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Posts Tagged ‘Marathon’

ConocoPhillips and Marathon have identical OCS profiles ☹

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , on May 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »

  • Zero oil production
  • Zero gas production
  • Zero well starts in the past 8 years
  • Zero participation in recent lease sales

CP’s acquisition of Marathon is an endorsement of shale production, most of which is from private lands. Sadly, these historically important OCS operators no longer have an interest in the Federal offshore sector.

Given the potential for long-term, high-rate, and cost-effective production from deepwater wells, it may not be prudent for a US super-major to put all of the corporate eggs in the shale basket and ignore the OCS. However, contrary to the direction provided by the OCS Lands Act, Federal policies seem to encourage industry rejection.

The 5 year plan boasts about offering only 3 mandated lease sales, and punitive executive branch decisions are a continuous threat. Presidential withdrawals and other actions have eliminated 96.3% of the OCS from even being considered for leasing. Production from private onshore lands in supportive States like Texas and North Dakota is very attractive by comparison.

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Interesting shareholder votes

Posted in climate, energy policy, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »

From Reuters article:

  • bp: Only 15% of shareholder votes backed a call for the company to accelerate its energy transition, compared with the 21% in favor in a similar vote last year.
  • Oxy: Only 17% of investors backed a call for emissions-reduction targets. (I wonder how Buffett voted 😀)
  • Marathon: 16% supported a measure calling for the company to report on how its transition plans affected workers and communities
  • ConocoPhillips: 42% supported an emissions-reductions targeting measure vs. 58% last year.

Exxon, Shell, and Chevron are on deck!

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Marathon’s Macondo Presentation

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

A colleague sent a link to a Marathon Oil Company Macondo presentation that was posted by the Houston Chronicle. The presentation was intended for internal training and discussion purposes.

Firstly, I applaud Marathon for ensuring that the blowout is studied and debated within the company. Hopefully, they did the same thing for Montara, have a good internal system for studying accidents throughout the industry, and thoroughly investigate all of Marathon’s incidents and near misses.

I thought Marathon’s comments about safety culture were particularly interesting, including these on slide 58:

Although harder to define and measure, and even more difficult to regulate, we pointed to our culture as the single most important differentiating attribute when comparing us to BP.

In a recent meeting with an individual who has numerous dealings with BP, he observed that regardless of the purpose of the gathering (planning session to morning rig call), it is almost impossible to determine who is ultimately responsible and accountable for the operation being discussed. Evidence of this exists in the very report this presentation was derived from.
I wonder what convinces Marathon that their safety culture is superior. The above anecdote, while interesting, doesn’t tell us much. Prior to Macondo (and perhaps even after the blowout), I’ll bet most BP employees thought that they had a strong safety culture. Ditto for Transocean. Does Marathon have any better evidence demonstrating the strength of their safety culture? If not, what makes them so confident? Does Marathon have a process for assessing and monitoring the attitude and commitment of their employees? Have they conducted regular internal surveys to gauge safety culture? My sense is that they have not. If they had, they could make their case without the very subjective comparison with BP.

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