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Posts Tagged ‘LLOG’

Stemming the decline in deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration?

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , 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.

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Another achievement we should be applauding – first production from the Spruance Field

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , on June 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »

“The two-well subsea development is producing, in combination, approximately 16,000 barrels of oil per day and 13 million cubic feet of gas per day via a 14-mile subsea tieback to the EnVen-operated Lobster platform in EW 873. First production was achieved less than three years after the initial exploratory discovery well was drilled.” 

LLOG

The project owners (below) are all independent producers and private equity firms. Houston Energy, LLOG, Red Willow, EnVen, and Beacon were also among the high bidders in Lease Sale 257, which was vacated by a questionable court decision that the Federal government chose not to appeal.

The companies responsible for these important projects (see “simpler, safer, greener”) that have or will soon initiate production were also active bidders at Lease Sale 257. The absence of leasing has thus seriously handicapped the companies most responsible for the production surge to over 2 million BOPD in 2019 and for sustaining the current Gulf production rate of 1.7 million BOPD.

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Gulf of Mexico scoreboard

Posted in drilling, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »

  • Operating companies that produced >1 million bbls of oil or >1 BCF of gas in 2021 are listed in descending order based on oil production.
  • Both the total number of well starts and the number of exploratory wells are indicated
  • An INC is an Incident of Noncompliance (i.e. a violation). W=warning, CSI=component shut-in, and FSI=facility shut-in are the enforcement actions.
  • All of the below data are publicly available on the BSEE-BOEM websites.
2021
oil (MMbbls)		2021
gas (BCF)		2021/22
well starts
total-expl		2021/22
INCs
W-CSI-FSI
Shell149.8190.828-1211-14-4
bp114.082.75-26-3-4
Chevron83.742.28-81-1-3
Anadarko (Oxy)67.757.88-68-5-1
Hess27.561.72-27-4-0
Murphy25.150.07-74-8-1
LLOG20.429.03-01-1-1
Talos17.723.05-025-26-14
BHP14.55.93-22-3-0
Exxon13.22.3–1-1-1
Beacon10.515.71-00-0-0
Fieldwood10.424.7–685-235-91
EnVen9.612.66-02-6-3
Kosmos9.48.41-11-0-0
Arena8.627.932-068-45-19
Walter8.136.22-23-1-2
Cox6.230.3–237-169-3
Eni4.713.62-08-0-2
W&T5.027.21-065-40-7
Cantium4.55.518-023-15-2
QuarterNorth4.28.3–no data
GoM Shelf2.34.8–52-5-2
ANKOR1.42.5–0-0-1
Byron1.04.4–5-8-2
Renaissance0.71.6–20-9-3
Sanare0.34.5–38-20-3
Helis0.21.2–1-0-2
Contango0.035.0–4-0-0
Samchully0.021.2–no data

Comments:

  • “Energy transition” companies Shell and bp still love the Gulf of Mexico, which is a good thing for them and us. Together they accounted for 42.4% of the 2021 oil production.
  • The top 4 producers, Shell, bp, Chevron (includes Unocal), and Anadarko accounted for 2/3 of GoM oil production, nearly all of which was from deepwater leases.
  • Those are impressive production numbers for Anadarko (Oxy). No wonder Warren Buffett likes Oxy stock.
  • The relative number of deepwater exploratory wells is mildly encouraging given our concerns about sustaining production.
  • Exploratory well determinations are rather subjective and may not be entirely consistent.
  • Understandably, no exploratory wells were drilled by Arena or Cantium, the companies responsible for most well operations on shelf (shallow water) leases.
  • Overall, the INC numbers are impressively low for the deepwater operators, with Chevron and LLOG standing out. BSEE does not post the specific violation information (more on this in an upcoming post), so it’s difficult to properly assess a company’s compliance record.
  • Unfortunately, incident data could not be included on the scoreboard. BSEE’s incident tables are badly out of date, and no 2021/2022 summaries have been posted.
  • Fieldwood’s disturbing INC numbers were discussed earlier this year. High INC rates for 3 other operators have also were noted last month.
  • Exxon production is limited to the Hoover Diana spar, which was installed 22 years ago. The largest US oil company has only drilled one GoM exploratory well (2018) in the past 5 years. Currently, their main GoM interest seems to be the sequestration (disposal) of onshore emissions. (More on this topic in an upcoming post.)

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