Posted in energy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Iran, Israeli drone strike, Persian Gulf, South Pars gas field on June 14, 2025| 1 Comment »
Iranian media reports a “massive explosion” following an Israeli drone strike on the South Pars gas field in the southern port city of Kangan. According to a 2019 report, the field accounts for 74 per cent of the country’s gas production.
Judging by available video (below), it appears that onshore processing facilities were struck and not the offshore infrastructure.
Posted in accidents, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Bell 212, Georges Bank drilling, Georges Bank Monitor, helicopter crash, Iran on May 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »
A Bell 212 helicopter is in the news following the crash that killed Iran’s President and Foreign Minister. Given the difficult weather conditions and mountainous terrain, the crash was most likely an accident.
As noted in this vintage newsletter (p. 8), we flew to Georges Bank drilling rigs in the early 1980’s in a Bell 212 contract helicopter, owned and operated by Petroleum Helicopters Inc (PHI).
The Bell 212 was chosen by the USGS aviation expert because of its range, reliability, and IFR capabilities that enabled flying in limited visibility. Because of difficult fog conditions on Georges Bank, drilling rigs were sometimes not visible until we were descending to land.
For the most part, the offshore industry has replaced Bell 212 helicopters with newer models, but the 212 was in use for many years and had an excellent performance record.
Posted in energy policy, tagged 5 year leasing plan, Iran, offshore production, OPEC, sanctions, SPR depletion, Strategic Petroleum Reserve, venezuela on October 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Consistent with analysts suggestions that the US is reluctant to tighten sanctions on Iran because of concerns about oil markets, note that Iranian crude oil production began ramping up in early 2023 (see chart below) shortly after the massive Strategic Petroleum Reserve withdrawals had ceased. The increase in Iranian production in 2023 of ~500,000 bopd is comparable to the SPR withdrawal rate for 2022 (averaged 608,000 bopd).
Given that further depletion of the SPR was no longer politically acceptable, a cynic might suggest that oil market considerations associated with the end of SPR withdrawals and OPEC tightening (Iran is currently exempt from OPEC quotas) factored into decisions regarding the relaxation of sanctions on Iran.
The US is also prepared to ease sanctions on Venezuelan oil production. Why is production from Iran and Venezuela preferable to US offshore production? Why is the US sanctioning itself by enacting a controversial and punitive 5 year offshore leasing plan?
Posted in energy policy, tagged Iran, Israel, oil production, sanctions, SPR depletion, Yom Kippur War on October 13, 2023| Leave a Comment »
S&P Global reports on the surge in Iranian oil production and exports. In the quote below, note the concern about the higher oil prices that might result from tightening the sanctions. If oil price concerns are driving critical foreign policy decisions, this would be a rather stunning indictment of US energy policy, which is sometimes perceived as being more hostile toward domestic producers than international adversaries.
“Before the war, US-Iranian tensions had eased, which facilitated higher Iranian oil exports. Iranian crude oil production increased 500,000 b/d from March to September 2023 — to 3.1 million b/d from 2.6 million,” the analysts said. “Biden will be under pressure to enforce sanctions and curtail Iranian export revenue. This is a challenging situation for the Biden administration, which wants more oil on the market, not less. The attacks on Israel could override the oil issue.“
There was an exchange on this topic at yesterday’s White House press briefing:
Q. I wanted to ask you about oil, if I could, and the money that it’s bringing in. So, is the amount of oil that’s being brought in by Iran — specifically, records amount, 85 percent to China, more oil being sold above the price cap from Russia — giving the President any pause on changing these energy policies for fossil fuels here in the U.S.?
MR. KIRBY: I would — just let me back up a little bit. I mean, it’s important to remember that Iran gets most of its oil revenue off the black market and evad- — evading sanctions, which they do. It’s costly to them. In fact, our evidence is that they really only receive a fraction of the market value of the oil that they sell, because they have to sell it on the black market.
We will always, as we do in any case, typically, revisit sanctions regimes to see if they need to be changed or adjusted, specifically with respect to Iranian oil.
The President, since the beginning of the administration, has been concerned about making sure we have a viable global market for oil, working hard to keep the prices of gasoline down here in the United States. Part of that is making sure you remove some of the volatility in that global supply and demand.
I don’t have any announcements or decisions to make today with respect to any changes to the domestic oil production.
Q But isn’t it a national security issue when you have countries that are profiting off of oil and the increased price of oil that don’t like Israel, that don’t like America?
MR. KIRBY: We don’t want, for instance, Russia to be able to — to get a windfall in profits from the oil market so that they can then turn that around and — and apply that to weapons in Ukraine. We certainly don’t want to see Iran do — be able to do much of the same, which is why we’re — we’re putting as much pressure on them as we are.
Q So, why not increase oil production here?
MR. KIRBY: I — again, I don’t have any announcements to make today.
On a related note, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has remained at historic low levels. The current volume is 351.3 million barrels, a slight rise from the low of 346.8 million barrels in July, the lowest volume since 8/19/1983 when the SPR was still being filled. Have the oil embargoes following the Yom Kippur War, the reason for the SPR’s existence, been forgotten?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Iran, Tyler Adams, USA, World Cup on November 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Can we dedicate the victory to the Iranian “journalist” who aggressively questioned Tyler Adams yesterday (see clip below)? Great response from Tyler who is nothing but class on and off the field. A great captain.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 