Republican-led states file suit against Biden administration for offshore drilling ban
A group of Republican states filed a suit on Friday to challenge a ban on offshore oil and natural gas development announced earlier this month by the outgoing Democratic U.S. president Joe Biden. According to a court document, the lawsuit is seeking a reversal Biden's prohibition with declaratory and judicial relief. The filing argues that Biden does not have the authority or power to impose a such a restriction and that this authority belongs to the U.S. Congress. Biden's announcement on January 6 was largely symbolic as it won't impact areas where oil-and-gas development is already underway.
Trump announces that he will immediately revoke the offshore drilling ban imposed by Biden
Donald Trump, the U.S. president-elect, said Tuesday that he would move quickly to lift a ban on offshore oil and natural gas drilling announced by Joe Biden, the outgoing Democratic president. "Banning off-shore drilling will not hold. Trump announced at a press conference that he would reverse the ban immediately. The Republican Trump will take office on January 20, but it may be difficult to reverse Biden’s order that 625 million acres (253.3 million hectares of ocean) would not be used for new offshore oil and natural gas development.
Biden bans offshore oil and gas drilling before Trump's term
The U.S. president Joe Biden has announced that he will ban all new offshore oil and natural gas development along the majority of U.S. coasts. This is a decision which President-elect Donald Trump who has pledged to increase domestic energy production may find hard to reverse. Biden, according to the White House on Monday, will exercise his authority under 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act in order to protect federal waters along the East and Western coasts of the United States as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Biden bans offshore oil and gas drilling before Trump's term
The U.S. president Joe Biden has announced that he will ban all new offshore oil and natural gas development along the majority of U.S. coasts. This is a decision which President-elect Donald Trump who has pledged to increase domestic energy production may find hard to reverse. Biden, according to the White House on Monday, will exercise his authority under 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act in order to protect federal waters along the East and Western coasts of the United States as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Bloomberg News: Biden will ban new oil drilling in vast areas of US Atlantic and Pacific waters
Bloomberg News reported that President Joe Biden will ban any new offshore oil and natural gas development on 625 million acres of U.S. coast territory (250 million hectares), effective immediately. According to the report, which cited unidentified sources familiar with the issue, the ban will be announced on Monday and prevent the sale of drilling licenses in certain areas of the Atlantic, Pacific and eastern Gulf of Mexico oceans. The report stated that Biden leaves the door open to new leasing of oil and gas in the western and central areas of the Gulf of Mexico.
Rystad reports that Argentina's Vaca muerta region has achieved record oil production during the third quarter.
Rystad, a consultancy, said that Argentina's Vaca Muerta shale formed produced a record 400,000 barges of oil per day (bpd), in the third quarter. This figure represents a 35% increase in production year-over-year, thanks to improvements in productivity and evacuation capability. The formation is on track to reach its goal of 1,000,000 bpd, by 2030. YPF, the state-owned oil company of Argentina, led the production in the area with 55% Vaca Muerta’s oil output during the third quarter. This contributed to the strong results for the company in its third quarter.
Equinor, Aker BP, Vaar face rising project costs, Norway budget shows
The Norwegian government announced on Monday that Aker BP, Equinor and Vaar Energi had raised their estimates of costs for major oil and natural gas development projects in the Norwegian continental shelf. The government's fiscal budget documents revealed that the cost of Equinor Johan Castberg is expected to rise from 80.3 billion crowns, which was estimated a year ago. Aker BP’s Yggdrasil will likely cost 134.4 billion crowns compared to 120.2 billion crowns a year ago, and Vaar’s Balder Future is expected at 52.2 billion crowns compared to 44.5 billion crowns.
Sources: TotalEnergies will sign a $10 billion deal for Suriname's offshore project
Four sources familiar with the project said that TotalEnergies, a French oil company, will sign the final investment decision on Tuesday, for the first offshore oil and natural gas development of Suriname. The development is expected to cost more than $10 billion. Gran Morgu, located in Block 58 140 km off of the coast of South America, has estimated recoverable reserves of 700 million barrels. This is comparable to ExxonMobil’s 11 billion barrel discovery in the neighbouring oil-rich Guyana. Annand Jagesar told reporters last week that the FID will be implemented in the first quarter of 2024.
COOEC-Fluor Completes Module Fabrication
Texas-based multinational engineering and construction firm Fluor Corporation announced that its joint venture COOEC-Fluor Heavy Industries fabrication yard has completed the central and wellhead platforms for CNOOC’s Dongfang 13-2 Gas Fields Development Project.The central platform recently departed the COOEC-Fluor yard in Zhuhai, China, and follows the successful loadout of the wellhead platform in August 2018. The modules will make up part of a new offshore oil and gas production platform in the western South China Sea…
Australia's Best Option is LNG Imports
Australia has painted itself into a corner with its natural gas industry and faces the stark reality that there are no easy choices to alleviate the dual problem of a looming supply crunch and the associated higher prices.Australia is far from the first country to find itself with an energy issue, but it is unusual insofar as the country is about to become the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), and still it can't get its policy settings right to ensure domestic supplies.It sounds counter-intuitive and somewhat bizarre…
McDermott Winds FEED for Scarborough FPU
McDermott International, Inc. on Tuesday announced it has signed a contract with Woodside Energy Ltd. to undertake a front-end engineering and design (FEED) activities for a floating production unit (FPU) for the Scarborough field natural gas development in Western Australia.McDermott’s center of excellence in The Hague, Netherlands, will lead the study and early engineering. Upon completion, the contract includes the option to progress to an engineering, procurement, construction…
ADNOC, Inpex in LNG Bunkering Pact
ADNOC Logistics & Services (ADNOC L&S), a wholly-owned subsidiary of UAE's ADNOC, has signed an agreement with Japan's Inpex Corp to collaborate on LNG bunkering activities.Under the agreement, ADNOC L&S and Inpex will explore opportunities for LNG bunkering in the UAE as well as the potential to jointly expand LNG bunkering activities to cover other regions, including Southeast Asia, said a press release from the Abu Dhabi-based integrated shipping and logistics company.The use of…
Goldsboro LNG Project Eligible for $1.5bln German Loan
Pieridae Energy announced that its proposed financing of upstream activities within the Goldboro LNG project has received a written confirmation of eligibility in principle for up to US $1.5 billion of untied loan guarantee by the German federal government under its UFK program (Bundesgarantien für ungebundene Finanzkredite).According to the press release, this confirmation not only satisfies a critical condition leading to the completion of Pieridae’s acquisition of Ikkuma as contemplated by the arrangement agreement entered into between the Company and Ikkuma on August 23…
Smarter Energy Policy Will Broaden Offshore Recovery
For the past few years, depressed commodity prices, stricter regulatory requirements and competition from onshore development at home and from other countries offering attractive offshore lease and royalty terms have had severe impacts on new exploration in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Thankfully, the tide appears to finally be turning.In August, Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 251 drew increased competition for offerings and $178 million in high bids, $53 million more than previous sale held in March.
Genoil to Develop Russia's Velikoye Oil Field
Genoil has signed an agreement to attract finances and evaluate technologies to develop oil and gas fields in the Astrakhan Region of Russia. This agreement is with the license holder of this property; JSC Petroleumgas Company commonly known as "AFB". AFB's licenses encompass 700 square kilometers where the Velikoye oil field was discovered. To date, AFB has conducted geological exploration of the Velikoye oil field that has included high-resolution 2D seismic, vertical seismic profile as well as offset vertical seismic profiling, interpretation of all archived seismic data etc.
Recent Drilling has Lowered Costs, Increased Performance
The profitability of oil and natural gas development activity depends both on the prices realized by producers and the cost and productivity of newly developed wells. Overall trends in well development costs are generally less transparent than those in price and productivity, which are readily observable in the markets or through analyses of well productivity trends such as EIA's monthly Drilling Productivity Report. To better understand the costs of upstream (or, wellhead) drilling and production activity, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) commissioned IHS Global Inc.
INPEX, MHI JV to Study Technological Challenges in Energy Sector
INPEX CORPORATION (INPEX) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) jointly announced today that they have concluded a memorandum based on an agreement to jointly study solutions for various technological challenges in the energy sector. Under the auspices of the memorandum, INPEX and MHI plan to jointly establish a working committee and address technological solutions including utilizing the Internet of Things (IoT)1 and robot technology to further optimize oil and gas production operations.
Covey Park Inks Deal for Louisiana Shale Gas Acreage
Private equity-backed Covey Park Energy LLC said on Wednesday it bought shale natural gas acreage in Louisiana for $420 million from EP Energy Corp, the latest in a slow trickle of land deals across the energy space. Covey, which is funded by Denham Capital, bought 52,933 gross acres in the Haynesville and Bossier shales. The land produced about 113 million cubic feet per day in the fourth quarter. Covey said it aims to increase that to 200 million cubic feet per day. After the deal closes in the second quarter…
The American Energy Story Obama Won't Tell the World
(Note: Kevin McCarthy is the majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. President Barack Obama is poised to repeat his history of weak-handed negotiations on the world stage when nearly 200 countries gather in Paris on Monday to consider an international response to climate change. According to the president, rejecting the Keystone XL oil pipeline and piling regulations on the fossil fuel and power industries in the United States are necessary to preserving America's credibility as a leader on the world stage.
Aker Bags Rotan Subsea Contract
Aker Solutions has been awarded a contract from Murphy Sabah Oil Co., Ltd. (Murphy) to deliver the subsea production system for the Rotan deepwater natural gas development offshore Malaysia. The delivery includes hardware for four subsea wells, a hub manifold, in-line tees, a connection system and production control system. First deliveries are scheduled for the second quarter of 2016. The contract will be booked as part of the company's third-quarter order intake. "We're very pleased to team up with Murphy on this important development…
