2026 would be another record production year for the Gulf, were it not for Isaias. It may still be close.
Sable is the dominant producer in the Pacific. More on their production.
Posts Tagged ‘oil production’
August OCS oil production: Gulf remained strong, Pacific unchanged after downward revision for July
Posted in California, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged 2026, Gulf of America, Isaias, oil production, Pacific oil and gas, Sable Offshore on November 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »
About 10% of Gulf oil production remains shut-in
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes, tagged Gulf of America, Hurricane Isaias, oil production, production shut-in on October 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Hurricane Isaias – Most production is now restored
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Gulf of America, Hurricane Isaias, oil production, production shut-in on October 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Hurricane Isaias – 68.8% of Gulf production shut-in
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Hurricane Isaias, oil production, shut-in production on October 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Hurricane Isaias – 63% of Gulf oil production is now shut-in
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes, Offshore Energy - General, tagged deepwater production, Gulf of America, Hurricane Isaias, oil production on October 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Per MMA, nearly 1.3 million barels/day of Gulf of America oil production was shut-in as of noon ET today. Given that ~95% of Gulf production is from deepwater facilities, the high shut-in volume and the storm track (map below) tell us that major deepwater platforms in the eastern areas of the Gulf are shut-in. It’s also apparent that operators are prudently shutting in platforms well outside the projected hurricane track.
Isaias looks like a problem for the Eastern Gulf; 25% of oil production shut-in
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes, Offshore Energy - General, tagged hurricanes, Isaias, oil production, shut-in production on October 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Informative production and sales update from Sable Offshore
Posted in California, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged Harmony, Heritage, Hondo, oil production, quarterly update, Sable Offshore, Santa Ynez Unit on August 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Excerpts from Sable’s quarterly report:
Production
- An average of approximately 39 wells were online throughout the month of June 2026, representing a 50% increase over approximately 26 wells online on average in April 2026.
- In July 2026, an average of approximately 47 wells at Platforms Harmony and Heritage were online, producing an average of approximately 721 gross barrels of oil per day per well. Sable expects to bring all 77 production wells on these two platforms online during the third quarter of 2026 and expects Platform Hondo to come online in September 2026.
- Wireline campaign for Perforation Additions (“Perf Adds”) and producing well optimization at Platform Harmony commenced in August 2026.
- Five completed Perf Adds forecasted to produce an incremental 600 estimated gross barrels of oil per day, each, are expected to come online at Platform Hondo along with the restart of the platform in September 2026.
- An additional four Perf Adds at Platform Hondo forecasted to produce an incremental estimated 600 gross barrels of oil per day are planned for completion and to be brought online in early Q4 2026.
Sales
- July 2026 preliminary oil sales estimate of approximately 38,000 gross barrels of oil per day. August 2026 oil sales average to date is approximately 42,000 gross barrels of oil per day through August 9th.
- Due to the California regulatory environment, local refineries were not able to plan in advance for SYU first sales and ultimately were forced to displace various imported cargos in the second quarter. As a result, Sable incurred $18.5 million of non-recurring demurrage charges throughout the quarter, recognized in operational expenses.
- The sudden supply influx of Pacific Outer Continental Shelf (“Pacific OCS”) crude has forced refiners to temporarily limit throughput of Pacific OCS crude and charge quality deducts for sulfur content and other items.
- Starting in July 2026, Sable was temporarily constrained to a maximum of 40,000 average gross barrels of oil per day of oil sales throughput by downstream partners. We expect this short-term constraint to be alleviated starting in the back half of August.
- California refineries are expected to adjust their crude oil supply slate starting in September 2026 to begin accepting more Pacific OCS barrels from the SYU and less imported barrels, alleviating the SYU throughput constraint altogether.
- Sable is also in active negotiations to implement waterborne crude oil marketing solutions from existing marine terminals in the Los Angeles area in the near-term in order to improve marketing optionality.
- Additionally, the pending acquisition of the Crimson Utilities (San Pablo Bay Pipeline) pipeline network by a third party could provide further relief and marketing optionality to California oil producers with access to the San Francisco refinery market once that pipeline potentially restarts operations.
A detailed regulatory and legal update can be found beginning on p. 13 of the Quarterly Report.
New Gulf oil production record set in April; Sable boosts Pacific production
Posted in California, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged 2.1 million bopd, California OCS, Gulf of America, new record, oil production, production jump, Sable Offshore on June 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Per the preliminary EIA data for April, Gulf of America OCS facilities produced an average of 2.107 million bopd in April. This surpasses the previous record of 2.060 million bopd set in January.
Meanwhile, the Sable bump is now evident in the EIA’s Pacific OCS production data with a ~50% March-April increase from January-February. A bigger increase should be apparent when the May numbers are posted. How will Sable fare in the upcoming court battles?
The arcane world of the Jones Act
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, energy policy, tagged Offshore Wind, offshore drilling, oil production, Jones Act, OCS facilities, CBP, Senator Mike Lee, repeal on March 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Sen. Mike Lee has introduced legislation to repeal the Jones Act, which is drawing additional scrutiny for the increased cost of transporting US oil production and LNG to US ports.
Because facilities on the Outer Continental Shelf are US ports under the Jones Act, the Act has been problematic for both the offshore oil and wind industries. The attached Customs and Border Patrol document delves into the nuances of Jones Act compliance for lifting operations (p.14-15) and “points” on the OCS (p.17).
EXAMPLE: CBP interprets the OCSLA to extend the Jones Act to artificial islands and similar structures, as well as to mobile oil drilling rigs, drilling platforms, and other devices attached to the seabed of the OCS for the purpose of resource extraction and/or exploration operations. Such objects located on the OCS are considered points or places in the United States for purposes of the Jones Act. Similarly, floating warehouse vessels, when anchored on the OCS to supply drilling rigs on the OCS, are also coastwise points.
Check out this complex CBP ruling on the transportation of well fluids from one location in a subsea well cluster to another. See if you understand and agree with their conclusion (below).
The transportation of fluids as described in the FACTS section above, by a dynamically-positioned, foreign-flagged drill ship between wells located within an IF (integrated facility), which subsequently, transships the fluids to a coastwise qualified barge for transportation to a coastwise point, violates 46 U.S.C. § 55102.
On a related matter, it’s still unclear to me whether the attachment of the lower marine riser package to a subsea wellhead makes a floating, dynamically positioned drillship a US port under the Jones Act.
EIA production data delayed
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged EIA data delayed, Gulf of America, November2025, oil production on February 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »
October 2025 Gulf of America oil production was the 2nd highest in history. As a result, the November data are much anticipated. Those data have been delayed from the scheduled date of 1/29/2026 until 2/6/2026. See the EIA advisory below
Petroleum Supply Monthly (PSM) data for November 2025 are scheduled for release on Friday, February 6, 2026.
The U.S. Census Bureau will release trade data (both imports and exports) for November 2025 on Thursday, January 29, 2026. As a result, we will delay release of PSM data for November 2025 from the original scheduled release date of January 30, 2026, until Friday, February 6, 2026. The delayed PSM release will allow us time to incorporate export data for November 2025.
