Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Anchor, Argos, bp, Chevron, deepwater platform, King's Quay, Murphy, Shell, simpler safer greener, Vito, Whale on February 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Last year, BOE featured 5 deepwater platforms that were under construction: Shell’s Vito and Whale, Murphy’s King’s Quay, bp’s Argos, and Chevron’s Anchor. These floating production units are noteworthy for their lighter, smaller designs. King’s Quay was the first to produce, beginning last April. The spotlight is now on Vito which began producing today. Vito’s peak production should reach 100,000 boe. The other 3 platforms are expected to begin production this year or next.
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged AnadarkoOxy, bp, Cantium, Chevron, compliance leaders, Contango, Gulf of Mexico, Hess, LLOG, Murphy Oil, offshore oil and gas operations, Safety Honor Roll, Shell on January 24, 2023| 1 Comment »
The Honor Roll companies for 2022 (listed alphabetically) are Anadarko (Oxy), bp, Cantium, Chevron, Contango, Hess, LLOG, Murphy, and Shell.
Our criteria:
| oil (million bbls) | gas (BCF) | |
| Shell | 145.8 | 163.5 |
| bp | 82.4 | 57.1 |
| Chevron | 79.4 | 45.2 |
| Anadarko | 59.6 | 50.8 |
| Murphy | 28.1 | 45.5 |
| LLOG | 19.6 | 34.3 |
| Hess | 17.9 | 39 |
| Cantium | 3.9 | 5.3 |
| Contango | 0.02 | 3.5 |
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged bp, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, deepwater exploration, Exxon, Gulf of Mexico, Hess, LLOG, Murphy, Shell, Talos, Woodside 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.
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged Chevron, Equinor, Gulf of Mexico production, Mars, Olympus, Shell pipeline, Ursa on August 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »
But late Thursday, a Shell spokesperson said that repairs were underway and that the company expected both pipelines to be back in service Friday.
CNN
This is a good example of the interconnectivity of deepwater projects with major Shell, Chevron, and Equinor facilities shut-in as a result of a relatively minor downstream pipeline incident.
Mars crude price appears to have reacted to the shut-in news:
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Arena, BHP, bp, Cantium, Chevron, compliance honor roll, Gulf of Mexico, Hess, Murphy, offshore oil and gas, Oxy, safety, Shell, Walter on July 20, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Operating companies (listed alphabetically): Arena, Anadarko (Oxy), BHP, bp, Cantium, Chevron, Hess, Murphy, Shell, and Walter
Criteria:
Comments:
Compliance vs. Safety
While compliance is not synonymous with safety, most experienced observers believe there is a strong correlation. In the 1990’s, John Shultz, a PhD candidate at Carnegie Mellon Univ., studied US offshore facilities and safety data and developed expert and regression models to predict the likelihood of accidents and spills. That was a data rich era in that there were ~4000 US offshore platforms (more than twice the current number) and ~100 well starts/month (>10 times the current rate). In John’s thesis, he found that INCs are a very good predictor of accidents and spills. The offshore world has changed and further study of the correlation between compliance and safety performance is highly recommended.
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Chevron, helicopters, HSAC, safety on July 19, 2022| 2 Comments »
Chevron may be the only GoM operator to own its helicopter fleet. Data on their safety performance relative to GoM helicopter contractors do not appear to be available online.
Their news release focuses on hurricane preparedness and the benefits of owning their fleet. I’m not sure how significant these advantages are given that other companies can ensure similar availability through their contracts. A comparative analysis would be of interest.
“Other companies that depend on contracted helicopters to evacuate can’t create their own schedule and might have to start departing the platform days in advance,” said Jose Jaramillo, manager of Chevron’s aircraft operations in the Gulf of Mexico. “With our own helicopters on standby, we have more flexibility in determining when to safely shut down the platform, and after the storm passes, we can quickly remobilize, assess our facilities and bring production back online days faster.”
Chevron.com
The Helicopter Safety Advisory Conference (HSAC) does a very good job of identifying and addressing Gulf of Mexico helicopter safety issues. Per HSAC (report attached):
The leading causes, not all inclusive, of the accidents since 1999 are listed below, and secondary causes of these events include 13 related to helideck size or design related issues.
• 21 engine related,
• 25 loss of control or improper procedures,
• 18 helideck obstacle strikes,
• 13 controlled flight into terrain, and
• 12 other technical failures
Posted in energy policy, tagged Chevron, letter to President Biden, Mike Wirth on June 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Kudos to Mike Wirth. It’s nice to see a CEO with some backbone. Most importantly, he defended his employees and their vital contribution to society.
“Chevron and its 37,000 employees work every day to help provide the world with the energy it demands and to lift up the lives of billions of people who rely on these supplies. Notwithstanding these efforts, your Administration has largely sought to criticize, and at times vilify, our industry. These actions are not beneficial to meeting the challenges we face and are not what the American people deserve.”
The comment that follows is interesting. Perhaps he wants to hear from the Climate Policy Office?
“Chevron will engage in this week’s meeting with Secretary Granholm. I encourage you to also send your senior advisors to this meeting, so they too can engage in a robust conversation.”
Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Ballymore, BSEE, Chevron, offshore leasing, Shell, Vito on May 19, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Ballymore will be produced with 3 seafloor wells (6540′ water depth) that are expected to transport 75,000 bopd via a three-mile subsea tieback to Chevron’s Blind Faith floating production unit. Per BOEM, the Ballymore field was discovered in December, 2017. First production is expected to be in 2025.
Shell’s Vito floating production unit was inspected last week by BSEE personnel. Vito is expected to begin production later this year or early next year and produce up to 100,000 bopd. Per BOEM data, the Vito field was discovered in 2010.
As these projects demonstrate, deepwater development takes time and is often dependent on related projects on other leases. This is why future production is dependent on regular, predictable lease sales.
Posted in climate, energy policy, Uncategorized, tagged bp, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, energy transition, Exxon, Marathon, Oxy, Shell, targets on May 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »
From Reuters article:
Exxon, Shell, and Chevron are on deck!
Posted in drilling, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged AnadarkoOxy, Arena, bp, Cantium, Chevron, exploration, Exxon, Gulf of Mexico, Hess, INCs, LLOG, Murphy, natural gas production, oil production, Shell, violations, well starts on May 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »
| 2021 oil (MMbbls) | 2021 gas (BCF) | 2021/22 well starts total-expl | 2021/22 INCs W-CSI-FSI | |
| Shell | 149.8 | 190.8 | 28-12 | 11-14-4 |
| bp | 114.0 | 82.7 | 5-2 | 6-3-4 |
| Chevron | 83.7 | 42.2 | 8-8 | 1-1-3 |
| Anadarko (Oxy) | 67.7 | 57.8 | 8-6 | 8-5-1 |
| Hess | 27.5 | 61.7 | 2-2 | 7-4-0 |
| Murphy | 25.1 | 50.0 | 7-7 | 4-8-1 |
| LLOG | 20.4 | 29.0 | 3-0 | 1-1-1 |
| Talos | 17.7 | 23.0 | 5-0 | 25-26-14 |
| BHP | 14.5 | 5.9 | 3-2 | 2-3-0 |
| Exxon | 13.2 | 2.3 | – | 1-1-1 |
| Beacon | 10.5 | 15.7 | 1-0 | 0-0-0 |
| Fieldwood | 10.4 | 24.7 | – | 685-235-91 |
| EnVen | 9.6 | 12.6 | 6-0 | 2-6-3 |
| Kosmos | 9.4 | 8.4 | 1-1 | 1-0-0 |
| Arena | 8.6 | 27.9 | 32-0 | 68-45-19 |
| Walter | 8.1 | 36.2 | 2-2 | 3-1-2 |
| Cox | 6.2 | 30.3 | – | 237-169-3 |
| Eni | 4.7 | 13.6 | 2-0 | 8-0-2 |
| W&T | 5.0 | 27.2 | 1-0 | 65-40-7 |
| Cantium | 4.5 | 5.5 | 18-0 | 23-15-2 |
| QuarterNorth | 4.2 | 8.3 | – | no data |
| GoM Shelf | 2.3 | 4.8 | – | 52-5-2 |
| ANKOR | 1.4 | 2.5 | – | 0-0-1 |
| Byron | 1.0 | 4.4 | – | 5-8-2 |
| Renaissance | 0.7 | 1.6 | – | 20-9-3 |
| Sanare | 0.3 | 4.5 | – | 38-20-3 |
| Helis | 0.2 | 1.2 | – | 1-0-2 |
| Contango | 0.03 | 5.0 | – | 4-0-0 |
| Samchully | 0.02 | 1.2 | – | no data |
Comments:
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 