company’s safety culture?
Gulf of America – violations decline on level inspection numbers
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged 2025 inspections, BSEE, Cox Operating, enforcement, incident data, INCs, Sable Offshore, violations on January 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Observations after reviewing publicly available 2025 BSEE inspection data:
- The number of BSEE inspections in 2025 (first chart) remained relatively constant despite the extended government shutdown.
- The decline in the number of Incidents of Noncompliance (INCs) in 2025 is encouraging (chart 2).
- Given that BSEE’s tables have yet to be updated to include 2024 incidents, let alone 2025, it’s difficult to assess whether there have been similar declines in the number and severity of incidents. We do know that there were no occupational fatalities in 2025. (Note that OCS incident tables were once updated within 30 days at the end of each quarter. The public has a right to timely information on the type of incidents that are occurring, the operating companies, and the resulting casualties, pollution, and property damage.)
- Chart 3 shows the decline in INCs by type – warnings, component shut-ins, and facility shut-ins
- As is typically the case, a few companies accounted for a disproportionate number of violations, most notably the Cox legacy operators. More on this in a subsequent post.
- The top 6 oil producers all had excellent compliance records, as did a leading shelf operator. More to follow.
- Sable Offshore, California’s most notorious operator, fared well during 77 inspections of their three platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel.
Near record Gulf oil production in October!🧨
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged greater than 2 million bopd, Gulf of America production, highest ever annual production, near record, October 2025 on January 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Wild and crazy New Year’s Eve! 🧨🎆
In addition to the Virginia Wind and Santa Ynez Unit courtroom drama, the EIA reported that Gulf of America oil production averaged 2.031 million bopd in October. That is the second highest Gulf OCS monthly oil production in history, trailing only the Aug. 2019 record of 2.044 million bopd.
Also, with only two 2025 months remaining to be reported, the annual production record is a distinct possibility. 693 million bbls were produced in the Gulf in 2019. That mark will be exceeded if daily production averaged >2 million bopd in Nov. and Dec.
Massive Christmas deal! Harbour Energy acquires LLOG for $3.2 billion.
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, UK, tagged acquisition, Gulf of America, Harbour Energy, LLOG on December 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The UK’s Harbour Energy is acquiring Louisiana’s LLOG Exploration Company for $2.7 billion in cash and $0.5 billion in shares.
“Today’s announcement delivers on Harbour’s long-standing ambition to establish a presence in the deepwater Gulf of America. With LLOG, we found the right combination of high-quality assets and a talented team, providing a strong strategic and cultural fit with our company. The transaction positions us as a leading player in a region with well-established infrastructure, a supportive fiscal and regulatory environment and opportunities for additional growth.”
LLOG was the 6th largest Gulf of America producer of both oil and gas in 2024 with production of 27 million bbls of oil and 34 BCF of gas. LLOG was the high bidder on 11 tracts in the recent BBG1 sale.
Harbour is not currently a Gulf of America leaseholder.
Reuters had reported that Shell was in advanced talks to acquire LLOG. Apparently, either Shell lost interest or Harbour made a more attractive offer.
Picture of the Deepwater Horizon crew from 2001 <sigh>
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
Lease Sale BBG1 – “the other guys”
Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged big beautiful Gulf of America, independents, lease sale, majors, number of bids, Sale BBG1 on December 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »
While the majors and large independents garner most of the attention, smaller companies are an integral part of the mosaic that is the Gulf of America petroleum province. Some focus on producing and identifying remaining reserves on the shelf; others partner in deepwater projects.
Sale participants like Arena, Cantium, Walter, W&T, Beacon, Kosmos, and Houston Energy are well established Gulf leaseholders. Red Willow has attracted attention as a successful Southern Ute energy corporation.
Some BBG1 participants may be lesser known:
- Wyotex Offshore
- Ridgewood Energy Corporation
- Byron Energy Inc.
- CSL Exploration, LP
- Renaissance Offshore, LLC
- Navitas Petroleum US, LLC
- CL&F Offshore LLC
- KUSA Inc. – wholly owned by the Australian company, Karoon Energy.
- Harvester Energy (US) Inc.
Collective bids by category:
- Majors (BP, Shell, Chevron, Oxy/Anadarko, Total, Equinor. Eni, Repsol) submitted 151 bids
- Large independents (LLOG, Woodside, Murphy, Talos) submitted 51 bids (individually or as part of a group)
- Other independents submitted 46 bids (individually or as part of a group)
OCS lease sale BBGI – questions answered
Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged BOEM, Gulf of America, OCS Sale BBG1, questions answered, sale results on December 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »
See the updated comparison table in the previous BOE post.
The questions raised prior to the sale have been answered:
- Which majors will be the most active bidders? BP (50 high bids), Chevron (22), and Shell (12)
- Will former Gulf of Mexico stalwarts Exxon and Conoco Phillips participate for the first time in years? They did not.
- How many companies will submit bids? Would like that to be a number >35. Only 30 companies participated.
- How many tracts will receive bids? A number >300 would be very encouraging. Only 181 tracts received bids.
- Will the total high bids exceed $400 million? No, the total was $279.4 million.
- Will we see an increase in shelf interest? Shelf bidding continued to be limited (map). Renaissance, Byron, Arena, GOM Shelf LLC, Walter, W&T, Cantium, and WYOTEX Offshore submitted bids for shelf leases.
- Which independents will be the most active? Woodside and Murphy are large independents, and their participation was most impressive. Murphy submitted 14 high bids totaling $27.4 million. Woodside had 8 high bids including the sale’s two highest for a total of $38.1 million, second only to BP in terms of the sum of their high bids.
See the sale summary data. The top bidders list is pasted below.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 