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Archive for the ‘Offshore Energy – General’ Category

OK, but what do you think about the revisions to the Well Control Rule? 😀

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, well control incidents, tagged , , 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.

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Well Control Rule commenters

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, well control incidents, tagged , , 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

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Which Sale 257 bid was rejected?

Posted in CCS, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on November 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »

On September 14, 2022, BOEM announced that 307 high bids from Lease Sale 257 in the Gulf of Mexico were accepted. BOEM also announced that one high bid was rejected for not providing the public with fair market value. BOEM has not identified the rejected bid.

Per BOEM’s Lease Area Block Online Query file, 306 Sale 257 leases were effective on Oct. 1, 2022. A comparison of these data with the sale results identified 2 Sale 257 leases that have not been awarded:

leaseblockhigh bidder(s)bidcomments
G37261GC 70BHP$3.6 millionlone bid; 7th highest
bid in sale
G37294GC 777BP (75%),
Talos (25%)		$1.8 million2 bids; next highest
$1.185 million

So one of these 2 bids was rejected and the other has lease not yet been awarded for some reason (or perhaps there has been a clerical/IT issue).

Which bid was rejected? I would guess it was the BHP bid even though that bid was the 7th highest bid in the entire sale. The fact that this bid was $2.5 to $3 million higher than the other 7 BHP bids (all of which were accepted) tells us that the company valued this tract highly. Perhaps BOEM, which has all of the geologic data, thought the value was even higher, which is why the bid may have been rejected.

There was another bidder (Chevron) for the BP/Talos tract, so the competition makes it less likely that the bid would have been rejected.

Ironically, the 94 carbon sequestration bids, which made something of a mockery of the lease sale, could not be rejected on fair market grounds. The bids exceeded the minimum required, and the tracts have little or no value from an oil and gas production standpoint. A competitive process would be require to repurpose these leases for carbon sequestration.

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Stemming the decline in deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration?

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Was 2021 the low point? Hopefully that is the case, but consistent leasing is essential.

Looks like Woodside is now officially the GoM operator of record (was BHP prior to merger). Kudos to them.

Shell continues to be the GoM bellwether. There is no OCS program without them.

What’s up with BP and Chevron? Big declines from both.

US super-majors Exxon and ConocoPhillips remain out of the picture, both in terms of lease acquisition and exploration. Disappointing.

Tip of the hat to Hess, LLOG, Murphy, and Talos – independents committed to deepwater production.

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Nord Stream explosives confirmed

Posted in energy, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, Russia, tagged , , on November 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Sweden’s prosecutor’s office said Friday that an investigation into gas leaks from two underwater pipelines connecting Russia to Germany found traces of explosives, confirming that it is a case of “serious sabotage.”

CNBC

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RIP Mike Conner, deepwater safety leader

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »

On Monday, the offshore world lost Mike Conner, an outstanding engineer and a major contributor to the success of the US offshore program.

Mike is the person most responsible for the Deepwater Operations Plan (DWOP), a pioneering safety-case approach to regulating deepwater oil and gas development. The DWOP program was initiated 30 years ago and facilitated deepwater production at a time when there were no deepwater-specific regulations or standards. Innovative tension leg platform, compliant tower, spar, production semisubmersible, and subsea projects would not have been possible without the DWOP program. 93% of Gulf of Mexico oil production and 76% of the gas is now attributable to deepwater production facilities. Thanks in large part to the DWOP program, these facilities have had a nearly flawless safety and environmental record.

While his obituary is no yet available, this link announces Mike’s well-deserved selection for the OTC Heritage Award in 2017, and provides good information on Mike and his career.

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2021 Flaring Intensity – 10 largest flaring nations vs. US Gulf of Mexico

Posted in climate, flaring and venting, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , on November 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Using the World Bank’s worldwide flaring data and ONRR flaring and venting data for the GoM, I compared GoM flaring intensity for 2021 with that of the World Bank’s top ten flaring nations. This is just one example of why US offshore production is a preferred and vital component of our energy mix.

Further discussion: Kudos to the World Bank for their use of satellite data to estimate flaring volumes worldwide. Their primary performance indicator is flaring intensity (volume flared per bbl of oil produced). Absent better worldwide reporting regimes, satellite data are essential. However, there are issues with the World Bank’s system that merit further consideration:

  • Satellites miss some flares and vented gas (a more significant GHG concern) is not detected
  • A prior review of Gulf of Mexico data indicated that the World Bank flaring estimates are low.
  • The flaring intensity indicator penalizes higher gas-oil ratio (GOR) wells. Production upsets of the same duration yield higher flaring intensity scores at higher GOR facilities.
  • Associated gas is an environmentally favorable energy source that should not be discouraged. Most Gulf of Mexico gas production is now from oil wells. Efficient collection and utilization is the key.
  • There will always be some production upsets that result in flaring. The objective should be to minimize the % of oil-well and gas-well gas that is flared, irrespective of the amount of oil production. See the recent GoM summary data posted here and here.

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Comments on revisions to BSEE’s Well Control Rule

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, well control incidents, tagged , , on November 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Comments on the proposed revisions to BSEE’s Well Control Rule are due on Monday (11/14/2022). My comments were submitted yesterday, and I have attached a copy for those who might be interested. Bud

wcr-comments-2Download

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Is Israel (plus Cyprus and Lebanon) the Guyana of natural gas?

Posted in energy policy, Guyana, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged , , , , on November 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »

100+ tcf and the discoveries keep coming. Here’s the latest:

London, 7 November 2022 – Energean plc is pleased to announce that i) the Zeus 01 exploration well has made a commercial gas discovery of 13 bcm ii) contingent resources at Athena have been upgraded following post-well analysis; and iii) the Stena IceMax drilling rig has moved to block 23 to drill the Hercules structure, the final well in Energean’s 2022 drilling campaign.

Will the gas/power transmission systems follow?

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Another chapter in the Santa Ynez Unit saga

Posted in California, decommissioning, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , on November 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

HOUSTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp will take up to a $2 billion loss on the highly leveraged sale of a troubled California offshore oil and gas field that have been idled since a 2015 pipeline spill.

Sable Offshore, a blank check company founded by industry veteran James Flores, will borrow 97% of the $643 million purchase price from Exxon under a five-year loan. Blank check companies raise money to acquire operating businesses. If Flores fails to restart production at the Santa Ynez field by the start of 2026, Exxon could take back the entire operation, Sable disclosed in a filing.Flores will seek permits to restart Santa Ynez and expects to pump about 28,100 barrels of oil and gas per day beginning in 2024, according to a Sable investor presentation. The field has 112 wells and the potential for at least another 100 wells, its presentation showed.

Jim Flores is well known in the offshore industry dating back to his days as CEO of Flores & Rucks, a Gulf of Mexico exploration and production company, in the 1990’s.

And Exxon is no doubt still on the hook for decommissioning these massive platforms.

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