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Posts Tagged ‘Sable Offshore’

Caught in the middle – another Santa Ynez Unit “Catch 22”

Posted in California, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , , on July 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

caught in the middle?

Earlier this month we awarded a Chutzpah Award to groups that helped block every attempt to resume production in the Santa Ynez Unit and are now suing to terminate the leases for non-production. 

We now learn that the State Fire Marshall has rejected the resumption of production because Sable, the current operator, is not installing automatic shutdown valves on the oil pipeline. The catch is that Sable was denied permits needed to install the valves. So, on the one hand the Fire Marshall is requiring shutdown valves (a reasonable requirement), and on the other hand the County is prohibiting the installation of those valves!

According to the Fire Marshall’s office, this is the first time a company has been denied permits to install valves mandated by the State – yet another dubious distinction for the Santa Ynez Unit.

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Santa Ynez Unit update: production in 2024 unlikely

Posted in California, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on June 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Sable Offshore is still planning to resume Santa Ynez Unit production by October. However, according to John Smith, production in 2024 is not a possibility. The following permitting gauntlet remains:

  • State Fire Marshal permit for onshore pipeline.
  • Santa Barbara Planning and Development permit.
  • California State Lands Commission decision on the pipeline right of ways (ROWs) in state waters. (Those ROWs had expired.)
  • Transfer of leases to Sable – Environmental groups, the California Coastal Commission and/or other parties could file suit challenging the transfer of the leases to Sable.

According to John, the question is not whether production will resume in 2024, but whether it will ever resume. And John reminds us that as of 1/1/2026, the SYU and all of the headaches revert to Exxon. See the SYU overview below:

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Can Jim Flores revive the Santa Ynez Unit?

Posted in California, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on February 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Exxon’s Santa Ynez Unit facilities are now owned by Sable Offshore, a company headed by offshore production veteran Jim Flores. Apparently Exxon had suffered enough, and Flores accepted the challenge. Sable hopes to restart production in July, but has some big permitting hurdles to clear before that can happen.

Flores and his company are indeed the underdogs in this story. Pending are the pipeline CBAT (coastal best available technology) plan being reviewed by the Office of the State FIre Marshall and approvals by Santa Barbara County. Administrative and legal appeals are a given.

Flores is saying the right things and seems undaunted by the massive challenge. He may just pull this off. We’ll be watching.

Sable Offshore Corp. is going to do it right!

Our proven track record of responsible operations in Santa Barbara County at Point Arguello and Point Pedernales fields over the past couple of decades reflects our commitment to safe, reliable operations at SYU.

Jim Flores to NoosHawk

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More on the Santa Ynez Unit saga: will the 1/2 billion+ barrels of remaining reserves ever be produced?

Posted in California, decommissioning, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , on February 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Per our previous post on the complex status of the Santa Ynez Unit, Lars Herbst has brought this informative article to our attention. Here is the bottom line:

With this deal, Exxon is essentially lending Flame, Sable’s management team and PIPE investors the money to buy the facilities from itself. If they are able to get them back online, great, Exxon gets its $623 million loan paid back with 10% interest. If not, it presumably repossesses the facilities and their associated headaches.

This is what has been produced and what remains:

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End of the road for Nova Scotia exploration

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on January 19, 2022| Leave a Comment »

BP and Equinor have quit Nova Scotia’s upstream sector in Canada, leaving the once-alluring region without an active exploration licence, potentially putting a final nail in the coffin of the province’s E&P scene which is already been on its death bed.

Upstream
Discoverer Seven Seas

Some of us remember the record water depth well (4876′) drilled by the Discoverer Seven Seas offshore Nova Scotia in 1979. (Correction: The record water depth well was actually offshore Newfoundland. Many thanks to Howard Pike for the reminder.)

Some notable achievements offshore Nova Scotia:

  • Cohasset Panuke provided Canada’s first offshore oil production (1992), and the first for the Atlantic waters of North America.
  • The Sable Offshore Energy Project was responsible for Canada’s first offshore gas production (1999)
  • A novel jackup platform produced gas from the Deep Panuke field from 2013 to 2018.

The only remaining exploration and production operations in the Atlantic offshore North America are in Newfoundland waters (link to map).

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