Category Archives: Offshore

Photo BPs Deepwater Horizon drill rig exploding in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Credit Gerald Herbert/Associated Press

Seven years ago, a BP oil well blew out off Louisiana, causing the Deepwater Horizon drill rig to explode, killing 11 workers and releasing several million barrels of toxic crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

As co-chairmen of the bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, we investigated the causes of the disaster and examined the offshore drilling industry to identify ways to reduce the risks it poses to workers, the public and the environment. Although Congress has refused to enact any of the commissions safety recommendations, the Department of the Interior adopted many of them after extensive input from industry, government and the public.

President Trumps April 28 executive order on offshore energy threatens to abolish these safety improvements and, as he put it, start the process of opening offshore areas to energy exploration. He took a further step last week to expand oil and gas extraction in the environmentally sensitive outer continental shelf. The commission members are unanimous in their view that the actions proposed in the presidents executive order are unwise.

As Americans flock to the nations beaches this summer, it is important to understand what Mr. Trumps recent moves portend. Specifically, his executive order calls for the reconsideration of a critical safeguard that is the most important action the government has taken to reduce offshore drilling hazards. This safeguard, the well control rule, tightened controls on blowout preventers designed to stop explosions in undersea oil and gas wells. The rule was based in part on lessons the commission learned about the root cause of the BP disaster.

Had this common-sense rule been in place on April 20, 2010, that calamity might well have been averted. Weakening or rescinding this rule would increase the risks of offshore operations, put workers in harms way and imperil marine waters and coastlines.

Mr. Trumps order also directed the Interior Department to review current rules on offshore drilling. Opening more areas to exploration, as the Trump administration moved to do last week, could threaten the fragile Arctic Ocean off Alaska as well as environmentally sensitive reaches of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. A spill in any of those waters could threaten multibillion-dollar regional economies that depend on clean oceans and coastlines.

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Trump's Risky Offshore Oil Strategy - New York Times

Simple tweaks to oilfield practice could provide the offshore industry with a more sustainable solution to environmental and commercial threats posed by harmful bacteria in subsea oil deposits, according to a University of Calgary researcher currently a visiting professor at Newcastle University in the U.K.

And study of heat-loving, or thermophilic, bacteria on the cold seafloor could help in offshore exploration, a theory soon to be tested of Canadas Atlantic coast.

The presence of thermophilic bacteria could be a tell-tale sign of the presence of oil reservoirs below. If so, mapping and tracking the distribution of such bacteria, which might have seeped out of the reservoirs, could be a valuable, environmentally less invasive tool for oil companies to use when seeking new reservesas well as helping to reduce the risk of unsuccessful drilling.

Our overall aim is to identify ways of making oil recovery more environmentally friendly. If we end up continuing to rely on fossil fuels for a few more years or decades then the imperative must be to meet our energy needs efficiently and with minimum impact on the environment, research lead Casey Hubert, an associate professor of biological sciences and Campus Alberta Innovates Program (CAIP) chair in geomicrobiology at the University of Calgary, said in a statement.

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Research funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and led by Newcastle University is investigating various ways to tackle the problems linked to sulphate-reducing bacteria in offshore oil deposits.

Preventing souring

First evolving billions of years ago, sulphate-reducing bacteria thrive in oxygen-free, watery environments. With the ability to lie dormant for very long periods, sulphate-reducing bacteria breathe sulphates but exhale toxic, corrosive hydrogen sulphide (H2S) when they are activated.

The resulting reservoir souring increases the oils sulphur content and reduces its market value. Hydrogen sulphide is also highly toxic, posing a potentially deadly hazard to workers on offshore platforms, while its corrosiveness can damage pipelines and rigs, leading to oil leaks and spills.

Working with a range of private sector, public sector and academic partners from the U.K. and elsewhere, the Newcastle-led team is investigating a number of easy-to-implement, cost-cutting measures, such as adjusting the water temperature used during oil production, the university said in a statement.

As part of its work to understand how sulphate-reducing bacteria become activated in oil reservoirs, the team is investigating the widespread practice of pumping seawater into an oil reservoir to reduce temperatures and make extraction easier, but which poses problems from a reservoir souring perspective.

Seawater is rich in sulphates, which sulphate-reducing bacteria use for their metabolism, said Hubert. Our results suggest that warming the injected seawater, so that the temperatures in a hot reservoir drop down to say 70 degrees Celsius rather than 50 degrees Celsius, could prevent sulphate-reducing bacteria activity without significantly affecting the oil extraction process.

Industry has shown interest with additional funding secured from large supermajors in the oil and gas sector.

Bacterial markers

One method currently used to mitigate the impact of sulphate-reducing bacteria in oil reservoirs is to inject nitrates to stimulate the growth of another type of bacteria that out-compete sulphate-reducing bacteria for nutrients. The Newcastle-led team also see major potential here to improve current practice and make it greener.

Were working on ways to predict more accurately the nitrate dose that will be needed in any particular context, taking precise local conditions into account, said Hubert.

Adjusting the nitrate dose offers ways to better manage corrosion risks associated with reservoir souring and in some cases could cut costs if lower doses could be used. Our aim is to work with industry so that the nitrate souring control technique is understood thoroughly and sees widespread use.

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U of C researcher making offshore oil extraction greener, cheaper - JWN

The newly-introduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime has thrown the potters of Kumartuli, who craft the famed Durga idols, into a tizzy.

With two-and-a-half months to go for Durga Puja the potters are at a loss over the offshore delivery of fibre-based idols.

To countries like the US, some in Europe, we deliver fibre images. We tie up with transport agencies who ferry these idols via cargo ship. But after GST, there is an increase in service tax (18 per cent) and consequently the extra delivery charges will be forwarded to the customer offshore. This has created confusion in terms of logistics.

The idol delivery is usually in full swing at this time of the year, but this time round, it is slow till now, Babu Pal, spokesperson for the potters, told IANS.

He said around 60 fibre idols had been readied this year but only a few were delivered.

The rest are awaiting transport. Once the customers abroad are made aware of the hike, we hope, they will agree with the required payment, added Pal.

As for domestic demand of idols, Pal said there would be an impact on the orders placed by other states.

For the idols that will be transported to states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, there will be an increase in the service tax and so the overall budget will increase. As for the demand in West Bengal, we think there will be no such effect, Pal added.

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GST hits Bengal's Kumartuli potters, offshore delivery of Durga idols affected - Hindustan Times

Bluestream Offshore has signed a five year contract, plus two-year extension with ONEgas for subsea structural inspection service in the North Sea.

The contract covers 69 of ONEgass offshore platforms and subsea completions across the North Sea.

Aedrian Wickers, who is responsible for Business Development at Bluestream said: We are proud that ONEgas awarded Bluestream Offshore this subsea inspection contract for the ONEGas installations.

This is the biggest contract in the Bluestream history and we, together with our partner Vroon, look forward to cooperating closely with our client to make this project a success.

According to the company the work began immediately after the contract was signed in May this year.

This year, Bluestream will use the DP2 vessel VOS Sugar and the Compact Work Class Seaeye Cougar XT ROV to perform the inspections.

Each yearly campaign will last around 45 days and will be executed by a team of 20 people both ons hore and offshore.

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Bluestream Offshore wins subsea inspection contract - Energy Voice

7/4/2017

NEW DELHI -- ONGC Videsh has signed definitive binding agreements with Tullow Namibia Limited (Tullow), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tullow Oil plc, acquiring 30% participating interest in Namibia Petroleum Exploration License 0037 for Blocks 2112A, 2012B and 2113B and related agreements (license) out of Tullows existing participating interest of 65% in the license.

Pancontinental Namibia (Pty) Limited with 30% Participating interest and Paragon Oil and Gas (Pty) Limited with 5% participating interest are other partners in the license. Tullow is the operator of the license and shall continue to remain operator after acquisition by ONGC Videsh. The acquisition is subject to satisfaction of customary conditions precedents including approvals of Namibian regulatory authorities and joint venture partners.

The completion of the present transaction would mark ONGC Videsh entry in Namibian offshore and is consistent with its strategic objective of adding high impact exploration and production assets to its existing E&P portfolio.

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ONGC Videsh enters offshore Namibia with Tullow agreement - WorldOil (subscription)

Poland, a country seeking to decrease its dependence on Russian gas, yesterday (3 July) said the start of production of gas and crude oil from an offshore field near Norway, in which the Polish company PGNiG has a stake, was very good news.

At 17.02 CET on 30 June, Norways Statoil announced the start of production on the Gina Krog oil and gas field in the North Sea.

Norwegian energy company Statoil and its partners have invested a total of some NOK 31 billion (3.2bn) in the development of the Gina Krog field. More than 600 people have been working on the site since last August, preparing the platform for production.

Discovered in 1974, Gina Krog was initially considered a small gas accumulation. It was only in 2007 that it also turned out to be rich in large quantities of crude oil. PGNiG Upstream Norway acquired an 8% share in the field in 2014. The licence operator is Statoil Petroleum AS, with a 58.7% interest. The other consortium members are: Total E&P Norge AS (15%), KUFPEC Norway AS (15%) and Aker BP ASA (3.3%).

We are proud to have delivered Gina Krog with a good HSE record and in line with the cost estimate in the plan for development and operation, says Margareth vrum, Statoils executive vice president for Technology, Projects and Drilling, thanking suppliers and partners for their good collaboration in the project.

PGNiG hailed the launch of production from Gina Krog as very good news not only for the company, but for the entire Polish gas industry.

Piotr Woniak, President of the Management Board of PGNiG S.A., said that the company assumes that starting from 2022 it will be able to supply approximately 2.5bn cubic metres (bcm) gas produced to Poland, through a new gas link.

The annual consumption of natural gas in Poland, according to the CIA World Factbook, reached 14 bcm in 2011.

By 2022 the Norwegian, Danish and Polish transmission system operators will construct a gas pipeline system to secure direct gas imports from Norway to Poland.

PGNiG said that the groups strategy for 20172022 is to expand its upstream business outside of Poland. Currently, PGNiG is involved in 18 licences on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The Group holds interests in five crude oil and gas fields (Skarv, Vilje, Morvin, Vale and Gina Krog.

The Groups exploration work is being carried out under nine licences; on two of the licences PGNiG acts as the operator. The Company is planning to take part in upcoming licensing rounds.

To diversify from Russian gas exports, Poland had, in the recent past, placed its hopes in the development of shale gas. This attracted global energy majors, including Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total, but one by one they pulled back after disappointing results and a slump in oil prices.

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Poland banks on Norwegian offshore gas and oil field - EURACTIV

Saipem will construct jackets for platforms in the Middle East Gulf

Saipem has been awarded offshore service contracts in the Middle East and West Africa with a total value of US$500 million.

The biggest portion of this combined value is for construction and installation of jackets and pipelines in Saudi Arabia. The scope of this Epic contract is for the engineering, procurement, installation and construction of 19 jackets for platforms in the Middle East Gulf.

The facilities will be installed for Saudi Aramcos redevelopment of giant offshore oil and gas fields Marjan, Zuluf, Berri, Hasbah and the worlds biggest, Safaniya. Another aspect of this massive contract is the installation of pipelines between production facilities within these fields.

In reaction to the contract, Saipem chief executive Stefano Cao commented: We are further reinforcing our presence in a highly strategic area such as the Middle East.

The contract renewal in West Africa will involve Saipem providing management and maintenance services on the Gimboa floating production storage and offloading vessel offshore Angola. For another three years, Saipem will also provide personnel, materials and consumables on the oil production ship.

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Saipem wins US$500 million offshore contracts - OSJ Magazine

Mel Evans / AP Photo File

In this Jan. 31, 2016 file photo, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez addresses a large rally in Asbury Park, N.J. The Obama administration banned offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic. But President Trump will review the policy with the goal of achieving "American energy dominance." Environmentalists and coastal businesses oppose it.

Trump administration plans to review Obama-era policy on offshore oil and gas drilling, including areas off the coasts of New Jersey and Delaware, opened up to public comment Monday. And its likely the Department of Interior will get lots of pushback from beach communities along the Atlantic coast, including Maryland and Virginia.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says leasing more coastlines to oil and gas exploration is part of President Trumps goal for American energy dominance.

Offering more areas for energy exploration and responsible development was a cornerstone of the Presidents campaign and this action is the first step in making good on that promise for offshore oil and gas, said Zinke.

He said the new plan wouldrespect environmental and economic sensitivities.

Trump signed an executive order in April to review the5-year National Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing Program on the Outer Continental Shelf, which had been approved by the Obama administration last fall. Obama had banned drilling along the Atlantic Coast.

Under the last administration, 94% of the OCS was off-limits to responsible development, despite interest from state and local governments and industry leaders, said Acting Assistant Secretary Kate MacGregor in a statement.The Trump Administration is dedicated to energy dominance, growing the economy and giving the public a say in how our natural resources are used.

But environmental groups, chambers of commerce and elected officials of both parties have come out against offshore leasing.

In June, the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce and South Jersey Republican Congressman Frank LoBiondo held a press conference in Avalon denouncing offshore drilling along the New Jersey coast and the seismic testing that would have to precede it.

I have long warned against drilling in the Mid-Atlantic region, which would put at risk some of the nations most sensitive coastal and marine resources, said LoBiondo.There is no ambiguity of our opposition and those in Washington and within New Jersey who continue to push for these misguided and dangerous proposals should recognize the strong opposition and cease immediately.

Exploration would require the use of air guns, which could disturb fisheries in the Outer Continental Shelf, the area under control of the federal government three miles offshore. Opponents also point to BPs Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010 off the coast of Louisiana, which killed 11 people, damaged coastlines and impacted tourism, a strong economic driver along the Jersey coast.

The Sierra Clubs Jeff Tittle says New Jerseys bipartisan congressional delegation opposes offshore drilling.

It just shows that the Trump Administration is on the side of big oil and the drill baby drill, spill baby spill crowd, than they are about the people along the Eastern Seaboard.

Cindy Zipf with Clean Ocean Action agrees.

Trump is using Big Oil to wage war on the ocean, she said.

Although New Jersey Governor Chris Christie actively opposed offshore drilling under the Obama Administration, hes been silent on the issue since Trumps executive order.

Delaware Governor John Carney, a Democrat, opposes the move.

To risk our coastal economy and natural resources on offshore drilling for oil and gas would also imperil our states environmental and economic health, Carney said.

With oil prices so low, drillers would not be rushing out to sea immediately, but would likely secure leases for future production. The public has 45 days to comment and public hearings will follow. The process of coming up with a new 5-year plan is expected to take two to three years.

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Does offshore drilling have a future off the Jersey Coast? - StateImpact Pennsylvania

Korean yard emerges from receivership early due to improved finances as new orders come in.

Korea's STX Offshore & Shipbuilding has emerged from court receivership early due to its better financial health.

Aju News reported that the yard will resume normal operations after it was placed into a rehabilitation scheme last year.

The bankruptcy court cited its improved financial status.

It added that the company had made partial early repayments of reorganisation claims due within the next year, according to the Asiasis website.

It would be better to provide a chance to compete as a

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STX Offshore & Shipbuilding exits court restructuring - TradeWinds (subscription)

German policymakers have outlawed negative bids in next years 1.6GW offshore wind tender after the bulk of capacity in the countrys first auction in April was won by zero subsidy bids.

The amendment to the Wind Energy at Sea Acthas been made to prevent a downward spiral into negative prices.

The support mechanism would not have allowed negative subsidies, but it was thought that developers could have tried to offer a negative bid to win the auctions.

The Bundestag, Germanys lower house of parliament, also lowered the price cap for offshore bids to 100 per megawatt hour (MWh) from 120 per MWh.

It also ruled that bidders in the first two onshore auctions next year will need to have a licence under Germanys noise emissions legislation.

Wind energy industry federation BWE welcomed the moveafter 65 out of the 70 successful projectsin the first onshore auction earlier this year were community-driven or co-operative wind projects that did not need a licence.

The German parliament also rubber-stamped reform of the grid fee structure.

Grid fees will gradually be standardised across Germany from 2019 until 2023 in order to avoid bigger payments in regions with a high share of renewables.

A payment to generators for so-called avoided grid fees will be frozen for existing controllable plants and abolished for new varible generation, such as solar and wind.

Power generators that supply electricity at a local or regional level have received the avoided grid fees payment to help cover costs for the transportation of power over larger distances.

If you want the energy transition, you need a speedy grid expansion. Having a fair distribution of cost on all shoulders is decisive for the acceptance of this project, said German economics and energy minister Brigitte Zypries.

Therefore we diminish regional differences in grid fees in the future and gradually standardise grid fees for transmission grids, she said.

German states in the north-east with a much higher density of wind farms than regions in the south have in the past complained that local consumers had to pay disproportionately higher grid fees.

Image: EWE

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Berlin amends offshore rules - reNews