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Archive for the ‘Offshore Energy – General’ Category

A Valentine’s Day love story: offshore drilling brought us together ❤

Posted in drilling, Georges Bank, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on February 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

In 1980, Don Kash, the great leader who was Chief of the Conservation Div. of USGS (the current equivalent of the Conservation Div. is BSEE plus the resource evaluation functions in BOEM plus some royalty management functions now in ONRR) asked me to move to Cape Cod to head a new office responsible for overseeing exploratory drilling operations on Georges Bank. We established a small office in an old maintenance building at Barnstable Municipal Airport in Hyannis. The space was decidedly unglamorous but functional and ideal for helicopter transit to the offshore rigs.

Karen was a Cape Cod artist and art teacher at Nauset Middle School in Orleans (for baseball lovers, that is where the Orleans Firebirds of the famous Cape Cod League play). Some of her teacher friends were connected to a running club I belonged to, and unknown to me at the time, Karen had designed my beloved Provincetown Dunes Run t-shirt.

We had another connection in that we had bought condominiums built by the same company. Hers was in Orleans and mine was in Hyannis. A couple that owned a condo in each project got to know both of us and thankfully introduced us. A year and many great experiences later we were married at the historic Captain Linnell House in Orleans.

Interestingly, Karen’s mother was an opponent of Georges Bank drilling until she realized that her only daughter would be leaving Cape Cod when the drilling ended. She then changed her position, proving once again that all politics is local 😀

I was very lucky to have spent 4 challenging and exciting years on Cape Cod. The Georges Bank drilling story was uniquely remarkable for me and led to a daughter born at my next duty station (Santa Maria, CA) and 5 grandchildren (good ratio 😀). While I was particularly fortunate, I think the Georges Bank drilling experience was generally positive for all that participated including the State and local officials, Woods Hole scientists, media, industry personnel, commercial fishermen, and even the Greenpeace protesters who were on the scene 155 miles southeast of Nantucket!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Daniel Yergin, Vicki Hollub, and Warren Buffett, must not have read the 5 Year OCS Leasing Plan 😉

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , on February 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The 5 Year Plan tells us that we don’t need more OCS lease sales and that our biggest concern is producing too much oil and gas for too long!

Energy experts like Dan Yergin have a different, and far more credible view. Yergin explains that energy transitions don’t happen on command, noting that the world uses almost three times as much coal today as in the 1960’s when oil finally surpassed coal as the world’s primary energy source.

Oxy CEO Vicki Hollub’s recent remarks should serve as a reality check for the 5 Year Plan authors and their counterparts elsewhere in western governments. More oil and gas exploration and production are needed, not less. Leading Oxy investor Warren Buffet agrees.

Crude reserves are being found and developed at a much slower pace than they’ve been in the past. Specifically, she said the world has only newly identified less than half the amount of crude it’s consumed over the course of the past 10 years. Given the current trends, this means demand will exceed supply before the end of 2025.

Oxy CEO Vicki Hollub per the Motley Fool

Recent trends in the Gulf of Mexico, where Hollub’s Anadarko unit is one of the more active and successful operators, reflect Hollub’s concern. Note below the sharp decline in discoveries, as determined by BOEM, over the past 20 years. Effective development of older discoveries and improved resource recovery practices are sustaining GoM production, but declines are inevitable without consistent leasing and increased exploration.

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Still waiting ….

Posted in accidents, California, CCS, decommissioning, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, oil spill response, pipelines, Regulation, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Still waiting for:

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JL Daeschler recalls a 1969 incident on the Sedco 135 E

Posted in accidents, drilling, Offshore Energy - General, UK, tagged , , , , , , , on February 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Jean-Louis Daeschler, a native of France who lives in Scotland, was a pioneering subsea engineer who worked on rigs worldwide. Below, he recounts a 1969 incident on the Sedco 135 E.

Sedco 135 E

Sept. 1969 on the Sedco 135 E offshore Miri, East Malaysia

At about 10.00 PM the crew was running 24 ” riser pipe. The rig used a 2 stack BOP system. The weather was superb – no wind and a temperature of 26 deg C.

When the 4th joint of riser pipe (45 ft) was picked up through the “V” door and was almost vertical, it unlatched from the elevator. There was a massive clang followed by silence. The riser pipe hit the drill floor, fell backward into the derrick frame and got jammed there. No one was hurt.

The incident would have been much worse if the pipe had fallen through the catwalk, perforated the maindeck, fell into the water, and damaged the the rig’s sponson tanks !!!! A piece of pipe falling overboard turns into a high velocity torpedo. A dropped 13 3/8″ casing joint is sometimes found 400 ft away. Heavy drill collars go almost straight down, which is the worst case given the potential for damage to the wellhead equipment.

I left the office and went to the rig floor, which was silent. Everyone was looking up and down. With the brake tied down, I asked Bill Ellis what we were going to do now. Bill was an experienced 45+ year old driller from Ruidoso New Mexico. His answer was “Go back home to the USA” with a big smile. He was always in control.

Bill demonstrated great leadership; there was no panic or blame. The all-Chinese and Malay crew was listening and smiling. After some rigging up, we got the operations back into swing. We checked the elevator latch and other equipment, laid down the joint that had been stuck, picked up another one, and continued running the riser.

I met again with Bill and Jo, his wife, in Aberdeen in 1975, and we still talked about that night-shift event.

Sadly, in 1976 their young son Clay Ellis passed away on a diving job in the North Sea.

This is life in the oil patch, a great family all over.

JL Daeschler on the Sedco 135 E

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Congratulations to Martha Grabowski on her election to the National Academy of Engineering

Posted in accidents, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

NAE announcement

As the Minerals Management Service’s liaison to the Marine Board of the National Academies and subsequently as a Marine Board member, I had the privilege of working with many outstanding engineers on matters related to offshore safety and environmental protection. Dr. Martha Grabowski was a clear standout because of her exceptional leadership and communications skills, modest ego, and willingness to assist.

Dr. Grabowski excels in analyzing and mitigating operational risks including those associated with human and organizational factors. As such, she was a great resource in our work on safety management and culture.

Congratulations to Dr. Grabowski!

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US OCS compliance data for 2022 and 2023

Posted in Alaska, California, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged , , , , on February 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The 2023 Safety Honor Roll list will be posted tomorrow.

As background information, below is a summary of compliance data for 2022 and 2023.

The performance of Fieldwood and Cox skewed the 2022 and 2023 data. In 2022, Fieldwood was issued 448 INCs, 26% of the Gulf of Mexico total. In 2023, Cox was by far the leading violator with 718 INCs, 39% of the GoM total (780/43% when Cox affiliates are included). These data point to the importance of considering safety and compliance in approving lease assignments and making supplemental bonding determinations.

20222023
facility inspections33093100
inspection types1085610341
W INCs8091050
CSI INCs530600
FSI INCs376180
total INCs17151830
INCs/facility inspection0.520.59
INCs/inspection type0.160.18
Pacific facility inspections280300
Pacific inspection types802744
Pacific W INCs2211
Pacific CSI INCs1314
Pacific FSI10
Pacific total INCs3625
Pacific INCs/facility inspection0.130.08
Pacific INCS/inspection type0.040.03
Alaska facility inspections85
Alaska inspection types3722
Alaska W INCs01
Alaska CSI INCs01
Alaska FSI INCs00
Alaska INCs total02
Alaska INCs/facility inspection00.4
Alaska INCS/inspection type00.09
INC=incident of noncompliance, W=warning, CSI=component shut-in, FSI=facility shut-in.
No Alaska facilities are located on the Federal OCS. One Alaska facility, Hilcorp’s Northstar island, has wells that are completed on the OCS; hence the limited BSEE inspections.

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2023 Safety Honor Roll will be posted next week

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged , , , , on February 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Criteria for achieving honor roll status:

  • Must average <0.3 incidents of noncompliance (INCs) per facility-inspection.
  • Must average <0.1 INCs per inspection-type. (Note that each facility-inspection may include multiple types of inspections (e.g. production, pipeline, pollution, Coast Guard, site security, etc). On average, each facility-inspection included 3.3 types of inspections in 2023. Here is a list of the types of inspections that may be performed.
  • Must operate at least 3 production platforms and have drilled at least one well (i.e. you need operational activity to demonstrate compliance and safety achievement).
  • May not have a disqualifying event (e.g. fatal or life-threatening incident, significant fire, major oil spill). Due to the extreme lag in updates to BSEE’s incident tables, district investigations and media reports are used to make this determination.

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GoM production dipped a bit in November

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , on February 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

With Sept. production revised down slightly, there have been no 2 million bopd months for 4 years (since Nov. 2019).

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All 36 of Repsol’s carbon disposal bids at Oil and Gas Lease Sale 261 were accepted by BOEM!

Posted in CCS, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged , , , , , on January 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »

At Oil and Gas Lease Sale 261, Repsol was the sole bidder for 36 nearshore Texas tracts in the Mustang Island and Matagorda Island areas (red blocks at the western end of the map above). Exxon acquired 163 nearshore Texas tracts (blue in map above) at Sales 257 and 259. All 36 of the Repsol bids have now been accepted.

As previously posted here and here, carbon disposal bidding at the last 3 oil and gas lease sales has made a mockery of the leasing process and the regulations that guide it.

Hopefully, the carbon sequestration regulations that are under development will preclude conversion of leases acquired at Sales 257, 259, and 261. At a minimum, these regulations should require a competitive process for converting any oil and gas leases.

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Saluting natural gas

Posted in climate, energy policy, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , on January 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

In the wake of the decision to “pause” LNG export approvals, it’s important for us to also pause and reflect on the natural gas revolution.

Gas now accounts for 40% of our power generation.

The gas boom’s economic and environmental benefits are compelling. Greenhouse gas emissions currently get most of the attention. In that regard, methane (CH4) is a hydrogen transporter that emits far less CO2 than other fossil fuels when burned.

Less attention has been given to natural gas’s other important air quality advantages – low NOx. SO2, and particulate emissions. These emissions have greater local significance from a human health standpoint. Those who have ridden a bike behind a natural gas powered bus have no doubt experienced the natural gas advantage firsthand.

Other environmental considerations particularly favor offshore natural gas when compared to energy alternatives. These include low well and facility density, no groundwater pollution risk, and minimal risk to wildlife.

Compiled below are links to BOE posts on natural gas issues and advantages.

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