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Posts Tagged ‘China’

China’s US OCS leases – exit coming?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , 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.

Stampede TLP

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Meanwhile, China’s coal consumption continues to soar

Posted in climate, energy policy, tagged , 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

related post

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Re. the Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales, who knew…?

Posted in climate, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on July 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

  1. …that the SPR legislation authorized the sale of large volumes of oil for the purpose of easing worldwide prices. Per section 151 of the statute, which was passed following the oil embargoes in the 1970’s, the SPR was intended to diminish the vulnerability of the United States to the effects of a severe energy supply interruption.
  2. …that SPR oil could be sold to all entities including Chinese companies that are also buying oil from Russia, the country being boycotted. How absurd is that? (The confirmation of one such transaction is pasted below.)
  3. …that increased worldwide emissions from the consumption of SPR oil are okay, but emissions from the consumption of our offshore oil and gas are not. Remember that Lease Sale 257 was vacated because BOEM did not analyze the effect that lower prices (from increased US production) would have on GHG emissions. Why are EarthJustice et al silent on the SPR sales? Where is DOE’s environmental assessment of these sales?

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Bad litigation, worse timing. China and Russia’s most effective allies?

Posted in climate, energy policy, Russia, Uncategorized, tagged , , , 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

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Blackstone will no longer invest in oil and gas E&P.

Posted in energy policy, natural gas, tagged , , , , , , on February 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Bad decision by Blackstone; worse timing. Putin and OPEC must be pleased.

Blackstone Inc., once a major player in shale patches, is telling clients its private equity arm will no longer invest in the exploration and production of oil and gas, according to people with knowledge of the talks. The firm’s next energy fund won’t back those upstream investments — a first for the strategy.

Bloomberg

Meanwhile:

As the United States continues to tie its hands with regard to the transportation of natural gas, a fuel that has actually led to a large decrease in CO2 emissions over coal, Russia and China reached an agreement under which Russia will supply 100 million tons of coal to China so that China can continue to open up new coal-fired power plants

Forbes

Embargo Russia, not US producers!

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Australian Natural Gas Demand to Soar?

Posted in gas, natural gas, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , 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]

More Asian gas demand: China has suspended the approval of new nuclear projects.

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Posted in accidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Now that Chile, with the help of the international community (including two companies from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania where the drilling industry began), has rescued the 33 miners, can we drill into the Australian government and rescue the Montara and Varanus Island reports?

While we are at it, can we learn more about these accidents?

Let’s learn from past accidents, so we don’t need dramatic rescues in the future.

The offshore safety record will be suspect until industry and governments have credible, internationally accepted programs and policies for ensuring that accidents are independently investigated and that investigation updates and reports are released in a timely manner.

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Jackup Accident Offshore China; 2 Workers Reported Missing

Posted in accidents, tagged , , , , , , on September 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

BOE received these pictures of a jackup rig failure offshore China.  The rig may have been working at the well platform that is also pictured.  Sinopec reported a drilling platform accident during a recent typhoon. Apparently, these are pictures of that accident. We assume that some combination of hull inundation, wind forces, and foundation failure caused the jackup to topple.  Two workers were reported to be missing.

A lot of work has been done in recent years to address jackup failures during hurricanes, including this important study by Malcolm Sharples. If we have any readers in China, we encourage them to advise Sinopec about these reports. We also hope that representatives from China are able to join us at the International Regulators’ Offshore Safety Conference in Vancouver to discuss these and other important offshore safety issues.

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