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Archive for the ‘Offshore Energy – General’ Category

More jabs thrown at Sable Offshore

Posted in California, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged , , , , on March 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Senator Schiff and 22 California representatives sent the attached letter to Gov. Newsome urging him to:

  • Require the Fire Marshal to reconsider the state waiver for the pipeline, conduct environmental review, and hold a public hearing;
  • Require a coastal development permit for restart of the pipeline;
  • Require State Parks to conduct environmental review and hold a public hearing prior to deciding whether to approve a new easement for the pipeline through Gaviota State Park.

The good news for Sable: Despite the bluster in the letter’s opening paragraphs, none of the requests to Gov. Newsome are knockout punches. The first two relate to matters that have already been addressed and Sable is in a favorable position. The third, the Gaviota State Park easement renewal, is currently under review and should not be a decisive blow.

The bad news for Sable: Punches will continue to be thrown even after production resumes (should that ever actually happen.)

Much more on Sable

03032025_sable_offshore_project_concerns_letterfinalDownload

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Mars vs. Mars

Posted in drilling, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Mars Platform, Gulf of America

In light of the recent NASA/SpaceX advances in rocketry, a manned mission to Mars seems inevitable, perhaps within the next 5 years. See the SpaceX Mars landing video below.

While the space program generates more media buzz given the sci-fi appeal, the achievements of the offshore oil and gas industry are similarly impressive. The Gulf of America has its own Mars, a massive deepwater project that has been ongoing and expanding for 30 years, and may ultimately produce more than 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

Like a mission to Mars, the successful development of deepwater oil and gas resources is a technical marvel that requires:

  • Identifying prospects deep beneath the seafloor using advanced subsurface imaging capabilities.
  • Drilling exploratory wells from floating rigs, using advanced stationkeeping systems that maintain a precise location on the water surface.
  • Drilling deep beneath the seafloor while transmitting real-time geologic, temperature, and pressure data to the rig and distant onshore locations.
  • Ensuring well integrity by installing and cementing multiple strings of protective casing.
  • Processing production at buoyant surface facilities designed to withstand worst case storm conditions.
  • Connecting clusters of subsea wells to a host surface facility that may be many miles away.
  • Increasing ultimate recovery with reservoir engineering studies and advanced well completion practices.

Life on the planet Mars will be dependent on technology developed for the offshore Mars and other deepwater projects.

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Unsafe grating and offshore safety

Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged , , , , , , on March 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Historically, falls are the most common cause of offshore injuries and fatalities, and hazardous grating is a leading contributing factor to these incidents.

BSEE’s risk-based inspection and safety alert programs have effectively drawn attention to grating risks. Attached is a recent alert describing a grating incident that could have been fatal.

A worker installing a pump in a skid above unsafe grating was kneeling on scaffolding boards. The tip of his boot was on the corroded grating when it suddenly gave way. The worker was able to grab a nearby section of piping to support himself. The 36″ x 36″ piece of grating collapsed and fell into the water.

BSEE Safety Alert – 496 – Misidentification of Corrosion Hazard Results in High Potential EventDownload

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Cable incidents demonstrate risk of powering platforms from shore

Posted in accidents, energy policy, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , on March 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Electric cables from shore power the Johan Sverdrup field offshore Norway

At least 11 Baltic cables have been damaged in the last 15 months.

Politico.EU: “NATO will send around 10 ships to guard important underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea by the end of the week, Finnish newspaper Yle reported on Tuesday.

Why increase operating costs and expose platform operations to power disruption risks when there is no net environmental benefit?

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Checking in on Newfoundland: production remains strong

Posted in Canada, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , on March 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Offshore Newfoundland, a particularly hostile operating environment (“North Sea plus icebergs“), continues to be the only producing area in the North American Atlantic, a distinction that is unlikely to change for at least the next decade.

Production is holding firm and there was a nice bounce in December when 7.5 million barrels were produced (242,000 bopd ave.). December’s production was the highest since May 2022 and and was a respectable 57% of the May 2007 peak.

Most impressively, according to CNLOPB data, no fatalities or significant injuries occurred over the past 3 years.

The pioneering Hibernia platform (pictured above), where Newfoundland offshore production began in Nov. 1997, keeps chugging along at 60 to 80,000 bopd. The Hibernia field has produced more than double the original resource estimate of 520 million barrels. Very impressive!

Hebron, the current top producer, continues to produce 100,000+ bopd

The Terra Nova field contributed ~40,000 bopd in Dec., the highest output since production resumed in late 2023 after extensive downtime to refurbish the FPSO.

Production remained offline at the White Rose project, which was shutdown at the end of 2023 for refurbishment of the SeaRose FPSO. Production is expected to resume during the first quarter of this year.

Newfoundland production data:

Oil_ProductionDownload
graph_phDownload

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Tension offshore Guyana

Posted in Guyana, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , on March 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Exxon’s Prosperity FPSO
Guyana President Dr. Irfaan Ali chairs a meeting of the Defense Board in response to a Venezuela Navy vessel’s incursion into the Guyana’s EEZ

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Gulf production jumps 200,000 bopd following name change 😀

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on February 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Actually, the latest data are for December 2024, so that was before the name change. It’s a nice story nonetheless, very patriotic.😉

Most likely, the jump in production is related to increased output from the new deepwater facilities we have been following.

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“Back to the Future” for BP!

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on February 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Beyond Petroleum “Back to Petroleum”

BP has announced it will cut its renewable energy investments and instead focus on increasing oil and gas production.

The energy giant revealed the shift in strategy on Wednesday following pressure from some investors unhappy its profits and share price have been lower than its rivals.

BP said it would increase its investments in oil and gas by about 20% to $10bn (£7.9bn) a year, while decreasing previously planned funding for renewables by more than $5bn (£3.9bn).

The future looks like this: BP Argos floating production unit, Gulf of America – simpler, safer, greener

It’s more than okay to be an oil and gas producer – no need to apologize or pretend to be something else. Oil and gas are, and will continue to be, essential to economies worldwide. Companies should focus on safely and cleanly achieving production objectives.

If a company thinks other types of energy investments make good business sense, they should engage in those activities. However, they should not do so to curry favor with anti-oil factions who can never be placated. Attempts to do so will only weaken your company.

BP is doing well in the Gulf of America – no. 2 producer in 2024.

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In case the Sable SYU restart wasn’t complicated enough….

Posted in California, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , on February 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors tie vote on the transfer of permits from Exxon to Sable has both sides declaring victory! (And I thought I was the only one who was confused!)

Noozhawk photo

Per Noozhawk:

“During Wednesday’s meeting of the county Planning Commission, Lisa Plowman, director of Planning & Development, expressed uncertainty about the future of the permits and said the split vote meant that the board took no action.

“We are in the process of (…) determining what that actually means in the long run for Sable and the opponents,” Plowman said.”

“The county has not in recent memory had a tie vote under this section. The county is looking into what happens next.”

Sables’ take: “Sable is pleased the appeals failed and the Planning Commission’s approval of the Santa Ynez Unit permit transfer to Sable stands. We look forward to continuing to work with the county to finalize the permit transfer and to safely restarting production as soon as possible.”

Environmental Defense Center’s take: “We applaud the Board of Supervisors’ decision to NOT transfer permits to Sable to operate a defective pipeline and dangerous processing facilities on our shores.”

Just when you thought this couldn’t get more complicated!😖😣

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BOEM rescinds controversial Rice’s Whale requirements

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , , , , on February 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Although Rice’s Whale lease stipulations were deleted from Sale 261 leases by court order, similar NTL restrictions remained in effect for all oil and gas operations in the Gulf of America. Those NTL restrictions, some of which may be excessive and premature, have now been rescinded.

A previous post compared the Rice’s Whale restrictions applicable to Gulf oil and gas operations with the less onerous Right Whale restrictions for the Atlantic wind industry.

Of course, this is not the end of the Rice’s Whale dispute. A Federal judge in Maryland has ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) to prepare a new biological opinion that better protects the Rice’s whale. The deadline for the new biological opinion was extended to May 21, 2025. After that date, no new Gulf leases may be issued and no new operating plans may be approved pending a new biological opinion that is acceptable to the Court.

Stay tuned.

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