Posted in deep sea mining, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged China, marine minerals, new executive order, TMC, trade dispute on April 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »
According to a Financial Times report, the White House is drafting an executive order that will facilitate the stockpiling of critical metals found in the Pacific. The Administration is intent on countering China’s rare earth supply chains and battery mineral dominance.
This is good news for TMC, a Canadian company that plans to apply for deepsea mining permits under US authority, not proposed international regulations.
Posted in energy policy, Uncategorized, tagged China, deepwater habitat, disputed waters, geopolitics, hydrates, Lockheed one atmosphere chamber, natural blowouts, Proteus, seep ecosystems, Sentinel, South China Sea, underwater space station on March 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »
China plans to build an “Offshore Space Station” 2,000 meters below the ocean surface in the South China Sea. The plan is to complete the station, which will accommodate 6 scientists, by 2030.
This is by far the deepest water for which a subsea human habitat has been proposed. By comparison, the planned Proteus (Fabien Cousteau) underwater station will be in just 20 meters of water off the northeast coast of Curaçao. A Sentinel/UK habitat is planned for depths up to 200 meters in the Mediterranean.
The primary focus of the deepwater South China Sea facility will reportedly be the study of deepwater seep ecosystems which are rich in marine life and deposits of methane hydrates. Hydrates are an energy resource that has much potential. However, because of the risk of uncontrolled methane releases and seafloor instability, there is limited support for the production of hydrate methane.
A deepwater science station near hydrates and methane seeps would be a dangerous operating environment given the potential for methane blowouts and cratering caused by destabilized hydrates. Given that nearly all of the research could be conducted safer and cheaper with Autonomous Underwater Vehichles (AUVs) and advanced robotics, the scientific value of a deepwater station seems questionable.
The offshore oil and gas industry considered subsea habitats in the 1970s but has since abandoned the idea. Lockheed designed a one atmosphere seafloor chamber (diagram below) that was installed in the Gulf in 1972 at a water depth of 375 ft.
Dry chamber well and production systems lost favor because of concerns about flooding, high costs, and safety risks associated with transporting workers to the chambers and placing them in close proximity to “live” wells and production equipment.
Perhaps the main drivers for China’s deepwater “space station” are geopolitical. Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei reject Beijing’s claims of sovereignty and each claim parts of the South China Sea (see map below).
By establishing a seafloor community in a strategic location, China could strengthen its highly questionable claim to the entire South China Sea. China would also have reason to increase Navy vessel activity in disputed waters to support and defend their subsea community.
This will be a project to watch if it actually goes forward.
Posted in energy policy, tagged China, coal, Daniel Yergin, India, record coal consumption on August 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »
As Dan Yergin reminds us, energy transitions don’t happen on command:
“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.“
Coal is not going away. Per IEA, coal consumption in 2022 set a new record (8.3 billion tonnes) and will stay at or near that level in 2023 and 2024. See the chart below for 2021, 2022, and 2023 (est.) consumption in million tonnes. India and China are joined by the “Rest of the World” (outside the US and EU) in the billion tonne club.
Message: Coal is cost effective and reliable, and will continue to be a major source of energy.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Appomattox, China, CNOOC, Gulf of Mexico, Hess, JPMorgan, Nexen, Shell, Stampede on March 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Some may not be aware that the Chinese government, through a fully owned subsidiary of the China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), is a leaseholder in the US Gulf of Mexico. Per BOEM records, CNOOC Petroleum USA Inc currently has ownership in 12 OCS leases. Most significantly, CNOOC holds 21% interest in the Appomattox Field, operated by Shell, and a 25% working interest in Stampede, operated by Hess. Peak oil production for these projects is expected to be 175,000 bopd for Appomattox and up to 80,000 bopd for Stampede.
CNOOC acquired the Gulf of Mexico properties through its purchase of Nexen, a Canadian company, in 2013.
The state-owned Chinese oil explorer surrendered operating control of those assets to quell U.S. national security concerns, said two people familiar with the agreement who asked not to be named because the terms aren’t public.
FInancial Post
Reuters has reported that CNOOC is considering an exit from its operations in the US, Canada, and the UK because of sanctions concerns. JPMorgan is reportedly assisting with the sale of the US assets.
Posted in climate, energy policy, tagged China, coal on August 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
China also has boosted annual coal production by 490 million tonnes since last year, enough to meet demand from Germany and Russia combined, the coal mine safety bureau said this month, describing coal as “still our country’s most important source of power”.
The country has continued to develop new coal-fired plants, with construction on the second phase of the Zheneng Liuheng coal-fired power station in eastern China’s Zhejiang province beginning at the start of this month. New coal-fired power construction was at its highest since 2016 last year.
Reuters
Posted in climate, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged China, Lease Sale 257, oil sales, Russia, SPR on July 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Posted in climate, energy policy, Russia, Uncategorized, tagged China, climate litigation, Russia, Shell on March 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »
This is what major oil companies are up against. Meanwhile China expands coal production and consumption without having to worry about groups like this.
ClientEarth, a Shell shareholder, notified the energy major on Monday that it would commence legal proceedings against the company’s 13 executive and non-executive directors for what it said was the board’s failure to adopt a strategy that “truly aligns” with the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The not-for-profit group, which has a strong record of winning climate-related cases, wrote to Shell in advance of petitioning the High Court of England and Wales for permission to bring the claim.
Financial Times
Posted in gas, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Australian, China, Japan, natural gas, nuclear energy on March 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I just sent someone an email commenting that demand for Australian LNG (and their offshore gas production) was about to soar, but it looks like the Wall Street Journal is already on this story.
A global shift away from nuclear power in response to the atomic plant crisis unfolding in Japan will likely spur a scramble for Australian energy, catapulting the country ahead of Qatar as the world’s biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas in the near future.
![[OZLNG]](https://i0.wp.com/si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/AM-AM993_OZLNG_NS_20110316055703.jpg)
Posted in accidents, tagged aban pearl, accidents, Australia, Bayou St. Denis, Chile, China, Jack Ryan, macondo, Mariner fire, Montara, offshore oil, varanus, venezuela on October 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 