Some observations on this week’s federal oil and natural gas lease sale in the Western Gulf of Mexico, reported with alarm by some media outlets because it wasn’t as large as other recent sales. First, every lease sale is welcome. Access to U.S. offshore reserves represents opportunity for energy development, job creation, economic growth and… Keep reading →
BP has reported a $5.8 billion loss in the second quarter, mostly from the costly settlement over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. [The NY Times] The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee began its debate over the broad bipartisan energy bill, with potential conflicts already emerging. [The Hill] The UAE will raise gasoline prices… Keep reading →
Insight for Industry – New Offshore Regulations Respond to Key Failure On April 13, 2015, the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) proposed new offshore oil and gas regulations that will cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars. However, offshore oil and gas producers will have several years… Keep reading →
Just a few minutes after BP Group Chief Executive Robert Dudley addressed a CERAWeek luncheon crowd on post-Macondo efforts that have seen the company spend more than $44 billion on Gulf response and cleanup, I talked with Center for Offshore Safety Executive Director Charlie Williams about the center’s work to increase the safety culture in… Keep reading →
Oil has been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico at the site where a hurricane-triggered mudslide toppled a drilling platform off the coast of Louisiana for over a decade, according to an Associated Press investigation. “Evidence that the slow-motion spill is far worse than platform owner Taylor Energy Company has publicly reported during its secretive —… Keep reading →
Three zeroes stand out in the first annual performance report by the Center for Offshore Safety (COS), the oil and natural gas industry-led initiative to promote continuous offshore safety improvement following the 2010 Macondo incident: Zero fatalities, zero loss-of-well-control incidents and zero oil spills equal to or greater than 10,000 gallons in Gulf of Mexico… Keep reading →
On Wednesday, January 28, as required by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Ross Hopper announced the next step in the development of our nation’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2017-2022. The Draft Proposed Program (DPP) includes 14 potential lease sales in eight planning areas – 10 sales in the Gulf of Mexico, three off the coast of Alaska, and one in a portion of the Mid- and South Atlantic, which includes areas off the coast of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
The impending restructuring of Mexico’s national oil company – Pemex – from a state-owned monopoly to a public-private entity will have a profound effect on the energy security and economy of Mexico. It may also have far reaching implications for its North American neighbors, the United States and Canada, who are both experiencing what has… Keep reading →
An ancient fern whose growth was influential in cooling the planet after an earlier runaway warming period is being studied around the world for everything from a food source to a filter to a possible climate change mitigation agent. Scientists believe a fern called Azolla sucked up about half the available CO2 in the atmosphere… Keep reading →
The low-hanging fruit with regard to US shale resources may already be spoken for and the majors who came late to the game could be turning back to the large offshore conventional projects they know and execute efficiently. “Rather than continue in shale, which is likely to become a more expensive venture, large production companies… Keep reading →
