Archive for the ‘Offshore Energy – General’ Category
Will the Nord Stream Pipeline Blasts ever be Investigated?
Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged CIA, Judge Napolitano, Nord Stream, Phil Giraldi, Seymour Hersh on February 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »
First Seymour Hersh interview since his Nord Stream article
Posted in energy policy, Interviews, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged Nord Stream, sabotage, Seymour Hersh on February 13, 2023| 2 Comments »
Much of the discussion was about his career and the state of journalism. Some of Hersh’s comments on his Nord Stream story:
- He will protect his sources as he always has
- The Nord Stream Pipeline sabotage was “stupid beyond belief”
- “Pipeline industry knows what happened”
- Only one major news show (Tucker Carlson) has contacted him and Hersh chose not to be interviewed
- He was shocked that no other news organization pursued the story
- He has received 1600 emails in 2.5 days since the article was published
I knew Trinidad had a long history of oil production, but wow!
Posted in drilling, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged 1857, first oil production, oil and gas production, petroleum industry history, Trinidad and Tobago on February 13, 2023| 1 Comment »
The record shows that the Merrimac Company, registered in 1857, made attempts to produce oil by distillation of pitch, but furthermore in the same year they drilled a well to a depth of about 280 feet, which was a much greater depth than Drake’s well in Pennsylvania – and two years earlier – and produced oil therefrom
History of Trinidad’s Oil
Here is a list of historical facts for T&T’s petroleum industry.
Central bank of T&T data indicate dry natural gas production of 2.84 BCFD and crude oil production of 57,400 BOPD as of 9/2022.
The Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries is currently mulling bids on 4 deepwater blocks contrary to an erroneous press report that those bids had been rejected.
Standing Committee on Offshore Wind Energy and Fisheries (National Academies)
Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, tagged BOEM, NASEM, standing committee, wind energy and fisheries on February 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will establish a standing committee to provide ongoing assistance to the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in its efforts to manage development of the nation’s offshore wind energy resources and their potential effects on fisheries
NASEM
This seems to be a positive step and the committee members have excellent credentials, but how do you establish such a committee without any representation from the wind industry? Here are the 12 members of the committee.
Speaking of the Santa Ynez Unit, some of you may remember the OS&T
Posted in California, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Exxon, Las Flores Canyon, OS&T, Santa Ynez Unit on February 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »
When Exxon was unable to get approval for an onshore oil processing facility, the company installed this offshore storage and treatment (OS&T) vessel and single anchor leg mooring (SALM) 3.5 miles from shore, just seaward of the State-Federal boundary. The OS&T, a converted tanker, operated from 1981 to 1994. By 1994, the onshore gas processing facility in Las Flores Canyon had been expanded to process Santa Ynez crude, eliminating the need for the OS&T. While the OS&T had a very good performance record, the highly visible vessel was less than endearing to most Santa Barbara County residents, and there was no apparent sadness when the OS&T and SALM were decommissioned in 1995.
Current Santa Ynez Unit facilities:
More on the Santa Ynez Unit saga: will the 1/2 billion+ barrels of remaining reserves ever be produced?
Posted in California, decommissioning, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Exxon, James Flores, Sable Offshore, Santa Ynez Unit on February 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Per our previous post on the complex status of the Santa Ynez Unit, Lars Herbst has brought this informative article to our attention. Here is the bottom line:
With this deal, Exxon is essentially lending Flame, Sable’s management team and PIPE investors the money to buy the facilities from itself. If they are able to get them back online, great, Exxon gets its $623 million loan paid back with 10% interest. If not, it presumably repossesses the facilities and their associated headaches.
This is what has been produced and what remains:
BSEE posts 2021 US OCS incident data; the number of fatalities is troubling
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Health, Offshore Energy - General, tagged BSEE, Covid, fatalities, non-occupational fatalities, OCS incidents on February 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »
BSEE has posted the 2021 incident data for US OCS oil and gas operations. While the 13 month publishing lag is disappointing, the spreadsheet (below the table at this link and attached at the end of this post) appears to be comprehensive and complete.
Of the 8 fatalities in 2021, 6 are classified as “non-occupational” and are thus not included in the 2021 fatality count (see table below).
The 2 occupational fatalities are the result of falling metal plates on a drilling rig and the release of casing pressure on a production platform. These fatalities are still being investigated.
The 6 non-occupational fatalities on OCS facilities also merit further attention. While historical data on health-related OCS fatalities are not readily available, 6 such fatalities seems high relative to past experience, particularly given that the total number of hours worked has declined by more than 50% since 2011. Are these and other health related questions being considered?
- Were covid or covid related health issues a factor?
- Are health screening programs sufficient, particularly for contractors? Contractors are 80% of the workforce but accounted for 100% of the 2021 fatalities?
- Are offshore medical care and evacuation capabilities sufficient?
Norway and Gulf of Mexico oil production were remarkably similar in 2022 …
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Gulf of Mexico production, Norway oil and gas production, Norway vs. the GoM on February 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »
…and were in fact identical in August (1.763 million BOPD). GoM production should strengthen a bit in 2023 as new deepwater projects come online. Norwegian production should also increase. The longer term is more uncertain, particularly for the US OCS which is seemingly being managed to fail.
Natural gas production is a different story. Norway has been sustaining and growing offshore gas production, while Gulf of Mexico gas production has been in free-fall. Total US production has nonetheless grown sharply over the past 17 years thanks to the shale boom (see the chart below). In the 1980’s, the GoM accounted for 20-25% of US gas production. The GoM share is now only 2%, most of which is gas that is associated with deepwater oil production. Nonassociated offshore gas has important advantages that should not be ignored.
RIP Gary Lore – leading expert on US oil and gas resources and a greatly admired colleague
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged Gary Lore, MMS, MontCar, petroleum geology, resource evaluation, RPI on January 31, 2023| Leave a Comment »
On January 20th, the offshore world lost a superstar when Gary Lore’s courageous battle with pancreatic cancer ended. Gary was the nation’s top expert on offshore oil and gas resources, an outstanding geologist, a natural leader, and a witty and supportive friend and colleague.
Gary grew up in Camden, NJ where he was an outstanding student and athlete at Woodrow Wilson high school. He joined the Dept. of the Interior’s offshore program after earning an M.S. in geology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1974.
During his 32 years with the US offshore program, Gary led resource evaluation units in the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico Regions, and was promoted to Chief of the Resource Evaluation Division at the Minerals Management Service headquarters office in Herndon, VA. A few of Gary’s many career highlights:
- Authored numerous professional papers on US offshore oil and gas resources and exploration and evaluation models.
- Advised congressional and cabinet officials on offshore resources and production potential.
- Directed the use of the complex MONTE CARLO tract evaluation model and was among the few that actually understood it.
- Participated on the prestigious US oil resources panel convened by DOE and the Univ. of Texas in 1992.
- Contributed to many special energy assessments including Oil and Gas Technologies for the Arctic and Deepwater.
- Led the pioneering OCS Connect “e-gov” project that automated governmental transactions with industry, improved timeliness and efficiency, and minimized redundant reporting.
Those of us who worked with him were most fortunate to have had that privilege. RIP Gary, you made a difference.
Highly misleading Reuters headline about US flaring
Posted in climate, flaring and venting, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged flaring data, flaring intensity, gas flaring, Reuters, World Bank on January 30, 2023| Leave a Comment »
This misleading headline was featured in Reuters’ “Power Up” newsletter (26 Jan 2023):
An objective flaring assessment would have also considered the volume of oil and gas produced. The World Bank uses flaring intensity (m3 flared per bbl of oil produced) to normalize their flaring data and provide perspective. The chart below is derived from World Bank flaring intensity data and Gulf of Mexico data from mandatory flaring and venting reports for the same year (2021). These normalized data sharply contradict the Reuters message.
Reuters might also have noted (World Bank table below) that the US flaring intensity score declined by 46% between 2012 and 2021. Each of the other “top flaring” countries had flaring intensity increases during that period.
Finally, while I applaud the World Bank’s efforts to monitor worldwide flaring, some issues with their methodology were identified in a prior BOE post.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 