Posted in energy policy, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, UK, tagged Govt approval, Jackdaw field, Rosebank field, UK energy policy on October 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Posted in natural gas, energy policy, pipelines, tagged AfD, energy policy, German trial, Nord Stream sabotage, S. Kuznetsov, Ukraine on October 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Posted in natural gas, accidents, energy policy, pipelines, tagged natural gas, Ukraine, pipeline, Nord Stream sabotage, German trial on October 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »
There have been many BOE posts about the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, but most of our 2023 summary still stands.
Yesterday, the trial of a Ukrainian officer began in a Hamburg courtroom. See the X post and video below.
The big issue, of course, is the extent of Ukrainian govt involvement in the sabotage.
Posted in energy policy, natural gas, tagged Alex Epstein, dispatchable power, intermittent energy, JL Daeschler, Jon Yeomans, natural gas, Winter Storm Fern on October 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »
This interesting Sunday Times (UK) piece was shared by JL Daeschler. A key point in the quote below is that you can’t neglect the gas (dispatchable energy) network when you increase the contribution of intermittent renewables.
When wind and solar generation are low, the nation switches on the gas — and in a big way. Take January 5 this year, when gas-fired generation jumped from 2.3GW to 26.1GW in the space of a day — enough to power 19 million homes. The upshot is that “less gas use doesn’t mean less gas network,” as one industry source puts it.
As Alex Epstein has frequently asserted “solar and wind aren’t real power sources, they’re intermittent fuel-savers.”
Winter Storm Fern (1/23-31/2026) affected much of the US stretching from the Southern Plains and the Gulf Coast through the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and New England. Power demand surged, and solar and wind power generation were minimal. (Alex Epstein charts below)
Posted in energy policy, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Gulf of America, Marcellus, minnow, natural gas, production, production by state on September 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »
2025 Gulf of America gas production as compared to:
Gas production in OK, OH, CO, ND, and WY also exceeded Gulf production.
NY gas production would also be far > than Gulf production, if companies were allowed to access natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations.
Total US gas withdrawals have doubled from 30 years ago when the Gulf accounted for >20% of the US total. Gulf production declined by 87% in that timeframe.
Posted in California, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, natural gas, Offshore Wind, tagged Atlantic wind, floating wind turbines, Gulf of America, irrational exuberance, lease buybacks, Pacific, record bonus bid, RWE on August 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »
RWE has agreed to relinquish their Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of America wind leases.
“After careful consideration, it was determined there is no path forward to permit these projects in the U.S. for the foreseeable future.”
Comment: The poor prospects for these leases had more to do with bad investment decisions than permitting challenges. The company is fortunate to be able to rollover their lease bonuses into LNG infrastructure and gas turbine purchases.
The relinquished leases:
OCS-A 0539: RWE paid the highest bonus ever, $1.1 billion, for this lease at the irrational exuberance Atlantic wind sale in Feb. 2022. The amount was $305 million higher than the next highest bonus for any offshore lease.
OCS-G 37334: RWE was the only bidder at the 2023 Gulf wind lease sale. A second Gulf wind sale received no bids.
OCS-P 0561: RWE underestimated the technical and economic challenges associated with deepwater floating wind development offshore California and elsewhere. Only one wind lease remains in the Northern California wind lease area. Two of the three wind leases in the Central California area have also been relinquished.
The wind adverse U.S. Administration offered RWE a lifeline that allows them to reinvest in more prospective projects:
Apparently, the attached letter from 50 U.S. environmental groups asking RWE not to keep their wind leases was not persuasive (and perhaps RWE didn’t appreciate the implied threat of litigation against a deal that was in the company’s best interest).
Posted in flaring and venting, natural gas, tagged air quality, flaring, Iran, LNG, natural gas, Russia, shale gas, US production on July 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Quotes and graphics from S&P Global:
“Profound growth of LNG is exceeding all expectations,” said Daniel Yergin. “Economic gains in terms of jobs, GDP and labor income are on track to surpass all prior expectations, while the abundance of U.S. gas means that domestic prices remain among the lowest in the world.”
“More than 45 years of identified commercial gas resource in the United States at today’s production levels and the world’s most interconnected pipeline network are what enable both exports and low domestic prices,” said Eric Eyberg, Vice President, Gas and LNG, S&P Global Energy. “Since 2010, domestic prices have trended downward even as demand for U.S. gas has grown 70 percent. The recent Iran conflict has proven the U.S. domestic gas market resilient to external shocks relative to global gas and other commodities. U.S. Henry Hub gas prices declined during the conflict.”
More than 50 years ago as a graduate student, I wrote a paper entitled “The Use of Natural Gas in Improving Air Quality.” My professor, Dr. Richard Gordon, a brilliant economist who greatly influenced my thinking about energy, liked the paper (grade of 93), but thought I was too optimistic about the availability of natural gas (the title page and his comment are captured below). The sense at the time was that natural gas was a premium energy source in short supply, but technical innovation unlocked massive shale gas resources and justified my optimism.
BOE has been celebrating the natural gas revolution since the blog began in 2010. Methane (CH4) is essentially a hydrogen transporter that emits far less CO2 than other fossil fuels when burned. Natural gas’s other important air quality advantages – low NOx, SO2, and particulate emissions – have far greater significance from a human health standpoint. (Many in the US and Canada learned a lot about particulates last weekend!)
The environmental case for offshore natural gas is particularly strong. However, Gulf of America gas production has struggled to compete with the onshore shale sector. Total Gulf production fell to 757 bcf in 2025. 91% of that gas production was from oil wells, primarily high rate deepwater wells.
Sobering resource conservation and emissions fact: The top two 2025 flarers, Russia and Iran, each flared 300 bcf more than the entire 2025 gas production in the Gulf of America. On top of that, keep in mind that the World Bank flaring estimates are probably low.
Posted in climate, flaring and venting, Gulf of Mexico, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, tagged flaring, flaring charts, flaring table, gas well gas, Gulf of America, oil-well gas, venting on June 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »
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:
Posted in natural gas, Offshore Wind, Wind Energy, tagged costs, FEP, gas turbines, GE Vernova, Steve Milloy, sustainability goals, wind turbines on May 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Steve Milloy, National Center for Public Policy Research: GE Vernova is losing money on wind turbines and will continue to lose money for the foreseeable future. Wind losses are real and guided to persist at ~$400 million in 2026.
On the other hand, GE Vernova’s gas turbine business is booming. The gas turbine backlog and slot reservations surged from 83 GW to 100 GW in Q1, with a target of at least 110 GW by year-end. There is strong demand for reliable, dispatchable power to support data centers and grid stability. This segment is a major profit driver.
Milloy is asking GE Vernova shareholders to support the following resolution:
RESOLVED: Shareholders request that the Board of Directors of GE Vernova Inc. publish a report within the next year—prepared at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary or competitively sensitive information—assessing the extent to which the Corporation’s sustainability goals have been authorized and maintained on the basis of net-present-value and return-on-investment calculations.
The company’s Board of Directors has unanimously recommended that shareholders vote “AGAINST” this proposal, arguing that the Company already provides comprehensive, transparent disclosures on sustainability‑related risks, opportunities, goals, and progress.
Meanwhile, GE Vernova remains locked up in an ugly dispute with Vineyard Wind and is still prevented by court order from exiting that project.
Posted in accidents, California, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, well control incidents, tagged DCOR, decommissioning, expired lease, fire, incidents, platform condition, platform habitat, violations, well plugging on May 13, 2026| 1 Comment »
All 26 workers were safely evacuated from DCOR’s Platform Habitat. The big question now is the fitness of the structure for continuing well plugging/abandonment and platform decommissioning.
As indicated in the attached letter, BSEE had informed DCOR that their Pitas Point Unit leases (where Platform Habitat is located) expired on 3/15/2016 owing to the cessation of well operations 6 months prior. Following the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) May 7, 2021 affirmation of BSEE’s directive, DCOR was notified that they must permanently plug all wells within one year of the lease termination (i.e. one year after the 2021 IBLA decision). I’ll include the informative IBLA decision in a future post.
Although details have not been shared, it appears that well plugging operations were still ongoing on 5/11/2026 when the fire occurred. According to BSEE’s borehole file, most of the Habitat wells have been temporarily abandoned, but few have been permanently abandoned, and several are still completed (i.e. neither temporarily nor permanently abandoned).
The risks and costs associated with delaying well plugging and abandonment have once again been demonstrated at Habitat. Fortunately, there were no casualties or pollution.
With regard to overall safety compliance, DCOR is the violations leader in the Pacific Region. In 2025 and 2026 (YTD) they were cited for 70 violations, 66 of which required component or facility shut-ins. The age of the 9 DCOR platforms (installed by others between 1968 and 1984) has likely contributed to the compliance challenges.
BSEE spreadsheets for 2020-2024 show 6 incidents at Platform Habitat. BSEE’s incident summaries are pasted in the second attachment.
Neither DCOR nor BSEE has issued a statement on the Habitat fire.
This serious incident further demonstrates the concerns expressed by John Smith and me about the relaxed decommissioning financial assurance regulations proposed by BOEM.
