Prices of EUROPE GAS rise on demand and tight supply
The Dutch and British wholesale prices of gas extended their previous session's gains Tuesday. This was due to the rising demand for gas from cooler weather, the ongoing Norwegian supply restrictions, and fears that a hurricane could impact the U.S. liquefied gas supply. LSEG data shows that the benchmark front-month contract for the Dutch TTF hub rose by 0.60 euro to 37.75 euros per Megawatt Hour, or 12.19/mmBtu by 0802 GMT. On the British market, the day-ahead contracts gained 1,50 pence each to 90.50 cents per therm.
Freight Fuel Market Moves Back Towards Balance: Kemp
The market for freight fuels is moving close to balance, after tightening significantly in 2017 and the first quarter of 2018, contributing to the recent stabilisation in crude oil prices.OECD stocks of middle distillate fuels, including road diesel, marine gasoil and jet fuel, totalled 513 million barrels at the end of June, according to the International Energy Agency (“Oil Market Report”, August 2018).Stocks have fallen…
Subtropical Storm Alberto's Landfall Expected Early Next Week
U.S. Gulf of Mexico producers and refiners are monitoring Subtropical storm Alberto, which is expected to make landfall between east Louisiana and the Florida panhandle early next week, the companies said on Friday. The National Weather Service on Friday predicted the storm would bring heavy rain to the central Gulf Coast region and the southeastern United States later this weekend and continue into early next week. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP)…
US Military Seeks Rules for Drilling in Gulf of Mexico
An expansion of oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico would interfere with U.S. military testing unless the Pentagon and another agency develop rules to govern the work, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a report this week.The Defense Department concluded in a report it sent on Wednesday to U.S. lawmakers that drilling east of the Military Mission Line in the Gulf of Mexico, a demarcation more than 200 miles (320 km) west of Florida…
BSEE Inspects New Shell Appomattox Platform
As Shell finishes construction on its Appomattox Semi-Submersible Platform hull, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement engineers and inspectors signed off on several topsides components during a pre-production inspection March 27, 2018. Royal Dutch Shell plc, 79 percent owner and its partner, Nexen Petroleum Offshore U.S. A. Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CNOOC ltd, will operate the platform about 80 miles off Louisiana’s coast in the Mississippi Canyon.
U.S. Steel Tariff Could Impact Shell GoM Decisions
A potential tariff on U.S. steel imports could affect Royal Dutch Shell's plans to go ahead with a major oil field development in the Gulf of Mexico, a company executive said on Wednesday. Wael Sawan, who heads Shell's deepwater operations, said President Donald Trump's intention to slap up to 25 percent tariffs on imported steel and aluminium could materially impact the value of the Vito development off the Louisiana coast, one of a handful of projects Shell is planning to greenlight this year. U.S.
Exxon Shuts Two Subsea Production Systems Ahead of TS Nate
Exxon Mobil Corp said on Friday it has stopped oil production at its Julia and Hadrian South subsea production systems in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico ahead of Tropical Storm Nate. The company also said it has finalized transport plans to pull staff from its Mobile Bay platform in the Gulf. On Thursday the company pulled all staff from its Lena platform in the Gulf. The storm is expected to strengthen into a hurricane by the Saturday just before it makes landfall on the Louisiana coast sometime early Sunday.
Exxon Evacuating Staff from GoM Platform Ahead of Nate
Exxon Mobil Corp said on Thursday it is evacuating all staff from its Lena platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico ahead of Tropical Storm Nate. The storm is expected to strengthen into a hurricane by the weekend and move up the center of the Gulf as it makes landfall on the Louisiana coast sometime early Sunday. The Lena platform is (currently) located about 110 miles (177 km) southeast of New Orleans. Reporting by Ernest Scheyder
BP Doubles Down on Deepwater
About 300 BP workers commute 150 miles here by helicopter, from the Louisiana coast to a deep-sea drilling platform that can produce more oil in a day than a West Texas rig can pump in a year. On the deck of Thunder Horse, they work two-week shifts, drink seawater from a desalination plant, and eat ribs and chicken ferried in by boat. On the ocean floor, robots provide remote eyes and arms as drills extract up to 265,000 barrels per day. "There's a whole city below us," said Jim Pearl, Marine Team Leader on the platform.
Full Tanks & Tankers: A Stubborn Oil Glut Despite OPEC Cuts
After the first OPEC oil production cut in eight years took effect in January, oil traders from Houston to Singapore started emptying millions of barrels of crude from storage tanks. Investors hailed the drawdowns as the beginning of the end of a two-year supply glut - raising hopes for steadily rising per-barrel prices. It hasn't worked out that way. Now, many of those same storage tanks are filling back up or draining more slowly than investors and oil firms had expected…
Shell Approves New Gulf of Mexico Project
Royal Dutch Shell has given the go-ahead to develop its Kaikias deepwater field in the Gulf of Mexico, the first such project the oil and gas company has approved in 18 months. Oil companies around the world are emerging from one of the longest downturns in recent decades amid warnings that the drop in investment in recent years may lead to a supply deficit by the end of the decade. Shell said the Kaikias oil and gas project…
Enbridge, Spectra Energy to Settle Charges Merger Would Harm Competition
Energy infrastructure firms Enbridge Inc and Spectra Energy Corp have agreed to settle charges their merger would hurt competition in the market for gas pipeline transportation in three areas off the Louisiana coast, the Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday. The FTC said the firms agreed to resolve the charges by adopting a consent decree that would require Enbridge to notify the panel before acquiring an ownership interest in any natural gas pipeline operating in the Grand Canyon…
Shell Shuts Wells to Brutus Platform after GoM Spill
A 2,100-barrel oil spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico forced Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday to shut in all wells that flow to its Brutus platform, federal regulators said. The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said a 2 mile by 13 mile (about 3 km by 21 km) sheen was visible in the sea about 97 miles off the Louisiana coast. The sheen is near Shell's Glider Field, a group of four subsea wells whose production flows through a subsea manifold to the Brutus platform…
BP Executive Acquitted of Lying about Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
A U.S. federal jury acquitted a former BP Plc executive on Friday of lying about how much oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in April 2010, according to lawyers on both sides of the case. David Rainey, BP's former vice president of exploration in the Gulf, faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison had he been found guilty of willfully making a fraudulent statement to federal law enforcement agents.
Shell Makes 3rd Major Discovery in Norphlet Play
Royal Dutch Shell Plc said on Tuesday it had found roughly 100 million barrels of oil equivalent (boed) in the Gulf of Mexico's Norphlet formation, its third discovery there. The company, the gulf's largest operator, found the oil near its Rydberg well, roughly 75 miles off the Louisiana coast. The company drilled the well about 26,300 feet, including about 7,400 feet of water, and found oil reserves about 400 feet deep. Shell is the project's primary operator, and partners with Ecopetrol SA and CNOOC Ltd's Nexen.
Armed with New Technology, Oil Drillers Revisit Gulf of Mexico
Advances in drilling technology are reviving the prospects of oil companies in shallow parts of the Gulf of Mexico, helping to squeeze more from older fields while the U.S. shale bonanza lures others onshore. Apache Corp and a handful of smaller independent companies are using seismic surveying and horizontal drilling - techniques perfected during the onshore fracking boom - to tap mature fields and find hidden reserves on the shelf.
Jury Weighing Question of Whether BP Exec Lied About 2010 Oil Spill
A U.S. federal jury has begun its deliberations on whether a former BP Plc executive lied about how much oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in April 2010. Prosecutors and a lawyer for defendant David Rainey made their closing arguments to the jury on Friday morning in a case brought by the government over statements Rainey made to agents from the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nearly a year after the spill.
PMI Energy Services Opens Shorebase in Louisiana
PMI Energy Services, a Superior Energy Services company, has opened a shorebase in Morgan City, Louisiana, focused on supporting shelf, coastal and inland waters production and drilling activities. PMI’s shorebase is centrally located on the Louisiana coast and provides better protection from weather events than ports located directly on the Louisiana coastline. It maintains a close proximity to established fuel docks, mud docks…
Chevron Finds Oil in Deepwater US Gulf of Mexico
Chevron Corporation today announced a new oil discovery at the Guadalupe prospect in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The Keathley Canyon Block 10 Well No. 1 encountered significant oil pay in the Lower Tertiary Wilcox Sands, Chevron said. The well is located approximately 180 miles off the Louisiana coast in 3,992 feet of water and was drilled to a depth of 30,173 feet. "The discovery further demonstrates Chevron's exploration capabilities…
Spain's Repsol Makes Oil Find in Gulf of Mexico
Spanish oil company Repsol said on Monday it had made a "significant" discovery of high quality oil in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. "The well found more than 150 metres of net oil pay within a column of over 400 metres," the company said in statement. The well, in which Repsol has 60 percent stake and Colombia's Ecopetrol holds the remaining 40 percent, is located 352 kilometres offshore from the Louisiana coast in ultra-deep waters, the Spanish company said. (Reporting by Paul Day; Editing by Tomas Cobos)
