Move over, Greta!
— New World Odor™ (@hugh_mankind) February 18, 2023
This 12 yr old girl destroys the dystopian reality of 15-min cities.
“How dare you steal my childhood and my future, and the future of all children, by enslaving us in your crazy digital surveillance prison.”
FULL Oxford, UK protest:https://t.co/7Ox1d4ghqe pic.twitter.com/bKZVw56NlI
Archive for the ‘UK’ Category
15 Minute Cities
Posted in climate, UK, tagged Greta on February 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »
So you can drill near the Isle of Man (and almost everywhere else in or adjacent to the North and South Atlantic), but the entire US Atlantic is off-limits
Posted in drilling, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, UK, tagged Atlantic drilling, exploratory drilling, Isle of Man on January 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »
A firm with a licence to drill for natural gas in Manx waters expects to begin exploratory works in October, its chief executive has said.
Crogga has appointed Three60 Energy to drill an appraisal well to understand how much gas is under the seabed 17km (10.5miles) off Maughold Head.
BBC
HSBC will no longer finance new oil and gas field projects
Posted in climate, energy policy, UK, Uncategorized, tagged finance, HSBC, oil and gas on December 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »
This rather arrogant and condescending policy makes neither good business sense nor good social sense (unless you support energy poverty), but I’m sure the executive team is proud. That said, they do seem to have left themselves with a fair amount of wiggle room.
In line with the policy, we will no longer provide new lending or capital markets finance for the specific purpose of projects pertaining to new oil and gas fields and related infrastructure when the primary use is in conjunction with new fields.
We will continue to provide finance or advisory services to energy sector clients at the corporate level, where clients’ transition plans are consistent with our 2030 portfolio-level targets and net zero by 2050 commitment.
HSBC
Nord Stream and the buzz about “dark ships”
Posted in pipelines, Russia, UK, tagged AIS, dark ships, Nord Stream, pipeline rupture on November 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Using satellite data, SpaceKnow detected 2 “dark ships” near the pipelines prior to the explosions. The ships were operating with their automatic identification system (AIS) transponders turned off or malfunctioning. While this is cause for suspicion, no data were provided on the frequency of such issues in the Baltic. Also, what were the specific routes and timelines for these vessels? Absent this information. the “dark ship” reports aren’t terribly meaningful.
Although the assumption that the explosions occurred outside the pipeline seems most likely, some observers have suggested that the explosions were internal. It’s unknown whether the investigators have ruled out this possibility.
Meanwhile, the folks in Germany and elsewhere in Europe are understandably impatient. They want answers from their governments!
Actually, it was last Sunday in the UK 😀
Posted in energy policy, UK, tagged Stonehenge, time change on November 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Expect this type of behavior to continue
Posted in climate, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, UK, Uncategorized, tagged anti-oil activism, Sunflowers, Van Gogh, Vandalism on October 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Two supporters of Just Stop Oil have thrown soup over Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, as actions in the capital roll into the 14th day. They are demanding that the UK government halts all new oil and gas projects.
Just Stop Oil
Why these stunts will continue in Europe and N. America:
- Minimal penalties for their behavior.
- Publicity and contributions. (Donate buttons are the main feature of JustStopOil)
- Prominent supporters and leading political figures have endorsed their message, if not their conduct.
- Weak, imbalanced educational systems, particularly with regard to energy.
Offshore Energies UK: New oil and gas licenses are critical
Posted in energy policy, UK, tagged OEUK, offshore licenses on August 31, 2022| Leave a Comment »
It’s disappointing that this statement was even necessary. Under the circumstances, the need for new UK offshore licenses would seem to be obvious and undeniable.
“The European energy sector right now is cracking at the seams. Without the contribution of UK oil and gas resources, that crack would be a gaping hole.”
Mike Tholen, OEUK
34 years ago today, fires and explosions destroyed the Piper Alpha platform in the North Sea and killed 167 workers. We must never forget this tragedy.
Posted in accidents, Offshore Energy - General, UK, tagged 34 years, fire, Lord Cullen, North Sea, Piper Alpha, safety case, South Pass 60 B on July 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »
In terms of the total number of fatalities, the Piper Alpha fire was the worst disaster in the history of offshore oil and gas operations and sent shock waves around the world. Eight months later another interactive pipeline-platform fire killed 7 workers at the South Pass 60 “B” facility in the Gulf of Mexico. A US Minerals Management Service task group reviewed the investigation reports for both fires and recommended regulatory changes with regard to:
- the identification and notification procedures for out-of-service safety devices and systems,
- location and protection of pipeline risers,
- diesel and helicopter fuel storage areas and tanks,
- approval of pipeline repairs, and
- location of ESD valves on pipelines.
Paul Schneider and I wrote a paper on the task group’s findings and that paper was published in Offshore Operations Post Piper Alpha (Institute of Marine Engineers,1991). The proposed regulations that followed summarized these findings and can be be found at this Federal Register link.
Lord Cullen’s comprehensive inquiry into the Piper Alpha tragedy challenged traditional thinking about regulation and how safety objectives could best be achieved, and was perhaps the most important report in the history of offshore oil and gas operations. Per Cullen:
“Many current safety regulations are unduly restrictive because they impose solutions rather than objectives. They also are out of date in relation to technological advances. Guidance notes lend themselves to interpretations that discourage alternatives. There is a danger that compliance takes precedence over wider safety considerations and that sound innovations are discouraged.“
Cullen advocated management systems that describe the safety objectives, the system by which those objectives were to be achieved, the performance standards to be met, and the means by which adherence to those standards was to be monitored. He called for safety cases that describe major hazards on an installation and provide appropriate safety measures. Per Cullen, each operator should be required in the safety case to demonstrate that the safety management systems of the company and the installation are adequate to assure that design and operation of the platform and its equipment are safe.
Links for the full Piper Alpha Inquiry: volume 1 and volume 2
4 leading offshore programs, 5 years of safety performance data
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Norway, UK, tagged ANP Brazil, BSEE, IRF, offshore safety, PSA Norway, UK HSE on March 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The International Regulators’ Forum (IRF) does a good job of compiling safety performance data for offshore oil and gas operations in member countries. Because these data are collected by the respective regulators and compiled in accordance with established guidelines, we consider the IRF compilations to be the most credible international incident summary data for the offshore industry.
BOE looked at the numbers for the IRF countries with the highest level of activity in terms of hours worked – Brazil, Norway, UK, and US. These countries accounted for 90% of the total hours worked in 2020, the last year for which data are available. The 2020 hours worked (millions) were also relatively similar for the 4 countries: Norway – 41.2, UK – 42.4, US – 50.4, Brazil – 50.7. The differences in hours worked were somewhat greater in the prior years, but not dramatically so.
We charted the fatality and lost-time (>3 days) data (below). Our intent at this point is to draw attention to the IRF data sets, not to assess and compare performance. We do think the overall safety performance in these and other IRF countries, while far from perfect, is quite good given the hundreds of millions of hours worked, complexity of operations, logistical challenges, and difficult operating environments. We recommend that the IRF prioritize the timely posting of these data, and begin providing causation information so that companies and other interested parties can better identify performance issues and safety trends.
If only the energy transition was this simple – the UK Oil and Gas Authority has a new name
Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, UK, tagged Daniel Yergin, energy transition, North Sea Transition Authority on March 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »
- While the text of the announcement implies otherwise, the new name prioritizes the “transition” over concerns about energy supply, security, and reliability. In that regard, the timing seems questionable.
- Why not the North Sea Energy Authority (NSEA) or UK Offshore Energy Authority (UKOEA)?
- Will OPEC+ be impressed? Perhaps China will add a few coal-fired power plants in honor of the name change.
- Dan Yergin understands that energy transitions are complicated. Quoting Yergin’s outstanding article in the Atlantic:
The term energy transition somehow sounds like it is a well-lubricated slide from one reality to another. In fact, it will be far more complex: Throughout history, energy transitions have been difficult, and this one is even more challenging than any previous shift.
The 19th century is known as the “century of coal,” but, as the technology scholar Vaclav Smil has noted, not until the beginning of the 20th century did coal actually overtake wood as the world’s No. 1 energy source. Moreover, past energy transitions have also been “energy additions”—one source atop another. Oil, discovered in 1859, did not surpass coal as the world’s primary energy source until the 1960s, yet today the world uses almost three times as much coal as it did in the ’60s.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 