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Maersk Drilling sees need for new rig fleets

Danish company Maersk Drilling said it’s trying to breathe new life into an industry working with a fleet of offshore rigs in need of replacement. Maersk Drilling Managing Director in Singapore Jan Holm said Thursday his company has set a goal of having 30 rigs in its fleet. "When the time is right," he told energy news website Rigzone, Maersk will reach deeper into the ultra-deep water and ultra-harsh drilling environments with new rig technologies. Maersk this week said it was deploying its Maersk Intrepid rig to work in the harsh environment of the Martin Linge field in the North Sea. It’s the first in a series of four meant to work in ultra-harsh environments. Holm said a large share of the global drilling rig fleet is more than 30 years old and will need to be replaced. That means the company’s new drillships […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Exxon Is Behind The Landmark Climate Report You Didn’t Hear About

Climate change is already impacting all continents. But it isn’t yet impacting all companies. The latest installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report released on Monday confirmed the former. A report released by Exxon Mobil the same day about how greenhouse gas emissions and climate change factor into its business model found that climate change, and specifically global climate policies, are “highly unlikely” to stop it from selling fossil fuels for decades to come. Exxon is the first major oil and gas producer to publish a Carbon Asset Risk report to address investor concerns over how market forces and environmental regulations might impact the production of some of its reserves. The company agreed to publish the report several weeks ago after Arjuna Capital, a sustainable wealth management platform, and As You Sow, a non-profit promoting environmental corporate responsibility, agreed to drop a shareholder resolution on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pa. Shale Impact Fees Reach Record Levels in 2013

As Pennsylvania shale production continues to soar, the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) announced Friday that impact fee revenue for 2013 hit record levels. With a total of 6,489 unconventional wells under development or in production as of December 31, 2013, shale producers contributed a total of $224.5 million in impact fees for the calendar year. This brings total impact fee revenue to more than $630 million over the past three years, in addition to the more than $2.1 billion in state tax revenue generated by the industry since 2008.    Marcellus Shale Coalition president Dave Spigelmyer issued this statement following the release of this data:   “This new stream of revenue is having a positive and real impact in communities with shale development as well as those without active Marcellus production. Whether these funds are invested in bridge and road projects, the purchase of new firefighting equipment, key environmental programs, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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USCG: ‘Chain of errors’ led to Shell drilling unit running aground

A US Coast Guard (USCG) investigation has found that a “chain of errors” led to the Royal Dutch Shell PLC conical drilling unit, the Kulluk, running aground on Sitkalidak Island, Alas., in December 2012 ( OGJ Online, Jan. 2, 2013 ). The primary cause was attempting a winter voyage in the Arctic with ineffective risk assessment and management, according to USCG’s report, which was released Apr. 2. The Kulluk broke free while being towed in heavy seas by Edison Chouest Offshore’s vessel, the Aiviq. There was no oil spill associated with the incident. The drilling unit was later salvaged and towed to an Asian dry dock for inspection and repairs. ( OGJ Online, Feb. 13, 2013 ). Complex series of events USCG’s investigation report describes a “complex series of events” that included inclement weather, seas of 20 ft, an inadequate tow plan, the Kulluk’s conical hull (see figure, OGJ, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Battle over EPA probes into fracking/pollution link rages on

Energy industry representatives and state officials on Friday ripped into a call by eight Democratic members of Congress for the US Environmental Protection Agency to reopen its investigation into incidents of water contamination in three states. In a Tuesday letter to EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, the eight lawmakers called for new EPA probes into water pollution cases in Pavillion, Wyoming; Dimock, Pennsylvania; and Parker County, Texas, three areas in which the EPA had investigated whether gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing activities had impacted groundwater. In each case the EPA had concluded its investigation without proving a link between fracking and water contamination. Article continues below… Request a free trial of: Gas Daily Gas Daily offers the most detailed coverage of natural gas prices at interstate and intrastate pipeline and pooling points in major U.S. markets. Gas Daily keeps you informed about complex state and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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How to Make Fracking Safer

New York state has a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. So do Los Angeles, Quebec and France. Polls show rising opposition to this controversial oil field technique, which cracks open rocks to free oil and natural gas, and some critics want it banned unless it can be proven safe. Meanwhile, U.S. energy companies are drilling and fracking about 100 wells every day across much of the country. Whether you think that it is an economic godsend or fear that it is an environmental disaster, whether you spell it fracking or fraccing (as the energy industry prefers), that is a lot of holes in the ground. Fracking is a fairly straightforward process. You drill a well straight down for a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil imports from top three suppliers up for U.S.

An industry brief Friday from the U.S. Energy Information Administration finds U.S. oil imports are down, though imports from top foreign suppliers increased. EIA finds U.S. net crude oil imports declined last year to 7.6 million barrels per day. That’s 10.2 percent fewer imports than the previous year and the lowest level since 1996. EIA said in a briefing Friday crude oil imports from Canada, Mexico and Saudi Arabia — the three top foreign oil suppliers to the U.S. market — were at their highest in since at least 1973. "These three countries provided almost three out of every five barrels of oil imported into the U.S. market last year," EIA said. EIA said Canada, Mexico and Saudi Arabia produce a medium to heavy grade of crude oil that’s suitable for the U.S. refinery sector, in contrast to the lighter grade from in U.S. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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To Export U.S. Oil or Not Boils Down to Industry Profit

When Big Oil began preparing last year to challenge the decades-old rules against exporting U.S. crude, the debate seemed fanciful. Then Russia took over Crimea and the idea of using American energy — oil as well as natural gas — to reshape global affairs became a Washington pet project. Here’s how the battle lines are drawn: Oil producers want to chase higher prices overseas. Refiners want to keep cheaper domestic supplies. Politicians want to balance those interests with concerns that gasoline prices would rise. Everyone invokes the goal of energy independence. Putting the posturing aside, it’s useful to imagine what actually happens to supply, demand and prices in an oil market without the export restrictions that date to the 1970s Arab oil embargo. That’s what JBC Energy GmbH, a Vienna-based research company, offered in a report this week. The upshot? Producers win, refiners lose, global prices converge — and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ships Colliding in Houston Expose Risks in Oil Channel

By the time the ships’ pilots realized they were on a crash course, it was too late. The fog was just beginning to lift on the Houston Ship Channel midday March 22 as a bulk carrier and a fuel barge found themselves three-quarters of a mile apart. For five minutes, they exchanged radio messages as they tried slowing down, speeding up and reversing while nearing a collision that closed one of the world’s busiest waterways for three days, according to U.S. Coast Guard recordings and radar data obtained by Bloomberg under the Freedom of Information Act. “I can put it down to a dead slow, but that still ain’t gonna stop,” the freighter’s pilot said, according to the recordings. The crash caused 4,000 barrels of fuel oil to spill and disrupted about $1.5 billion in commerce in the U.S.’s largest export gateway. As authorities work to determine the cause […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Steyer, NRG's Crane share visions for energy industry's future

Two of the energy industry’s most visible agents of change delivered messages here yesterday on policies and business models they believe are needed to reshape how energy is generated and how it’s used. Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer and NRG Inc.’s David Crane delivered separate keynote speeches as part of the Clean Energy Challenge, a competition among early-stage companies and student teams from around the Midwest who were pitching business models for a share of $500,000 in prizes. Crane, the outspoken CEO of the nation’s largest independent power generator, covered a broad range of topics during a lunchtime question-and-answer session. And many of his answers revolved a central theme — his belief that today’s electric power business won’t be recognizable in five, 10 or 20 years, and that distributed generation will gradually supplant the current centralized power system. "The fact that distributed […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple