“There is no evidence at this point that Russia was behind the sabotage,” said one European official, echoing the assessment of 23 diplomatic and intelligence officials in nine countries interviewed in recent weeks.
Washington Post
Posted in energy, pipelines | Tagged NordStream, Russia, sabotage | Leave a Comment »
In October, the President announced a plan to replenish the SPR using updated authorities that allow for fixed-price purchases of crude oil. Relative to conventional purchase contracts that expose producers to volatile crude prices, this new approach, when used at scale, can give producers the assurance to make investments today, knowing that the price they receive when they sell to the SPR will be locked in place. Today’s notice will pilot this new approach by starting with a purchase of up to 3 million barrels of crude oil.
DOE
Note that these pilot deliveries will not begin until Feb. 2023 and will total < 3 million barrels. The reserve is 349 million bbls below capacity, and 216 million bbls have been withdrawn this year.
Posted in energy policy | Tagged pilot refill program, SPR depletion, Strategic Petroleum Reserve | Leave a Comment »
Lars Herbst analyzed GoM permitting and drilling activity from 2011 to 2021. His data and observations are summarized below.
- Shelf (shallow water) exploratory drilling is at historic low levels with only a single exploration well drilled in both 2020 and 2021. That trend appears to have continued into 2022, as only one shelf exploration well (drilled by Contango) has been spudded YTD.
- 2021 also saw a significant drop in deep water development wells.
- Over the time period examined, deep water development is led by deepwater exploration. The same cannot be said for the development of shallow water leases where prospects are more mature and data are more available.
- The only shelf well drilled in 2021 (Walter Oil and Gas) was in relatively deeper water (566 feet). That well was drilled with a deepwater semisubmersible (the Valaris 8503). This is the shallowest water depth for a GoM semisubmersible drilling operation in recent history. The rig had a modified DP/moored configuration with explosive disconnects on the mooring lines so the rig could move off location if needed during an emergency disconnect scenario. That mooring disconnect would also let the rig evade hurricanes without the need for anchor handling vessels.
- The 2012 spike in deepwater permit approvals is the result of the Macondo drilling moratorium backlog.
| GOM OCS New Drilling Well Permits and Well Spuds 2011-2021 | ||||||||||||
| Year | New Shallow Water Drilling Well Permits Approved | Shallow Water Expl.; New Well Spuds | Shallow Water Dev.; New Well Spuds | New Deep Water Drilling; Well Permits Approved | Deep Water Exp.; New Well Spuds | Deep Water Dev.; New Well Spuds | ||||||
| 2011 | 71 | 15 | 54 | 38 | 32 | 6 | ||||||
| 2012 | 67 | 17 | 47 | 112 | 59 | 32 | ||||||
| 2013 | 72 | 28 | 34 | 57 | 55 | 18 | ||||||
| 2014 | 65 | 16 | 52 | 68 | 52 | 20 | ||||||
| 2015 | 12 | 1 | 15 | 69 | 57 | 14 | ||||||
| 2016 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 65 | 48 | 14 | ||||||
| 2017 | 13 | 3 | 9 | 52 | 44 | 9 | ||||||
| 2018 | 18 | 4 | 13 | 65 | 41 | 24 | ||||||
| 2019 | 25 | 3 | 17 | 62 | 38 | 23 | ||||||
| 2020 | 10 | 1 | 6 | 54 | 36 | 17 | ||||||
| 2021 | 18 | 1 | 7 | 34 | 29 | 5 | ||||||
| TOTAL | 381 | 90 | 261 | 676 | 491 | 182 | ||||||
| Note: Only includes new wells not sidetrack or bypass boreholes. | ||||||||||||
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, drilling, Gulf of Mexico | Tagged Contango, deepwater drilling, Gulf of Mexico drilling, macondo, shelf drilling, Valaris semisubmersible, Walter Oil and Gas | Leave a Comment »
Posted in climate, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized | Tagged Gulf of Mexico, snow, White Christmas | Leave a Comment »
… this New York state legislation is perfect.
NY State Senate Bill S9612 (proposed)
§ 328-a provides that no fossil fuel industry member, as that term is defined in the bill, shall knowingly or recklessly create or contribute to a condition that endangers the safety or health of the public by extracting, storing, transporting, refining, importing, reporting, producing, manufacturing, distributing. compounding, marketing, or sale of a "qualified product". 328-b declares that a violation of the new article that results in any harm shall be deemed climate negligence regardless of when the underlying conduct occurred. 328-c prohibits governmental enforcement. (i.e. prohibits govt intervention on behalf of the accused company) 328-d provides that any person, firm, corporation, or association that has been damaged as a result of a fossil fuel industry member's acts or omissions in violation of this article shall be entitled to bring an action for recovery of damages.This non-attorney suspects that the legislation might conflict with the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3), which gives Congress the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.” New York produces little oil, gas, or coal, so the legislation would largely affect operations that are conducted in other states, on Federal lands, or in foreign countries.
Posted in energy policy | Tagged climate, coal, Commerce Clause, New York, oil and gas, pure hate, S9612, US constitution | Leave a Comment »
Posted in climate, energy policy, pipelines | Tagged Mick Wallace MEP, Nord Stream | Leave a Comment »
- down another 4.7 million bbs from the previous week (12/2/2022)
- lowest reserve volume since 1/6/1984
- 212 million bbls withdrawn this year
- EIA data
Posted in energy policy | Tagged SPR depletion, Strategic Petroleum Reserve | Leave a Comment »
As we approach the end of 2022, I’m still waiting for:
- Nord Stream Pipelines sabotage report(s): Will Denmark, Germany, and Sweden publish reports? Will the responsible parties be identified? I surely hope this wasn’t a US/UK operation.
- Huntington Beach Pipeline Spill investigation report: >14 months since the spill and still no report. What vessel(s) struck the pipeline? The pipeline operator seems to have had minimal responsibility but has been vilified. How will the vessel owner(s) be penalized?
- Offshore Incident Statistics (BSEE): Still no data for 2021 or 2022. The previous OCS safety regulator (MMS) updated these tables at the end of each quarter.
- BSEE/Coast Guard investigation reports for two 2020 GoM occupational fatalities that have yet to be documented. Also waiting for the reports on a 1/24/2021 fatality, a 5/15/2021 explosion and fatality, and a 3/25/2022 fatality. Lives were lost. When will we find out what happened and why?
- Decommissioning status and liability update for Platforms Hogan and Houchin, Santa Barbara Channel.
- (2008) Russell Peterson liftboat fatality offshore Delaware. This was the first fatality associated with the US offshore wind program. The Coast Guard has yet to issue a report.
- (2010) Sinking of the Aban Pearl semisubmersible offshore Venezuela. No report was issued.
- Summary of the incidents on the “BOE watch list” in 2011.
Posted in accidents, California, Gulf of Mexico, pipelines | Tagged aban pearl, BSEE, Hogan and Houchin, Huntington Beach, NordStream, offshore incidents, Russell Peterson | 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
Posted in climate, energy policy, UK, Uncategorized | Tagged finance, HSBC, oil and gas | Leave a Comment »
Only Equinor is a familiar name to the offshore oil and gas industry, so here are some blurbs about the other high bidders.
California North Floating, LLC, is a subsidiary of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). Since entering the US offshore market in 2016, CIP has built a leading offshore wind position through its affiliate Vineyard Offshore. This includes Vineyard Wind 1, the country’s first commercial scale offshore wind project which is currently under construction, as well as two lease areas under development totaling approximately 5.0 GW off the coast of Massachusetts and New York.
Central California Offshore Wind is managed by an East Coast offshore wind energy company, Ocean Winds North America LLC, which formed a joint venture with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to win the lease. Ocean Winds has more than 10 years of experience in floating offshore wind, most notably through the development and operation of Windfloat Atlantic (offshore Portugal), the world’s first fully commercially operational floating offshore wind farm
Equinor, a Norwegian company, is a major international oil and gas producer, an important wind energy investor, and a leader in the development of floating wind turbine technology. Equinor operates the Hywind Tampen floating offshore wind farm which will supply power to Norwegian offshore oil and gas fields.
Invenergy and its affiliated companies develop, own, and operate large-scale renewable and other clean energy generation and storage facilities in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Invenergy’s home office is located in Chicago, and it has regional development offices in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Japan, Poland, and Scotland.
RWE Renewables has experience covering the offshore and onshore wind energy value chain from development to construction and operation. These activities are the responsibility of two functional units, “Unit Renewables Europe & Australia” and “Unit Offshore Wind”, as well as the subsidiary RWE Renewables Americas. RWE Renewables also invests in large-scale solar projects and supports power producers, plant operators and other stakeholders in the development, construction and operation of photovoltaic and solar energy plants as well as in the construction of battery storage systems. The focus is on large-scale industrial projects.
Posted in California, energy, Offshore Wind | Tagged California North Floating, California offshore wind sale, Central California Offshore WInd, Equinor, Invenergy, RWE Renewables | Leave a Comment »
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 