Posted in climate, energy policy, tagged AEi, climate, energy cost, energy reliability, voters energy priorities on July 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The full report is attached.
Not at all shocking:
The public is most interested in the cost and reliability of the energy they use and the convenience and comfort of their energy-using products. They are unwilling to sacrifice much at all financially to address climate change or significantly change their consumer behavior.
Posted in flaring and venting, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged 2024 flaring performance, climate, environment, flaring and venting, gas well gas, oil well gas, ONRR, updated data on June 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Minimizing flaring and venting is important from both environmental and resource conservation standpoints. Flaring and venting volumes are also good indicators of how well production systems are designed, managed, and maintained.
The best performance indicators are the percentages of produced gas that are flared and vented both for oil-well gas (OWG, also known as associated or casinghead gas) and gas-well gas (GWG or non-associated gas).
Updated flaring and venting volumes for the Gulf of America have been compiled using monthly data submitted to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR). This is the best data source because reporting is mandatory and strictly enforced, and flaring and venting are accounted for separately.
In assessing performance trends, it’s important to segment venting and flaring volumes for both OWG and GWG production. Venting produced gas (mostly methane) is a more significant environmental concern from both air quality and greenhouse gas (GHG) perspectives.
Flaring and venting data for 2019-2024 are summarized in the table below. All volumes are in millions of cubic feet (MMCF).
Notes and comments:
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| OWG flared | 7727 | 7385 | 5919 | 6987 | 6342 | 7260 |
| OWG vented | 2578 | 1984 | 1405 | 1638 | 1230 | 965 |
| OWG produced | 670,699 | 582,254 | 582,824 | 581,235 | 598,005 | 595,600 |
| % OWG flared | 1.15 | 1.27 | 1.02 | 1.20 | 1.06 | 1.22 |
| % OWG vented | 0.38 | 0.34 | 0.24 | 0.28 | 0.21 | 0.16 |
| GWG flared | 405 | 432 | 311 | 213 | 212 | 232 |
| GWG vented | 958 | 578 | 548 | 722 | 468 | 465 |
| GWG produced | 364,082 | 224,808 | 209,558 | 203,342 | 152,400 | 89,167 |
| %GWG flared | 0.11 | 0.19 | 0.15 | 0.10 | 0.14 | 0.26 |
| %GWG vented | 0.26 | 0.26 | 0.26 | 0.36 | 0.31 | 0.52 |
| total flared and vented | 11668 | 10233 | 8183 | 9559 | 8252 | 8922 |
| total gas production | 1,034,782 | 807,062 | 792,382 | 784,577 | 750,405 | 684,758 |
| % flared or vented | 1.13 | 1.27 | 1.03 | 1.22 | 1.10 | 1.30 |
| total vented | 3536 | 2416 | 1953 | 2360 | 1698 | 1430 |
| % vented | 0.34 | 0.30 | 0.25 | 0.30 | 0.22 | 0.21 |
| total flared | 8132 | 7817 | 6230 | 7200 | 6554 | 7492 |
| % flared | 0.79 | 0.97 | 0.79 | 0.92 | 0.87 | 1.09 |
Posted in climate, energy policy, tagged Chris Wright, climate, Colorado Oil and Gas Assoc., Energy Secretary on February 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Thanks to the Colorado Oil & Gas Association’s tongue-in-cheek “Customer Appreciation Award,” which rivals the Not My Job Award as a means of recognizing extraordinary individual and organizational chutzpah, Chris Wright was on our radar long before he became Secretary of Energy.
He continues to impress:
Posted in energy policy, tagged climate, coal, Commerce Clause, New York, oil and gas, pure hate, S9612, US constitution on December 19, 2022| 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 climate, energy policy, tagged climate, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan on September 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Rep. Rashiba Tlaib: “Does your bank have a policy against funding new oil and gas products?” (I assume her script said “projects,” and that she misread it. She also butchered “Celsius,” a word that should be very familiar to such a climate expert.)
Jamie Dimon: “Absolutely not and that would be the road to Hell for America.”
Posted in climate, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged climate, GHG emissions, Justice Gorsuch, Lease Sale 257, SCOTUS, West Virginia vs. EPA on June 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »
When Congress seems slow to solve problems, it may be only natural that those in the Executive Branch might seek to take matters into their own hands. But the Constitution does not authorize agencies to use pen-and-phone regulations as substitutes for laws passed by the people’s representatives.
Justice Gorsuch in concurrence
Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible “solution to the crisis of the day.” New York v. United States, 505 U. S. 144, 187 (1992). But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme in Section 111(d). A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body.
Justice Roberts for the majority
At first glance, the SCOTUS decision would seem to affect the regulation of GHG emissions on the OCS and possibly the Lease Sale 257 decision (now being appeal), which was based on BOEM’s failure to estimate the effect of reduced OCS production on GHG emissions outside the US.
Posted in climate, energy policy, tagged climate, HSBC, Stuart KIrk on May 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »
His speech began with a slide declaring that “unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings are ALWAYS wrong.” Stuart Kirk, HSBC
Financial Times
Here is the presentation that caused the furor:
Sadly, any oil industry exec who dared to publicly question climate orthodoxy would face a similar or worse fate.
I do like this very sensible quote:
A former Blackrock executive focused on sustainable investment said Kirk’s remarks had “done us a service” in discussions on climate change risk by “infusing a dose of honesty into a debate that is otherwise leading us nowhere,”
NY Post
Posted in climate, hurricanes, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged Al Gore, AOC, climate, hurricanes, John Kerry on May 3, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Posted in climate, energy policy, natural gas, tagged climate, EQT letter, natural gas, polar vortex, surge in gas demand on December 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »
This letter from EQT CEO Toby Rice to Senator Elizabeth Warren summarizes data demonstrating the importance of shale gas in dramatically reducing US GHG emissions. A few excerpts:
In 2019, the United States emitted 970 million metric tons less than in 2005, with 525 million metric tons of that emissions reduction resulting from replacing coal with natural gas in power generation. Said another way: since 2005, in the United States, all emissions reduction efforts combined have had less impact than coal to gas switching alone.
The emissions associated with the production of natural gas are dwarfed by the emissions reduction of switching from the consumption of coal to gas.
Meanwhile, China, which produced only 3% of the world’s natural gas but the majority of the world’s coal, saw its methane emissions increase by an amount roughly equivalent to adding a second Europe to the world.
Letter from EQT to Senator Warren
Meanwhile, natural gas prices have soared to record levels in Europe and a predicted polar vortex may spike US demand. This OilPrice.com chart illustrates the remarkable divergence between US and European gas prices.
Will natural gas demand lead to a resurgence in US offshore gas-well drilling?
Posted in energy, energy policy, tagged climate, Gov. Abbott, oil and gas, Texas, UN on October 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »
UN Secretary General Guterres to Texas: “Texas must end its reliance on oil and gas production to remain prosperous in the era of climate change.“
Gov. Abbott responds:
Texas to United Nations: Pound Sand
The world is reeling from spiraling fuel costs caused by premature over-reliance on renewable energy.
High fuel costs punish middle class families & stoke the supply chain crisis.
Texas oil & gas is needed right now.
Greg Abbott tweet
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 