Posted in energy policy, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Norway, offshore workers, strike on July 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »
“Norwegian offshore oil and gas workers went on strike Tuesday. The stoppage could reduce the country’s gas output by almost a quarter and intensify supply chain shortages due to Russian gas boycotts by EU nations.”
dw.com
I couldn’t find any data on the typical length of these strikes, but my recollection is that they are usually rather brief.
Posted in Norway, tagged labor dispute, Norway, oil workers, strike on June 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Norwegian offshore worker disputes tend to be resolved without major work stoppages, and fortunately that appears to be the case with the latest dispute. This would not have been a good time to take Norway’s 1.8 million BOPD and 11.5 BCFD of gas off the market, even briefly.
Posted in accidents, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Alexander Kielland, North Sea, Norway on March 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »
123 workers lost their lives in the North Sea.
Tiå går og di seie tiå lege adle sår
Men ein mista bror e sår som aldri gror
Kanskje vil dårr gå vinter og vår
Sei oss klart kor dokker står
Håpte på at han sko komma
At han sko komma hjem igjen
Time is gone, they said; time would heal all wounds
Excerpt from the Alexander L. Kielland (1980) Song
But to lose a brother is a wound that will never heal
It could take as long as the never-ending winter and spring [i.e., never]
I hope that he should come
That he should come home again
Posted in energy policy, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Dagbladet, energy policy, Norway, oil and gas prices on March 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »
“Norway cannot escape the unpleasant fact: this is a form of war profit”, daily paper Dagbladet wrote in an editorial. “While Ukraine is being destroyed, and most other countries are mainly feeling the negative effects of the war, such as higher energy prices, higher food prices and general inflation, we are making a gain”, it said.
thelocal.no
While such introspection is commendable, energy supply issues in Europe would be far worse were it not for Norway’s actions including:
Posted in energy policy, Norway, UK, Uncategorized, tagged bp, Equinor, Norway, Russia, UK on February 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »
On Sunday, the Norwegian government announced that its sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, wwould divest its Russian assets, worth around 25 billion Norwegian crowns ($2.80 billion).
Reuters
“In the current situation, we regard our position as untenable,” Equinor Chief Executive Anders Opedal said in a statement. “We will now stop new investments into our Russian business, and we will start the process of exiting our joint ventures in a manner that is consistent with our values.”
Reuters
British oil giant BP said Sunday that it is “exiting” its $14 billion stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in one of the biggest signs yet that the Western business world is cutting ties over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Washington Post
Posted in energy policy, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Norway, Press Secretary briefing, UK, undrilled leases on February 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »
A. There’s also plenty of oil leases that are not being tapped into by oil companies, so you should talk to them about that and why.
As has been noted on this blog, recent offshore exploration activity is not sufficient to sustain current production levels. The absence of regular lease sales is an important factor. The UK Energy Minister commented recently about the importance of new licensing and continued investment. Norway has also taken steps to encourage such activity. Note the emphasis on predictability in this statement from the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy:
Predictability about which areas it is possible to apply for in APA (allocation in predefined areas; i.e. leasing or licensing) and regular replenishment of new area is important to achieve an effective exploration. APA rounds are therefore conducted annually.
Posted in energy policy, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged emissions, Norway, NPD, oil policy on January 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The combination of high production of oil and gas from a total of 94 fields, significant demand and high commodity prices led to a historically high level on the State’s revenues from petroleum.
Production in 2021 came to 102 million standard cubic metres of oil (642 million barrels) and 113 billion standard cubic metres of gas. This corresponds to about four million barrels of oil equivalent per day, a minor increase from the previous year.
NPD
Norway wisely eased the petroleum tax burden during the pandemic with favorable results.
The temporary change in the petroleum tax has most likely led to an increase in project activity. The projects would most likely have been carried out even without the tax package, but some of them would have been postponed.
NPD
An aspect of Norwegian offshore policy that is confusing to this outside observer is the emphasis on transmitting electric power from shore to offshore platforms (see quote below). In most cases, offshore platforms produce sufficient gas to support their power demands. Should platforms be powered from shore, gas that is not used for platform operations would presumably be marketed for consumption elsewhere or reinjected. If the gas is marketed and consumed elsewhere, there is essentially no net (global) CO2 emissions reduction benefit. Gas that is reinjected is wasted unless there is an enhanced oil recovery benefit. So it would seem that importing electric power from shore would only make sense if the net reduction in offshore gas consumption increased ultimate oil production (which could be viewed as undesirable if you take carbon management to the extreme).
While production remains high, CO2 emissions are dropping. The most important reason for this is the use of power from shore. The objective is to cut emissions in half by 2030 compared with the level in 2005.
NPD
In a separate article, NPD notes that power from shore increases the cost of platform operations and will also lead to an increase in electricity prices in Norway. Given these considerations, the very small net global reduction in CO2 emissions seems costly.
Platform electrification no doubt helps Norway achieve domestic emission reduction commitments. However, from a global perspective, how important is it for a minor CO2 emitter like Norway to achieve further reductions? Also, isn’t it somewhat contradictory for a major oil and gas exporter to take such extreme measures to reduce the emissions associated with the production of these resources?
Posted in energy policy, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Deb Haaland, Erling Haaland, Norway, NPD, offshore energy, offshore oil and gas on January 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »
As a result of her mother’s heritage, Deb Haaland is the first Native American to serve as a US cabinet secretary. However, her father, a decorated Marine Corps officer was a Norwegian American. She thus has the same surname as Erling Braut Haaland, the star striker for Norway and BVB Dortmund in the German Bundesliga.
Although most Americans cannot name the Secretary of the Interior (James Watt was an exception thanks to his attempt to ban the Beach Boys from the 4th of July concert in Washington😃), Deb Haaland is probably slightly better known in the US than Erling Haaland. However, thanks to the popularity of football/fussball/futbol/soccer, Erling is much better known internationally.
What does this have to do with offshore energy? Well Norway, which just announced record oil and gas revenues, has managed to sustain leasing, exploration, and production throughout the pandemic without compromising safety and environmental objectives. They also wisely eased the petroleum tax burden during the pandemic with favorable results.
The temporary change in the petroleum tax has most likely led to an increase in project activity. The projects would most likely have been carried out even without the tax package, but some of them would have been postponed.
NPD
Regardless of her heritage and any connections she might have with Norway, this would be a good time for Secretary Haaland to put the MOU between the Dept. of the Interior and the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (Norway) to good use by learning more about resource management on the Norwegian continental shelf and discussing how to best sustain US offshore production.
Posted in energy, Health, Norway, Regulation, Uncategorized, tagged Industri Energi, Norway, Oilfield workers, vaccine mandate on January 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »
A Norwegian union representing offshore oil and gas workers has criticized Aker BP’s process to introduce a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for its offshore employees.
offshore-energy.biz
“We agree that we must protect our employees and our suppliers in the best possible way, but it also requires that we are involved in how it should happen and how our employees and suppliers are taken care of in this process.”
Ingard Haugeberg, Industri Energi
Seems like a reasonable position on the part of the workers. As previously reported, many US oilfield workers are skeptical of the vaccine mandate and have warned that they will quit.
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged Northern Lights, Norway, offshore platform on December 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 