Archive for the ‘Offshore Energy – General’ Category
White Christmas in the Gulf of Mexico? đ
Posted in climate, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged Gulf of Mexico, snow, White Christmas on December 19, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Nord Stream: the EU agrees to better protect critical infrastructure, but ignores the elephant in the room
Posted in accidents, energy, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged EU, investigations, Nord Stream, pipeline leaks, sabotage on December 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Wer ist verantwortlich?
As reported by Tagespiegel, the EU states have agreed to better protect critical infrastructure. Yet apparently the status of the Nord Stream investigation(s) was not discussed. When will the findings be released? How and when will the responsible parties be identified?
Offshore headwinds?
Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, tagged Gordon Hughes, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Kari Martin, Michael Dean, NJ offshore wind, Offshore Wind, RODA, wind farms change marine ecosystems on December 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Despite the spectacular 2022 lease sales, not all is rosy for US offshore wind development.
In 2011, then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the Obama administration had set a goal of â10 gigawatts of offshore wind generating capacity by 2020 and 54 gigawatts by 2030.â How has that worked? Well, 11 years after Salazarâs speech, the US has seven turbines operating offshore with a total of capacity of 42 megawatts â or some 9,958 megawatts short of the goal laid out by Salazar.
Gordon Hughes, a professor of economics at the University of Edinburgh, has found that the output of Europeâs offshore wind turbines has been declining by about 4.5% per year. In a report titled âWind Power Economics: Rhetoric and Reality,â published by the London-based Renewable Energy Foundation in 2020, Hughes concluded that declining output will result in higher operating costs that will start to exceed revenues âafter 12 or 15 years.
Forbes
Opposition to NJ offshore wind projects dominate DEP hearing
…addressing climate change through ocean “industrialization” using an “inefficient, expensive and largely untested strategy” was not the right path forward – Kari Martin, Clean Ocean Action
“By undertaking an industrialization project this big, it far outweighs any (climate change) benefit anybody’s ever talked about, or even tried to quantify,” he said. “The harms of this undertaking is, in my view, far worse than any benefits we could realize.” – Michael Dean, Middletown, NJ
Offshore Wind Farms Change Marine Ecosystems
In their latest publication, (scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon) now show that large-scale wind farms can strongly influence marine primary production as well as the oxygen levels in and beyond the wind farm areas. Their results were published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
… For example, Nils Christiansen’s team proved that wake turbulencesâair vortices caused by wind turbinesâchange the flow and stratification of the water beneath them. But the climate just above the sea surface is also being permanently changed, as another team led by Dr. Naveed Akhtar was able to show.
PHYS.org
Annual mean response of net primary productions (netPP) to atmospheric changes due to offshore wind farms
More:
Commonwealth Wind project paused indefinitely
Park City Wind project delayed
RODA files a motion for a summary judgement in its lawsuit over approval of the Vineyard Wind 1 project, touted as the nation’s first commercial scale offshore project.
Discouraging Spectator article on UK onshore wind.
The Permian continues to thrive. So can the Gulf of Mexico, but will it?
Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Dead Sea, Gulf of Mexico, horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, oil production, Permian Basin on December 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Like its salty neighbor to the east, the Permian Basin of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico has been proclaimed dead on many occasions. Such proclamations of their demise, however, are mere exaggerations as the Gulf of Mexico and the Permian Basin continue to thrive.
These historic oil and gas production powerhouses have delivered to global markets billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas over the past century. Through the booms and the busts, the resiliency of each was made possible by the combination of ingenuity and perseverance and by advancements in techniques and technologies.
JPT
Thirty years ago the Gulf of Mexico was called “the Dead Sea” because of the decline in drilling and production activity. Deepwater technology reversed that trend and led to record Gulf of Mexico oil production averaging 1.9 million BOPD in 2019.
Similarly, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology launched the shale revolution, and Permian oil production has risen impressively to 5.4 million BOPD.
Both the Permian and the GoM have the potential to sustain or increase production. The Permian Basin, much of which is privately owned, is more adaptable to market conditions and less exposed to political risks. The offshore program is dependent on effective long-term planning and supportive lease management policies. Unfortunately, the proposed 5 year leasing plan suggests a commitment to throttling offshore production rather than sustaining it. When will our energy policy pendulum swing back to a more balanced position?
Uptick in GoM oil production
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged 5 year leasing plan, deepwater production, Gulf of Mexico production, King's Quay, LLOG, Murphy, Spruance on December 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The September total reflects production from recent deepwater startups, including King’s Quay (Murphy) and Spruance (LLOG). Other new deepwater facilities should further boost GoM oil production next year as forecasted by BOEM (table below). Unfortunately, the BOEM forecast considerably overstates 2022 production and appears to be optimistic for the outyears. This is a significant concern given that US offshore leasing policy, as reflected in the 5 Year Plan, is naively focused on throttling long-term production. See the rather startling quote below:
âBOEMâs short-term (20-year) production forecast for existing leases shows steady growth from 2022 through 2024 and declining thereafter (see Section 5.2.1). The long-term nature of OCS oil and gas development, such that production on a lease can continue for decades makes consideration of future climate pathways relevant to the Secretaryâs determinations with respect to how the OCS leasing program best meets the Nationâs energy needs.“
5 Year Leasing Program, p.3
Norway’s licensing pause applies only to frontier areas
Posted in energy policy, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Heidrun, licensing pause, Norway, NPD, Terje Aasland on December 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Symbolic gesture or troubling precedent?
OSLO, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Norway will not issue licences for energy companies to explore for oil and gas in frontier areas during the life of the current parliament, which ends in 2025, its oil and energy minister told Reuters on Tuesday.
“SV (Socialist Left Party) has had this as a demand for this year and we went along with that. And have accepted that this can be held off for this parliamentary period,” (per Minister of Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland).
Aasland said there was “no drama” in the decision as authorities still issue licences to oil companies in a parallel licensing around called the APA round, in so-called mature areas that are already open to oil companies.
Reuters
Meanwhile NPD reports a dry hole 17 km north of the Heidrun field in the Norwegian Sea.
This Nord Stream scenario is credible, but the big question is “who,” not “how”
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, Russia, tagged explosions, Nord Stream, pipelines, who did it? on November 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »
OK, but what do you think about the revisions to the Well Control Rule? đ
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, well control incidents, tagged BSEE Director, comments, Well Control Rule on November 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I recommend we Nationalize the Oil and gas industry. I think the government is the right entity at this time to seize all the assets and infrastructure of the cartels. The resources mostly on public lands and water, belong to the USA anyway. It is time we transition more rapidly to renewables to break the leverage of the cartels on governments, and people, to stop wars and profiteering.
People are paying high prices and cartels like API, Exxon, Sinclair are making record profits from American’s purses. All the while escaping the costs of oil spills and leaks, and denying responsibility for climate change disasters and their costs.
Anonymous WCR commenter (0010)
Diverse input on proposed regulations is healthy and desirable. However, comments should not be posted at Regulations.gov unless (1) the commenter is identified and (2) the comments include at least one sentence about the regulation being proposed.
Well Control Rule commenters
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, well control incidents, tagged BSEE, commenters, Well Control Rule on November 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Per Regulations.gov. BSEE received 30 comments on the proposed revisions to the Well Control Rule, 25 of which have been posted. The other comments were presumably deemed inappropriate for posting per the guidance at Regulations.gov.
Two of the responses were submitted collectively by 8 industry trade associations. Only 3 operating companies commented and their comments largely echoed the trade association responses. Only 2 drilling contractors responded independently. Four service and engineering companies commented.
Three environmental organizations, a group of Atlantic states, a government watchdog, and a law school provided comments.
Three individuals and 4 anonymous or unknown parties commented.
Below is a list of the respondents preceded by their comment identifiers. More to follow.
- 0003 Foley Engineering
- 0004 Frank Adamek
- 0005 Anonymous
- 0006 Project on Government Oversight (POGO)
- 0007 E.P. Danenberger
- 0008 Chevron
- 0009 B. Mercier
- 0010 Anonymous
- 0011 Anonymous
- 0012 Foley Engineering (2nd comment)
- 0013 HMH (?)
- 0014 NYU School of Law
- 0015 Beacon Offshore
- 0016 Shell
- 0017 Diamond Offshore
- 0018 7 industry trade associations: API, IADC, IPAA, NOIA, OOC, EWTC, USOGA
- 0019 NOV (service company)
- 0020 NRDC
- 0021 Oceana
- 0022 Transocean
- 0023 Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association
- 0024 Kinetic Pressure Control Limited
- 0025 Attorneys General of Maryland, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina
- 0026 Ocean Conservancy
- 0027 Rigscope International
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 
This Well Control Rule comment, endorsed by 7 trade associations, hit a nerve. Here’s why.
Posted in drilling, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, well control incidents, tagged BSEE, NTTAA, standards, standards vs. regulations, trade association comments, Well Control Rule on November 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The comment (pasted below) by the trade associations asserts that BSEE ignored the requirements of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA).
Reaction:
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