| company | no. of Sale 259 high bids (Sale 257 in parentheses) | total Sale 259 high bids ($ millions) |
| Chevron | 75 (34) | 108 |
| BP | 37 (46) | 46.7 |
| Shell | 21 (20) | 20.1 |
| Equinor | 16 (1) | 18.3 |
| Beacon | 13 (4) | 9.0 |
| Anadarko (Oxy) | 13 (30) | 8.6 |
| Red Willow | 13 (5) | 3.8 |
| Hess | 12 (2) | 8.3 |
| Woodside | 12 (8) | 6.3 |
| Houston Energy | 8 (5) | 11.6 |
Posts Tagged ‘Shell’
Lease Sale 259 Top Ten: Chevron’s surges, BP is bullish on the GoM, Shell steady, Equinor awakens, Beacon sees the light, OK for Oxy, Red Willow surprises, Hess rebounds, Woodside has BHP, Houston means Energy!
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Beacon, bp, Chevron, Equinor, Gulf of Mexico, Hess, Houston Energy, Lease Sale 259, Oxy, Red Willow, Shell, Top Ten, Woodside on March 31, 2023| Leave a Comment »
OCS Lease Sale 259: more unusual bidding by Exxon, otherwise an impressive sale
Posted in CCS, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged BOEM, bp, Chevron, Exxon, Lease Sale 259, Liz Klein, Red Willow, results, Shell on March 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »
- 313 blocks receiving bids
- 353 bids
- 32 companies submitting bids
- High bids totaled $263.8 million
Exxon doubled down on their strategic CCS bidding; their only bids (69 in total) again appeared to be solely for carbon sequestration purposes. As previously noted, acquiring tracts for CCS purposes is not authorized in an oil and gas sale. Arguably, these bids should be rejected.
The other super-majors, BP, Chevron, and Shell, were active participants as were many independents.
It was good to see BOEM Director Liz Klein announcing bids. This shows respect for the OCS oil and gas program.
It was also good to hear that Red Willow, a native American corporation, was again an active participant.
More to follow.
Reality check for supermajors
Posted in climate, energy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged bp, oil and gas production, Shell on March 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“I am of a firm view that the world will need oil and gas for a long time to come,” (Shell Chief Executive) Sawan, who started the job on Jan. 1, told Times Radio in the U.K. on Friday. “As such, cutting oil and gas production is not healthy.”
Back in 2021, Shell predicted that its own oil production would decline every year and drop by as much as 18% by 2030. BP had a similar outlook, but CEO Bernard Looney rolled back its climate targets this year and said it will increase investment in exploration and production.
BP and Shell have trailed their U.S. peers in price to earnings ratios. Analysts have said investors interested in exposure to oil and gas have shunned them for putting more money into renewables, while investors focusing on environmental concerns haven’t rewarded them. That’s kept European energy firms trading at a discount.
Barron’s
It will never happen, but a separate company composed of BP and/or Shell upstream US assets would be very attractive to investors.
China’s US OCS leases – exit coming?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Appomattox, China, CNOOC, Gulf of Mexico, Hess, JPMorgan, Nexen, Shell, Stampede on March 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Some may not be aware that the Chinese government, through a fully owned subsidiary of the China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), is a leaseholder in the US Gulf of Mexico. Per BOEM records, CNOOC Petroleum USA Inc currently has ownership in 12 OCS leases. Most significantly, CNOOC holds 21% interest in the Appomattox Field, operated by Shell, and a 25% working interest in Stampede, operated by Hess. Peak oil production for these projects is expected to be 175,000 bopd for Appomattox and up to 80,000 bopd for Stampede.
CNOOC acquired the Gulf of Mexico properties through its purchase of Nexen, a Canadian company, in 2013.
The state-owned Chinese oil explorer surrendered operating control of those assets to quell U.S. national security concerns, said two people familiar with the agreement who asked not to be named because the terms aren’t public.
FInancial Post
Reuters has reported that CNOOC is considering an exit from its operations in the US, Canada, and the UK because of sanctions concerns. JPMorgan is reportedly assisting with the sale of the US assets.
Simpler, safer, greener: Vito takes center stage!
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Anchor, Argos, bp, Chevron, deepwater platform, King's Quay, Murphy, Shell, simpler safer greener, Vito, Whale on February 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Last year, BOE featured 5 deepwater platforms that were under construction: Shell’s Vito and Whale, Murphy’s King’s Quay, bp’s Argos, and Chevron’s Anchor. These floating production units are noteworthy for their lighter, smaller designs. King’s Quay was the first to produce, beginning last April. The spotlight is now on Vito which began producing today. Vito’s peak production should reach 100,000 boe. The other 3 platforms are expected to begin production this year or next.
2022 Safety Honor Roll: Gulf of Mexico operators
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged AnadarkoOxy, bp, Cantium, Chevron, compliance leaders, Contango, Gulf of Mexico, Hess, LLOG, Murphy Oil, offshore oil and gas operations, Safety Honor Roll, Shell on January 24, 2023| 1 Comment »
The Honor Roll companies for 2022 (listed alphabetically) are Anadarko (Oxy), bp, Cantium, Chevron, Contango, Hess, LLOG, Murphy, and Shell.
Our criteria:
- Must average <0.3 incidents of noncompliance (INCs) per facility-inspection.
- Must average <0.1 INCs per inspection-type. (Note that each facility-inspection may include multiple types of inspections (e.g. production, pipeline, pollution, Coast Guard, site security, etc). On average, each facility-inspection included 3.25 types of inspections in 2022. Here is a list of the types of inspections that may be performed.)
- Must operate at least 3 production platforms and have drilled at least one well (i.e. you need operational activity to demonstrate compliance and safety achievement).
- May not have a disqualifying event (e.g. fatal or life-threatening incident, significant fire, major oil spill). Due to the extreme lag in updates to BSEE’s incident tables, investigation and news reports are used to make this determination.
- Pacific and Alaska operations will be considered separately.
| oil (million bbls) | gas (BCF) | |
| Shell | 145.8 | 163.5 |
| bp | 82.4 | 57.1 |
| Chevron | 79.4 | 45.2 |
| Anadarko | 59.6 | 50.8 |
| Murphy | 28.1 | 45.5 |
| LLOG | 19.6 | 34.3 |
| Hess | 17.9 | 39 |
| Cantium | 3.9 | 5.3 |
| Contango | 0.02 | 3.5 |
Marvels of the deep
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged Big Fin Squid, chemosynthetic communities, Gulf of Mexico, Perdido, Shell on January 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »
A rare photo of a Big-Fin Squid, caught on camera on November 11th 2007 by a Shell Oil company ROV, at a depth of 2,386 meters (1.5 miles). This species of Squid dwell at extreme depths, and are characterised by their long, thin tentacles. They can reach almost 20ft long when fully grown.
Hasan Jasim
ROV video:
Of course, much of our knowledge about deepwater biology is attributable to oil and gas exploration and the associated environmental studies. This includes the discovery and study of chemosynthetic communities in the Gulf of Mexico:
Some of the same conditions responsible for petroleum deposits also provide the basis for biological communities that receive energy from chemicals through a process called chemosynthesis (in contrast to photosynthesis that provides energy to terrestrial and shallow-water communities through processes in which sunlight is the basic energy source).
NOAA
Stemming the decline in deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration?
Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged bp, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, deepwater exploration, Exxon, Gulf of Mexico, Hess, LLOG, Murphy, Shell, Talos, Woodside 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.
Another new Aera era!
Posted in California, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged Aera, Beta Unit, Exxon, Huntington Beach, IKAV, pipeline spill, Shell on September 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »
A fresh start for Aera Energy with IKAV, a German asset management company that purchased Aera from Shell and ExxonMobil.
From 1997 to 2007, Aera operated the Beta Unit offshore Huntington Beach. Since selling those facilities, all Aera operations have been conducted onshore, primarily in Kern County, a historically important California oil production area. Aera will continue to operate these onshore properties for IKAV, which looks like an interesting company.
Meanwhile, the Beta Unit has been in the news because of the October 2021 spill from the pipeline transporting Beta Unit production from Platform Elly to shore.
Shell restarts Mars pipeline
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, pipelines, tagged Gulf of Mexico oil production, Mars pipeline, Shell on August 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Assuming no significant tropical storm shutdowns this month, we should get a good read on the impact of the pipeline outage when the EIA production data for August are posted.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 