API | Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

Posts Tagged ‘API’

Comments on BSEE’s downhole commingling rule

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, Gulf of Mexico, energy policy, tagged API, bp, BSEE, downhole commingling, final rule, OBBB, offshore safety, ultimate resource recovery, well completion on September 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The table below captures the shorter public comments and provides links to the longer ones. They are listed in the order they were posted on Regulations.gov.

commenter	summary/link
anonymous	_{I recommend under no circumstance that we allow the onsite worker to approve the commingling of bore holes because there is extreme significant safety and environmental hazards that exist. The best alternative is to have an environmental engineer and environmental scientist approve any commingling}
Our Children’s Trust	_{…your regulatory proposal is inconsistent with the federal law, the best available science on protecting the health and lives of children, and the legal mandate that agency decision-making does not deprive children of their fundamental constitutional rights…}
E.P. Danenberger	See BOE post
anonymous	_{I support updating the regulations to align with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but I encourage BSEE to ensure that safety standards and environmental protections remain the highest priority in all commingling approvals. Clear guidance for industry compliance and transparent public reporting would also strengthen confidence in this rule.}
Ananda Foster	_{Regulations need to catch up with technology and we have not had a chance to do that yet. If you allow them on throttle access, they will destroy it. We all rely on the ocean, how can you do this to your own constituents?}
API	Supports direct final rule
bp America	Supports direct final rule

Legislatively dictating well construction, completion, or operational approvals is a redline for me, and I continue to strongly believe the downhole commingling rule should be published as a draft for public review and comment.

The only industry comments are from API and bp America. Both support the direct final rule, and I respect their position. My main quarrel is with the legislative action that put us in this position.

I have had many disagreements with API members over the years, but the dialogue has always been professional. Technical and policy disagreements are healthy for the OCS program, and I will continue to raise potential issues and concerns on this blog.

With regard to bp, I have been impressed by their commitment to the Gulf of America, as summarized in this excerpt from their comments:

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Louisiana, API, and Chevron have also challenged the NMFS biological opinion

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Regulation, tagged API, Chevron, Endangered Species Act, Gulf of America, Louisiana, NMFS biological opinion, offshore oil and gas operations, Rice's whale on May 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Their filing is attached. I found the following points to be particularly compelling:

p.3: “Despite no evidence that an Oil and Gas Program vessel has ever struck a Rice’s whale, the 2025 BiOp projects that Oil and Gas Program vessels will lethally strike numerous Rice’s whales over the term of the 2025 BiOp. On that basis alone, the Service found that the Oil and Gas Program will jeopardize the continued existence of the Rice’s whale, and developed a multi-step reasonable and prudent alternative which it asserts will reduce projected vessel strikes to zero.“

p. 4: “The Rice’s whale is a rarely found animal that the Service first identified as a new species (separate from the non-endangered Bryde’s whale) in 2021. 86 Fed. Reg. 47,022 (Aug. 23, 2021). There is no evidence that an Oil and Gas Program vessel has ever struck a Rice’s whale (or a Bryde’s whale) despite continued operation in the Gulf over many decades.”

p. 5: “The 2025 BiOp disregards the Bureaus’ logical, fact-based conclusion. Instead, the Service’s 2025 BiOp engages in speculation and guess-work to surmise that Oil and Gas Program vessels could be striking and killing Rice’s whales on a regular basis. The Service ignores the best available data (i.e., showing no recorded observations of an oil and gas vessel striking a Rice’s whale) and instead presumes that forceable and lethal collisions between oil and gas service vessels and 60,000-pound whales are regularly occurring but somehow going unnoticed by the vessels and their crews and that the carcasses silently disappear into the water, never to be seen again.“

250520 – 2025 NMFS BiOp – LA v NMFS Complaint Download

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SCOTUS Chevron deference decision could factor large in the 5 Year Leasing Plan litigation

Posted in climate, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged 5 year leasing plan, API, Chevron Doctrine, DOI, litigation, offshore oil and gas on August 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

API is challenging the Dept. of the Interior’s 5 year oil and gas leasing plan, which includes the fewest lease sales in program history. That challenge was filed on 12 February, 60 days after Secretary Haaland approved the 5 plan and the first day appeals could be filed pursuant to 43 U.S. Code § 1349.

18 weeks after the API suit was filed, the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron Doctrine. That doctrine (described above) instructed judges to defer to agency interpretations when the language in a law was unclear.

Interior’s 5 year OCS oil and gas leasing plan provides for the fewest (3) lease sales in history and may not have included a single sale were it not for legislation prohibiting the issuance of offshore wind leases unless an offshore oil and gas lease sale was held during the prior year.

This unprecedented oil and leasing decision was based on “the need to confront the climate crisis through reducing greenhouse gas emissions” and on achieving “net zero pathways.” Neither of those objectives is articulated in the OCS Lands Act or other governing legislation.

Extending the Secretary’s general safety and environmental authority for OCS operations to include global climate considerations is a stretch and the type of interpretive administrative decision that the Supreme Court struck down.

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60 Minutes segment on deep sea mining and the Law of the Sea treaty

Posted in climate, deep sea mining, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged API, deep sea mining, IADC, marine minerals, NOIA, The Metals Company, UNCLOS, US ratification on March 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I’m posting Sunday’s 60 Minutes segment that focused on deep sea mining and the failure of the US to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Supplementary comments:

Most Federal employees involved with ocean energy policy, past and present, have supported US government ratification of UNCLOS.
The offshore industry has long supported UNCLOS. Industry trade associations, including API, IADC, and NOIA, are on the record as favoring ratification.
While concerns about UN management of deep sea mining access are understandable, some coordinated administrative structure is needed.
The Metals Company and other companies pursuing deep sea mining opportunities clearly disagree with the assertion that ocean floor mineral harvesting is not economically viable.
While it’s too soon to draw firm conclusions, there are reasons to believe that deep sea mining is environmentally preferable to onshore mining.

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5 Year OCS Leasing Plan: Legal appeals filed right on cue!

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged 5 year leasing plan, API, appeals, DC Court of Appeals, Earth Justice on February 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Expected appeals by API (first attachment) and Earth Justice et al (second attachment) were filed on 12 Feb, 60 days after Secretary Haaland approved the 5 year plan and thus the first day appeals could be filed pursuant to 43 U.S. Code § 1349.

The statute (language below) requires that leasing program appeals be filed in the DC Court of Appeals. API would have undoubtedly rather filed in Louisiana while Earth Justice is likely content with the DC venue.

43 U.S. Code § 1349 (c)(1) Any action of the Secretary to approve a leasing program pursuant to section 1344 of this title shall be subject to judicial review only in the United States Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia.

The filings don’t include any arguments except for API’s general assertion that “the Record of Decision and Approval is arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with law.”

Earth Justice presumably filed for defensive reasons given that the 5 year plan has the fewest lease sales in history and would seem to be favorable to their point of view.

API will likely contend that the plan is not balanced as require by the statue:

43 U.S. Code § 1344 (a)(3)The Secretary shall select the timing and location of leasing, to the maximum extent practicable, so as to obtain a proper balance between the potential for environmental damage, the potential for the discovery of oil and gas, and the potential for adverse impact on the coastal zone.

We’ll see how this plays out.

api-offshore-oil-lawsuit Download

earthjustice-offshore-oil-challenge Download

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RIP Maurice Stewart: prominent petroleum engineer, author, lecturer, and safety leader

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged API, Maurice Stewart, MMS, oil and gas processing, production safety, SPE, Tulane on January 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Dr. Maurice (Mo) Stewart, an outstanding petroleum engineer, author, and teacher, passed away over the holidays after a long battle with ALS. Mo worked in the Office of Field Operations in the Gulf of Mexico Region of the US Geological Survey (which became part of the Minerals Management Service in 1982) while earning a PhD in Petroleum Engineering from Tulane University.

Mo specialized in production operations and the associated safety systems. He was the lead author of the production safety sections of the MMS operating regulations when they were completely revised in the 1980s. He authored or co-authored (with Ken Arnold) several textbooks and numerous technical papers on oil and gas processing. He was active on API technical committees and was a lecturer for the Society of Petroleum Engineers in the US and internationally.

Mo conducted training sessions for MMS staff at all levels of the organization. He was an outstanding speaker who spiced his presentations with anecdotes and slides from his many travels. His presentations were not just informative, they were highly entertaining!

After leaving MMS, Mo was an instructor and consultant in Indonesia, where he lived for some time, and throughout the world. His incredible life was brought to a sad end by an incurable disease. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such an outstanding engineer, dedicated safety professional, and all-around good guy. Bud

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5th Circuit rules against intervenors. Lease Sale 261 must be held in 37 days. Deleted tracts must be included. Rice’s whale stipulations must be deleted.

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged 5th Circuit, API, BOEM, court ruling, Lease Sale 261, Louisiana, Rice's whale on November 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Order is pasted below and attached.

IT IS ORDERED and ADJUDGED that the Intervenors’ appeal is DISMISSED. As for BOEM’s limited appeal as to the timing of the sale, we hereby AMEND the district court’s preliminary injunction only to the extent that the deadline for conducting Lease Sale 261 shall now be thirtyseven days from the date of the issuance of the mandate in this appeal.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that each party bear its own costs on appeal.

gov.uscourts.lawd_.201143.98.0 Download

Background information and related posts.

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Important reports and comments on the Rice’s whale restrictions in the Gulf of Mexico

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged API, Darren Ireland, EIAP, Gulf of Mexico, OOC, Rice's whale on October 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

API’s comments on the Rice’s whale restrictions include a balanced assessment by Darren Ireland (begins on p. 22), a respected marine mammal scientist, and a good analysis of the economic impacts by EIAP.

Darren Ireland concludes (emphasis added):

“The proposed critical habitat has been deemed, by NMFS, to have the essential physical and biological features needed for the Rice’s whale to feed, breed, and reproduce. However, direct evidence for what oceanographic features within the 100-400 m isobath band identified by NMFS are required to sustain the Rice’s whale is lacking, and the extent of those truly important features elsewhere in the GOMx is uncertain and may not reach into the central or northwestern GOMx as predicted by the habitat based density model (Garrison et al. 2023). Even though there is evidence to support the possible occurrence of Rice’s whale near the FGBNMS in the northwestern GOMx, there are no data that show this area is being used to support important life history functions such as breeding, feeding, or migrating. Additionally, the sightings and acoustic detections that have been recorded there are much less frequent than those recorded for Rice’s whale in the core habitat in the northeastern GOMx. Based on the limited data available on the use and occurrence of Rice’s whale in the central and northwestern GOMx (one acoustic study (Soldevilla et al. 2022b), one confirmed sighting (NMFS 2018a) and a few unconfirmed sightings (Rosel et al. 2021)), there is insufficient scientific evidence to determine that essential features for Rice’s whale conservation are indeed present in the central and northwestern GOMx. In fact, data on the life-history requirements of Rice’s whale even in the core habitat are still lacking and need further investigation.“

EIAP’s key findings on the estimated economic impacts from these restrictions are summarized in the table below. Those are very significant costs given the uncertainty of the whale habitat in the central and western GoM.

Separate comments submitted by the Offshore Operators Committee are also quite strong. Their letter is attached.

2023_10_06_ooc_comment_letter_proposed_rule_designation_of_critical_habitat_for_the_rices_whale_final Download

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Lease Sale 261 update: DOI is enjoined from removing acreage and imposing Rice’s whale stipulation

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged API, Chevron, injunction, Lease Sale 261, Louisiana, Rice's whale on September 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

For the reasons stated above, the court hereby ORDERS that the Motions for Preliminary Injunction be GRANTED. Accordingly, the government defendants are enjoined from implementing the acreage withdrawal and Stipulation 4(B)(4) as described in the Final Notice of Sale and Record of Decision for Lease Sale 261. Government defendants are ordered to proceed with Lease Sale 261, absent the challenged terms, by September 30, 2023.

gov.uscourts.lawd_.201143.82.0 Download

Full docket: State of Louisiana v. Haaland (2:23-cv-01157)

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