Offshore
It’s Houston vs. Houston, as offshore drillers compete with onshore shale oil
Competition for oil companies does not solely come from overseas anymore; the fiercest opponents are across the street, or maybe even in the same building. Executives and engineers responsible for offshore drilling are struggling to compete with their compatriots in the onshore shale oil fields. With the U.S. pumping more than 10 million barrels a day, the competition is Houston vs. Houston to see who can build the simplest, most productive wells. At the biggest oil companies, offshore engineers on one floor are competing against shale brethren on another for the limited dollars available for drilling. The team that produces the most barrels at the lowest breakeven price wins. […] Read Full Article Here: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/It-s-Hous...
UK children will have to pay £3,000 each to shut down North Sea oil and gas operations
Shutting down oil and gas operations in the North Sea is likely to cost double the government’s current target, leaving younger generations with a hefty tax bill. An analysis of current government figures suggests the goal of £39bn to dismantle the region’s pipelines and wells is a significant underestimate. Instead, a figure of over £80bn is cited as a far more realistic projection in the new report for the Intergenerational Foundation (IF). Read Full Article Here: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/fossil-fuels-north-sea-oil-gas-decommission-cost-double-government-a8326046.html
Royal Dutch Shell to resume deep-water exploration off Egypt
Royal Dutch Shell said it will resume deep-water exploration for oil and gas off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, Executive Vice President Sami Iskander told a news conference on Tuesday. Egypt is looking to production from recently discovered fields to halt energy imports by 2019. A petroleum ministry official said last month that new production at Shell’s West Nile Delta field 9B is expected to reach 350-400 million cubic feet per day by 2019. Separately, production from the first 3 wells in the field is set to begin in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. The field is owned by Egypt’s General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), Malaysia’s Petronas and Shell. […] Read Full Article Here: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shell-egypt/royal-dutch-shell-to-resume-deep-water-exploration-off-egypt-idUSKBN1...
The U.S. Oil Boom May Be About To Expand Beyond The Permian
Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Ryan Zinke announced on Wednesday morning that the just-conducted Gulf of Mexico lease sale – which DOI has billed as the largest in history – garnered $124.8 million in lease bonus bids. When combined with bonus bids from a slightly smaller lease sale held last August, DOI has now raked in almost a quarter of a billion dollars from bids on a total of 240 offshore blocks in the last 9 months. Among the 33 companies who submitted bids were majors like Shell, BP, Chevron and Total. While the total bids were just about $3 million more than those received last August, the number of blocks leased by DOI rose dramatically, from 90 last summer to 148 in Tuesday’s sale […] Read Full Article Here: https://www.f...
How Shell hid a Whale before placing Mexican oil bet
Reuters is reporting that Royal Dutch Shell knew something that no one else did and were able to hold their cards close to their chests. It’s rumored that the gasps in the audience were clearly audible at the auction of Mexico’s oil blocks a month ago as Royal Dutch Shell’s hefty bids were announced one by one. Shell’s cash payments of $343 million, out of the total of $525 million that Mexico earned in the sale, guaranteed that the company swept up nine of the 19 offshore blocks. Six months earlier, its drilling rig had struck a giant oil reservoir, the Whale well, in the U.S. side of the Gulf of Mexico – just across the border from many of the Mexican blocks, which share a similar Paleogene-age geology. “Post the Whale discovery we had some geological insights. It is not by acc...
UK Oil and gas production set to increase
The oil and gas industry regulator has raised its forecast of what can be recovered from the waters around the UK over the next three decades. Changes in the way the sector operates are thought to have unlocked the potential for a further 2.8 billion barrels of oil or the gas equivalent. It is now estimated that 11.7 billion barrels could be recovered between 2016 to 2050. More than 43 billion barrels have been extracted from UK waters so far. Peak production was achieved at the turn of the century. Read Full Article Here: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-43254085
Offshore Oil Recovery Begins in the World
Explorers are once again testing the waters in their search for oil, according to Transocean Ltd., the world’s biggest offshore rig contractor by market value. Drillers worldwide are forecast to boost new commitments for all types of offshore work by 140 percent this year, Jeremy Thigpen, Transocean’s Chief Executive officer told analysts and investors in a conference call on Wednesday. Thigpen said he’s excited about opportunities to drill off the coast of Norway, the U.K. and Canada. It’s all thanks to the continued climb in crude prices after a three-year crash. Brent crude, the international benchmark, touched $71.28 a barrel late last month, the highest since December 2014… Read Full Article Here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-21/offshore-oil-recovery-beginning...
BP Says Two New Oil Discoveries Could Spark Major Uptick In North Sea Production
Energy major BP has raised the possibility of a major uptick in its North Sea oil and gas production after it revealed two new hydrocarbon source discoveries in the region. The new finds were made in the North Sea’s Capercaillie and Achmelvich fields, situated in the central zone of the offshore prospect, west of the Shetland Islands. BP began preliminary prospection last year and recent tests have been encouraging. Data analysis and further tests are currently underway. Read Full Article Here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gauravsharma/2018/01/31/bp-says-two-new-oil-discoveries-could-spark-major-uptick-in-north-sea-production/#68bf09efc53a
$28 Billion to be Spent on Asian Oil and Gas Projects
An estimated 50 oil and gas fields in South East Asia, with a collective four billion barrels of oil equivalent resources, will likely be approved for development during the three-year period from 2018 through 2020, according to industry analyst Rystad Energy. These fields will require $28 billion of capex from final investment decision (FID) to first production. The $28 billion is for greenfield opportunities available to 2020. Brownfield, maintenance and infill drilling activities at existing projects will consume more funds… Read Full Article Here: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/28-billion-to-be-spent-on-asian-oil-and-gas-projects
BP appoints new chief over Gulf of Mexico
BP will have a new regional president in Houston overseeing the Gulf of Mexico in February. Starlee Sykes wil take over in Houston as BP’s regional president for the Gulf of Mexico and Canada. She replaces Richard Morrison, who’s retiring after 37 years at BP. Sykes currently serves as vice president for BP’s global projects organization for offshore projects… Read Full Article Here: http://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/BP-appoints-new-chief-over-Gulf-of-Mexico-12524475.php
Burning Iranian Oil Tanker Off China’s Coast In Danger Of Exploding, Sinking
The 32 crew members of the Iranian tanker Sanchi are still missing, however where things have taken a turn for the worse is that according to Chinese state media, the flaming ship is now in danger of either exploding or sinking. Yesterday, we Zero Hedge that in a bizarre and still unexplained incident, no less than 32 sailors were missing after an Iranian oil tanker sailing to South Korea collided with a cargo ship off the east coast of China and caught fire on Saturday evening. The Sanchi collided with the Chinese cargo vessel CF Crystal about 160 nautical miles off the coast of Shanghai on Saturday, with China’s Ministry of Transport reporting that search and rescue operations were under way, and that oil had spilled on the water. Read Full Article Here: https://www.zerohedge.com/index.p...