Thursday, November 21, 2024
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Ghana positioned as key player in global oil and gas market following policy reforms
During this year’s African Energy Week: Invest in African Energies, a Ghanaian delegation engaged in forward-looking discussions, outlining key opportunities across the country’s energy industry.
On the back of a series of policy reforms and regulatory changes, Ghana has positioned itself as a globally competitive oil and gas market. The country has put in place ambitious energy targets and strives to boost oil production while stimulating development across the natural gas value chain.
A Ghanaian delegation at this year’s African Energy Week (AEW): Invest in African Energies outlined how aggressive reforms will position the country as a regional hub. The delegation’s participation not only underscored Ghana’s vital role in Africa’s energy future but reaffirmed the country’s commitment to AEW: Invest in African Energies – Africa’s largest, pan-African energy event.
Ghana has seen robust growth across its oil and gas value chain in recent months, with ongoing projects consolidating its position as a major producer. The Tema LNG plant – situated near the capital city Accra and operated by private equity company Helios Investment Partners – is set to begin production by the end of the year. Featuring infrastructure to import, store, regasify and deliver LNG to off-takers in the Greater Accra Area, the project will have a capacity of 1.7 million tons of gas per year.
Meanwhile, the Atuabo II Gas Processing Plant – developed by Ghana Gas alongside joint venture partners – is on track for production in 2025. The project, with a capacity of 150 million standard cubic feet per day (mscf/d), comprises the development of a second processing plant at the Atuabo project. Capacity could be doubled to 300 mscf/d, producing LNG, propane, butane and pentane condensates.
These projects are just two of the many underway that aim to scale-up the country’s gas monetization and distribution. Despite efforts to maximize resources, the country still offers a wealth of opportunity for exploration companies, underscoring its future role as a regional hub. At AEW: Invest in African Energies 2024, representatives from the country’s major energy players outlined these opportunities, inviting investors to join the growing market.
Speaking at this year’s conference, Egbert Faibille Jr., CEO of Ghana’s Petroleum Commission, emphasized that the country is both a stable and highly attractive investment market. He explained that political risk is “virtually non-existent” and that major projects showcase the potential for large-scale investments. Riverson Oppong, CEO of the Association of Oil Marketing Companies, echoed these remarks, highlighting that “Ghana does not simply copy and paste policies, but is often a reference point for best practices, including the zero-flaring policy and local content initiatives.”
The country, however, is not content with being a stable investment environment, with further reforms planned to bolster the market’s attractiveness even further, protecting investments and ensuring high returns for financiers. Speaking at an Invest in Ghana Energies roundtable at AEW: Invest in African Energies 2024, Faibille Jr., said that further reforms could be on the horizon, including amendments to laws requiring companies to allocate at least 15% of every project to the state as free and carried interest. The country is also looking at a more flexible oil royalty regime to attract capital, mitigating risk for companies and enticing heightened investment.
Dr. Sheila Addo, Director for Policy Coordination at the National Petroleum Authority of Ghana added that Ghana’s regulatory philosophy focused on a flexible and market-driven approach. She said that the country’s approach is “one of deregulation. We deregulate infrastructure, price and product supply.” These efforts affirm the country’s pro-investment approach to energy development and will serve as a catalyst for energy growth. As such, Ghana’s role in future energy markets is poised to grow, further amplified by a national drive to transform the economy from within.
“Ghana has proven time and time again that it is committed to long-term and sustainable investment. The country’s dedication to market-focused policies, strong project pipeline and continuous engagement with investors through platforms such as AEW: Invest in African Energies have driven economic growth. Going forward, Ghana’s participation at the annual AEW: Invest in African Energies’ events will boost the country’s energy development even further, with the country expected to continue to play a major part in the event for years to come,” stated NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.
Source: African Energy Chamber
Thursday, November 14, 2024
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Thursday, November 7, 2024
Regis Resources sues Australian minister over blocked gold mine
https://www.mining.com/regis-resources-sues-australian-minister-over-blocked-gold-mine/
Regis Resources (ASX: RRL) has initiated legal proceedings to overturn a federal minister’s decision that halted its $1 billion McPhillamys gold and silver project in New South Wales, Australia.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek issued in August
a “Section 10” order to protect Indigenous heritage sites, which
effectively prevented Regis from constructing the mine’s tailings dam
near the headwaters of the Belubula River, the proposed site.The Western Australia-based gold miner argues the ruling contained “several issues and alleged failures,” providing grounds for their legal challenge.
Regis contends that the decision has made their project unfeasible and had hinted at potential legal action in recent statements.
“None of the extensive expert evidence produced during the years-long processes we went through to approve the McPhillamys project and respond to the Section 10 application indicated there was Aboriginal cultural heritage that could not be appropriately managed,” managing director and chief executive manager, Jim Beyer, said in the statement.
The executive emphasized that no impartial data supporting Plibersek’s cultural heritage ruling has been found to date.
“In the weeks following the Minister’s decision, it has become clear that key findings made by the Minister regarding Aboriginal cultural heritage are vigorously disputed,” Beyer added.
Following the decision, Regis wrote down A$192 million ($128m at today’s rates), nearly the entire value of the McPhillamys project.
Warnings dismissed
Beyer accused the Minister and the Department of not adequately considering the company’s warnings about the consequences of such a broad declaration.
“Since the minister has not agreed to revoke the Section 10 declaration, we are now seeking judicial review and relief from the decision,” the company said.
Regis hopes that the Federal Court will declare the Section 10 ruling legally invalid and appoint a new decision-maker to reassess the claims.
The project had faced delays since October 2020, when the Section 10 application was submitted, despite having received all other major State and Federal approvals.
If successful in their judicial review, Regis expects the Federal Court to declare the ruling legally invalid and appoint a new decision-maker to reassess all claims.
Shares in the company fell on the announcement, closing almost 5% lower to A$2.48 each in Sydney on Thursday. That leaves Regis with a market capitalization of almost A$1.9 billion ($1.3bn).
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
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Chevron to sell $6.5 billion in oil sands, shale assets to Canadian Natural Resources
(WO) - The deal relates to Chevron’s 20% interest in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project and a 70% holding in the Duvernay shale, both in the province of Alberta, according to a statement from the company on Monday. The all-cash transaction has an effective date of Sept. 1 and is expected to close during the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals.
The asset sale comes as Chevron focuses its growth plans increasingly in other parts of the world, notably the Permian basin in the U.S. and the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan, where a $48.5 billion expansion project is nearing completion.
Chevron is also in the process of acquiring Hess Corp. for $53 billion, a deal that would give it a stake in a massive offshore oil field in the South American country of Guyana, one of the world’s exploration hot-spots.
Chevron shares climbed as much as 1.3% before the start of regular trading in New York. It’s the latest big oil producer to divest a stake in Canadian oil-sands operations.
BP Plc, Shell Plc, ConocoPhillips, Equinor ASA and Devon Energy Corp. have all sold holdings in the mines and well sites of Alberta to local companies in recent years. That’s concentrated control of the oil sands in the hands of Canadian producers such as Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus and Suncor Energy Inc.
Oil sands are among the most damaging energy assets to climate change. Crude from the basin must be dug from mines or forced from wells injected with steam, making them some of the highest carbon-emitting grades of oil in the world.
Canada’s oil sands have been in production for decades, but the industry is undergoing a significant change since completing the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which opened Asian markets for the country’s crude.
Previously, the Canadian oil industry was dependent on US-bound pipelines and American refiners, resulting in deeper discounts for its crude and leaving it vulnerable to price shocks. From June to mid-September, the pipeline expansion had allowed the shipment of 28 MMbbl of crude to the country’s west coast, almost two-thirds of which headed to China, India, South Korea and Brunei.
The Duvernay shale formation is in southwest Alberta and a rich producer of condensate, light oil and gas. Chevron has been one of the largest drillers in the region. Canadian Natural Resource expects its production from the assets will average the equivalent of about 60,000 bopd in 2025, with about 179 MMcfd of natural gas and 30,000 bpd of liquids, the company said in a statement.
Canadian Natural Resources is financing the deal with a $4 billion term loan from The Bank of Nova Scotia and the Royal Bank of Canada. Canadian Natural Resources also announced it would increase its quarterly dividend by 7%.
Monday, October 7, 2024
Mexican mayor ‘decapitated by drug gangs’ six days into job
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexican-mayor-decapitated-drug-gangs-144315752.html
The mayor of a Mexican city plagued by gang violence has been murdered less than a week after taking office.
Photos circulating online showed what appeared to be the severed head of Alejandro Arcos on top of a pick-up truck and the rest of his body inside a car in the Villas del Roble neighbourhood in the east of Chilpancingo.
Mr Arcos was sworn in as the mayor of Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero province, last Monday. His death was confirmed by the authorities late on Sunday.
Local media reported that he had been decapitated, but state prosecutors offered no details when confirming his death.
The death provoked unease across Chilpancingo, which is no stranger to political violence, with residents choosing not to leave their homes after 9pm and schools suspending classes.
Alejandro Moreno, the national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, called on the federal authorities to take charge of the investigation given Guerrero’s “ungovernability”.
Mr Moreno also revealed that Mr Arcos’s murder came just three days after the shooting of Francisco Tapia, the city government’s new secretary.
“They had been in office less than a week,” Mr Moreno said. “They were young and honest public servants who were seeking progress for their community.”
Chilpancingo has been home to violent turf battles between the Ardillos and the Tlacos, local drug gangs, for years.
The city is so violent that the Ardillos gang once organised a demonstration, hijacked an armoured government car and took 10 police officers hostage after its leaders were arrested for drugs and weapons possession.
Mr Arcos’s social media posts reveal that he had spent his first few days in office overseeing disaster relief after Hurricane John caused severe flooding in Acapulco, the beach resort, and its surrounding towns.
He had also spent time meeting relief workers and residents in the hours before his death, according to photos on his Facebook account.
In addition to the murders of Mr Tapia and Mr Arcos, at least six candidates running for public office were killed in Guerrero in the run-up to the June elections.
During the election campaign, Mr Arcos’s team accused his opponents of waging a “dirty war” against him by linking him to the Ardillos gang on flyers distributed to thousands of residents.
Mr Arcos won the election – his third attempt – by around 1,000 votes on June 2, the same day Claudia Sheinbaum was elected as Mexico’s first female president.
In the months leading up to the country’s general election, at least 37 candidates were killed, while dozens more dropped out after receiving death threats. Ms Sheinbaum has made “pacifying the country” one of her primary aims while in office.
A strategy presentation, seen by the Wall Street Journal, showed proposals to slash killings in the country’s 10 deadliest cities, including Acapulco.
“We are developing a programme for the municipalities that at this moment have the largest number of homicides,” Ms Sheinbaum said shortly after taking office on Oct 1.
Mr Arcos is the third mayor to be murdered in Guerrero this year, after the deaths of Copala’s Salvador Villalva Flores and Malinaltepec’s Acasio Flores Guerrero.
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Monday, September 30, 2024
Faster drilling speeds drive savings and efficiency in the oil patch
A number of drilling problems begin downhole at the drill bit. As a formation is drilled, the bit-rock interaction is a source of vibrations in the drill string.
There are four key types of vibrations that can be created from this interaction that cause drilling dysfunction: axial, lateral, and torsional or radial vibrations. The latter are separated into stick-slip at low frequencies and High Frequency Torsional Oscillation (HFTO) at higher frequencies. All four of these vibration types can be dysfunctional in the drilling operation and need to be managed effectively to achieve efficient drilling with the highest ROP possible.
STOPPING ISSUES AT THE BIT
Over the last several years, drilling vibration suppression systems (VSS) have been introduced to the market to minimize different types of downhole vibration. The intention of a VSS tool, combined with a rotary steerable BHA, is to dampen the form of vibration that the specific VSS was designed to mitigate. This should allow the drill string to perform more optimally and drill a better, faster well. While the VSS introduction to a BHA sounds great in theory, not all VSS tools on the market can eliminate every type of vibration that can be encountered downhole.
Axial shocks start at the end of the drill bit and send vibrations directly through the drill bit and up the drill string through the BHA. One potential cause of axial shocks is drilling through non-homogenous or layered downhole lithologies and hitting rocks of different hardness. An axial shock to a drill string with great enough force can, at a minimum, decrease ROP significantly, and at most, it can damage the drill bit and BHA. There are some VSS tools built with springs that act like shock absorbers to dampen axial shocks.
Low-frequency torsional vibration in the drilling process is commonly called stick-slip. Stick-slip occurs when the drill bit depth of cut is too deep relative to the formation it’s trying to drill. The drill bit digs into the formation deeply enough to slow it down, relative to the rest of the uphole drill string, causing reactive torque. The difference in revolutions per minute (RPM) of the drill string on surface and at the bit can be significantly different when stick-slip is occurring. This can cause drill string and BHA fatigue (depending on the amplitude and frequency), as well as slow the ROP significantly, as the drilling parameters must be adjusted downward to cope with the dysfunction. A VSS tool designed with an internal helical spline is typically employed for this type of vibration.
HFTO is torsional vibration with a resonance frequency higher than stick-slip. Dysfunction from HFTO can significantly harm downhole drilling tools and electronics. Some VSS tools with a counterforce dampener design are meant to address HFTO to protect downhole tools, but they can also decrease the energy to the drill bit.
Lateral vibrations are created by the drill string’s interaction with the wellbore and the presence of doglegs or micro-doglegs. Elastomers are commonly used to reduce the chances of the BHA hitting the sides of the wellbore; however, improving the wellbore quality by using the right tool selection and placement in the BHA design can also help minimize this lateral movement.
ADVANTAGES OF A CABLE DESIGN
Conventional VSS tools are limited not only by their ability to just manage one type of vibration but also by their inability to manage the drill bit depth of cut or improve ROP. Adding multiple VSS tools to the BHA to compensate for this can lengthen and complicate BHA design and substantially increase costs.
The patented spring power pack and cable design of neotork is field-proven to reduce all four types of vibrations, so operators can maintain or increase their planned drilling parameters, while protecting the drill bit and downhole BHA from vibration dysfunctions, Fig. 1. The tool uses a combination of disc springs and hydraulic force to balance with the cable heart assembly, as it manages downhole torque and automatically controls the drill bit depth of cut.
The cables in the heart assembly are a fixed length and are installed at an angle around a near-frictionless internal mandrel. When any torsional force is encountered that exceeds the calibrated setting of neotork, the tool is activated and the cables will wrap around the internal mandrel to contract and shorten its length. This activation is near-instantaneous and allows for drill bit depth of cut management in real time.
The cables are flexible during compression and strong when tense. For example, when an axial shock is encountered, the flexible cables don’t resist. This allows the tool to respond faster to changes in formation while drilling—regardless, if the vibration frequency is high or low—so the PDC cutters remain engaged with the formation.
SETTING NEW DRILLING SPEED STANDARDS
A North American operator in a northern basin consistently uses neotork for batch horizontal drilling operations, to reduce vibrations downhole. Before neotork, they typically had a number of trips to achieve the well trajectory and experienced more non-productive time, due to failed downhole components in the BHA.
The
operator’s original objective with adding neotork was to minimize
driling vibration dysfunctions, so they could drill a
vertical-curve-lateral well in one run, with a single BHA on multiple
wells before service was required. Not only is this objective regularly
met, but this operator has consistently pushed the boundaries of what
they thought possible in the field. They now normally run a single BHA
on three consecutive wells and have reached a high point on ROP, where
their limitation is cleaning the drill cuttings from the wells fast
enough.
In
the Permian, a number of operators employing the cable-design VSS tool
have reported less downhole BHA failures and the ability to drill
vertical-curve-lateral wells in one run much more often, Fig. 2.
They have also been able to increase ROP up to 20%. With less trips and
significant ROP improvement, these Permian operators are saving
significant costs in an area, where a typical spread rate is
approximately $1/second.
SPEED DRIVES TOMORROW’S DRILLING TODAY
All drilling causes some amount of near-bit vibration dysfunction downhole. Putting more weight on a bit, in order to drill faster, will usually increase these vibrations, increasing the chance of downhole BHA and drill bit failure, as well as reducing drilling efficiency and performance. Minimizing all four types of near-bit vibration dysfunctions can significantly improve downhole tool performance, as well as allow an increase in drilling parameters. When these parameters are increased, the ROP increase and operating cost savings can be significant.
Today’s operators are keenly focused on increasing drilling speeds—it’s a top priority. Given the industry’s constant cost pressures, eliminating vibrations downhole, so operators can drill faster than before, enableing them to achieve their operational goals without compromise.
- Automated iron roughneck and advanced robotics system enhance rig floor operations (September 2024)
- Decarbonizing drilling operations using more efficient electrical utility power (September 2024)
- Drilling advances and where they’re headed (July 2024)
- Drilling advances (May 2024)
- Digital’s influence on drilling and production keeps growing (March 2024)
- Taming the red zone with automation (April 2024)
Monday, September 23, 2024
TotalEnergies’ $9 billion investment offshore Suriname expands Atlantic oil and gas boom
(Bloomberg) – TotalEnergies SE is assembling a fleet of deepwater rigs, support vessels and drilling crews offshore Suriname in the clearest sign yet that it’ll move forward with a historic oil development.
Although the French supermajor hasn’t formally greenlit the $9 billion development of crude discoveries in the Latin American nation, it’s already seeking to lock in two rig leases for future drilling in the area, according to people familiar with the tenders who asked not to be named discussing non-public information.
That comes less than four months after TotalEnergies directed contractors to reserve construction capacity in a Chinese shipyard for fabrication of a floating oil-production vessel for the project.
For Suriname, a former Dutch colony on the northeast tip of South America, the moves presage an end to years of delay and disappointment in harvesting billions of barrels of crude trapped under the seafloor. TotalEnergies and partner APA Corp. are expected as soon as early October to make a so-called final investment decision to develop oil discoveries dating back as far as 2020.
Suriname is years behind neighbor Guyana in enticing foreign explorers and reaping the vast riches of massive offshore oil troves. But when production — now slated for 2028 — actually commences, the windfall is expected to transform the economy of one of the world’s most-sparsely populated nations.
The investment also is part of a broader revival of high-seas oil exploration up and down the Atlantic Basin. From the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Brazil to Namibia on Africa’s southwest coast, some of the world’s most-sophisticated explorers are racing to find and tap the next oil frontier.
Deepwater drilling in many regions was largely sidelined by the shale revolution little more than a decade ago that drew companies back to less-risky, land-based exploration. That impact was compounded by the global pandemic that gutted energy demand and prices — and any residual appetite for risky endeavors among explorers.
But as the shale sector matures and many of its best prospects near their peaks, drillers are once again going down to the sea in search of untapped finds.
“Exploration is back,” said Ross Lubetkin, chief executive officer at consultancy Welligence Energy Analytics.
TotalEnergies declined to comment for this story. An APA spokesperson directed a reporter’s inquiry to TotalEnergies as operator of the project.
The French giant’s decision to order a hull for a 200,000 bpd production vessel for the Suriname discoveries is one of the clearest signals that the project is a go, said Annand Jagesar, the managing director of Suriname’s state oil company, Staatsolie.
“They have reserved this hull,” he said in an interview. “You’re not going to pay a lot of money for that to have it sitting around.”
In Suriname, a country the size of Wisconsin inhabited by just 612,000 people, Malaysia’s Petronas is considering a high-tech, floating facility to process natural gas that would cost billions of dollars.
Separately, Chevron Corp. is expected to start an exploration campaign in 2025 in shallow waters, according to Staatsolie, which also serves as Suriname’s oil regulator. Chevron declined to comment on its timeline for Suriname.
So far, Suriname’s potential is much less than in neighboring Guyana, but even one major project could transform the economy and improve social services in a country where about 40% of the population lives in poverty. Anticipation of an oil windfall is making Suriname’s debt a top performer in emerging markets this year.
The scale of the investments shows how the supermajors are less concerned about a sudden transition to renewable fuels than they were a few years ago. Oil companies are now vying for a limited number of drilling rigs and production vessels to pursue expensive offshore developments.
“There’s generally more of a consensus around the importance of upstream, especially among the majors,” said Julie Wilson, the director for global exploration research at Wood Mackenzie Ltd. “People are beginning to think that perhaps the energy transition is going to be more challenging.”
Thursday, September 19, 2024
ConocoPhillips CEO calls on White House to utilize North America’s “substantial” natural gas resources at Gastech 2024
Bethany Fischer, Digital Editor, World Oil September 18, 2024
(WO) – On the first day of Gastech 2024, held in Houston, Texas, from Sept. 17-20, ConocoPhillips CEO Ryance Lance made an impassioned plea for permitting reform, infrastructure investments, and an end to what he called a “crazy LNG pause.”
ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance
Lance is referring to a move made by the Biden administration at the beginning of the year, which paused permits to allow the Department of Energy to scrutinize LNG's potential environmental impacts and halted export approvals.
While a federal judge eventually blocked the move in July, the Biden administration is continuing to explore options for what many in the oil and gas industry consider an extreme climate agenda.
Lance is among several CEOs looking to utilize North America’s gas reserves, of which the head of ConocoPhillips says is “substantial.” Lance went as far as to predict “a century” of available resources.
However, the current administration’s apparent war on the fuel, which the industry advocates will be a necessary resource in the energy transition, threatens the U.S’ position in the global market, as well as domestic and international energy security.
“When it comes to advancing economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental protection, an LNG permitting pause fails on all three,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said separately at Gastech 2024.
“The administration should stop the attacks on natural gas and embrace the benefits it’s already delivering around the world.”
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Antofagasta to invest $3.5 billion in 2025 amid portfolio expansion
https://www.mining.com/antofagasta-to-invest-3-5-billion-in-2025-amid-portfolio-expansion/
Chilean miner Antofagasta (LON: ANTO) plans to invest about $3.5 billion in 2025, one of the largest sums ever earmarked by the company, as it looks to expand operations in the home country and into neighbouring Peru.
Chief executive Iván Arriagada told Diario Financiero on Monday the company was actively looking for copper projects in Peru that could yield at least 50,000 tonnes of the red metal for 10 years or more. For this year, the company estimates investments will total $2.7 billion, compared to $2.13 billion in 2023.
Antofagasta, majority-owned by Chile’s Luksic family, one of the country’s wealthiest, projects local investments of over $7.5 billion in the next five years. The miner is already working on the $4.4 billion Nueva Centinela project, which will add 144,000 tonnes copper-equivalent a year to its overall production. The expansion project, approved in December, also includes increasing the current molybdenum plant’s capacity and a new development of the Esperanza Sur pit, with the introduction of new autonomous trucks.
Antofagasta recently opened a $2 billion desalination plant for its flagship mine, Los Pelambres, the first to operate with desalinated water in an area of the country that has suffered a 15-year drought.
The miner also expects to obtain all permits to start working on the $1.2 billion extension of its ZaldÃvar copper mine, which would allow it to continue operations through 2051.
On top of all these projects, Antofagasta expects to allocate between $40 million and $50 million a year in maintenance work at its assets in Peru, the United States and Canada.
Aiming high
Antofagasta, Chile’s largest copper miner after the state-owned Codelco, has set an ambitious goal of becoming one of the world’s top ten producers of the metal, primarily used in electric vehicle batteries and construction.
In recent years, the company has made several strides toward this goal, with one of the key investments in 2023 being the acquisition of a 19% stake in Peru’s Minera Buenaventura for an undisclosed sum.
The miner has also a presence in the US, through its subsidiary Twin Metals. The unit has been trying to build an underground copper-nickel mine and processing facility along the shores of Birch Lake and the South Kawishiwi River for over a decade. The project suffered a major blow last year, when the Biden administration cancelled Twin Metals’ two long-standing mineral leases and imposed a 20-year moratorium on the surrounding area.
Antofagasta has been fighting to get the licences back. The Wall Street Journal recently suggested the company would have better options of winning the case if Donald Trump gets reelected.
Speaking to Diario Financiero, Arriagada noted that he doesn’t believe so. “Our project in the US is currently in the process of defending the titles to our mining property in the courts and therefore, this does not depend on the administration in power,” he told the Chilean newspaper.
The executive noted the company will work with any administration and that he believes Antofagasta has the right to develop the project or to submit a modified application to be reviewed and approved.
“We think that Twin Metals is a valuable project because it allows local production of copper and other key metals in the US for local supply (…) It has value in today’s world in light of the challenges we see both in terms of national security and in terms of energy change and climate change,” Arriagada said. “We will continue to promote this and we will exercise our rights in the US courts.”
Oil and gas CEOs call on Biden administration to stop attack on U.S. LNG at Gastech 2024
Chevron Corp. Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth called on the administration to reverse the pause, labeling the policy as a failure that “elevates politics over progress.” The permitting halt, which went into effect earlier this year, will raise energy costs, threaten supplies for America’s European allies and increase emissions by slowing the transition from coal to gas, Wirth said in a speech at the GasTech conference in Houston Tuesday.
“When it comes to advancing economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental protection, an LNG permitting pause fails on all three,” he said. “The administration should stop the attacks on natural gas and embrace the benefits it’s already delivering around the world.”
The White House in January halted new licenses to export LNG, citing the need to more heavily scrutinize how the shipments affect the environment and national security. The ruling sent shockwaves through the industry, threatening to end a construction boom in terminals along the Gulf Coast that turned the U.S. into the world’s biggest exporter of the super-chilled fuel.
“In Australia and the U.S., we’re seeing quite a bit of wobbliness around support for the industry,” said Meg O’Neill, CEO of Woodside Energy Group Ltd. “I do worry there’s going to be a long-lasting ripple of concern from key LNG-buying nations caused by the pause, even if the pause is short-lived.”
The industry has pushed back on the policy as it struggles with a surplus of natural gas, much of it a by-product of shale oil production. A federal judge in Louisiana lifted the temporary moratorium in July after several states sued. While the Energy Department is appealing the ruling, it also has granted an LNG export license following the decision.
“We can double down on the ‘either/or’ approach that dominates today’s discourse, which too often pits people and solutions against each other,” Wirth said. “Or we can evolve toward an ‘all-in’ approach that recognizes many solutions are needed.”
Both U.S. presidential candidates have voiced their support for fracing, which makes up the majority of U.S. oil and gas production. But some executives are still concerned about what Democratic nominee Kamala Harris may do in the White House, given her current role as Biden’s vice president. She hasn’t yet weighed in on whether she would reverse the LNG ban.
“We hope cooler heads do prevail, and maybe she’s sincere,” on her support for fracing, said Jack Fusco, chief executive officer of Cheniere Energy Inc., an LNG exporter. “I have to trust until I don’t.”
Wirth said the LNG pause was self-defeating because natural gas replaces more heavily polluting coal in power generation in many cases. In recent years, environmental groups have cast doubt on the claim, citing often-undocumented methane emissions in gas-gathering systems and the amount of power need to chill LNG.
The CEO said the emissions the U.S. avoided by switching to gas from coal are more than double the reductions from all the wind and solar power added in the past 15 years, citing data from McKinsey & Co.
Making the switch to gas from coal globally “could represent the single greatest carbon reduction initiative in history,” he said.
It will also be vital for the development of artificial intelligence, he said.
“AI’s advance will depend not only on the design labs of Silicon Valley, but also on the gas fields of the Permian basin,” Wirth said.
Wirth called for a “more balanced conversation about the future of energy.”
“These choices should be informed by realistic science and impartial data, untainted by advocacy agendas,” he said.
Monday, September 16, 2024
Saturday, September 14, 2024
Thursday, September 12, 2024
APA sells Permian basin oil and gas properties to mystery buyer for $950 million
WO) – APA Corporation has entered into an agreement for the sale of non-core producing properties in the Permian basin to an undisclosed buyer for $950 million.
The properties are located in the Central Basin Platform, Texas and New Mexico Shelf, and Northwest Shelf, and currently represent estimated net production of 21,000 boed, of which approximately 57% is oil.
“Through multiple transactions completed this year, we have high graded and focused our U.S. asset base. Our remaining Permian position has scale and balance in the unconventional Midland and Delaware Basins,” said John J. Christmann IV, CEO of APA Corporation.
“The net impact of our acquisition of Callon Petroleum and the follow-on asset sales is that APA has increased its onshore U.S. production by approximately 66,000 boed in 2024, and continued to add economic unconventional inventory, with no material change in net debt levels compared to year-end 2023.”
Pro-forma fourth-quarter U.S. production guidance is 307,000 boed, which is 34% above the company’s fourth-quarter 2023 production.
Christmann continued, “The company’s more focused unconventional Permian asset base and advantageous transport and marketing positions compares favorably with like-sized, pure-play peers in the region, while APA’s conventional global portfolio also provides geologic, geographic and price diversification as well as differential exploration upside.”
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
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2 MMbpd from Gulf of Mexico under threat from U.S. government’s environmental impasse
(Bloomberg) – A fight over Gulf of Mexico oil production is looming in Washington as U.S. regulators race to redo guidance on how to protect endangered species ahead of a deadline that could ultimately threaten about 15% of the nation’s crude output.
The standoff stems from a scientific assessment that underpins oil and gas operations in the Gulf. Under a court ruling, the U.S. government has until Dec. 20 to revise that analysis, when the current one will be tossed out.
If regulators don’t finish by the deadline — and courts or Congress don’t intervene to provide more time — existing oil and gas operations that depend on the evaluation could grind to a halt.
The effects could be sweeping: If the Gulf of Mexico were a country, it would rank among the world’s top 12 oil producers globally.
“The ramifications could be potentially enormous for operations in what we and many others recognize is such a vital, producing region,” said Dustin Meyer, a senior vice president for the American Petroleum Institute. “The level of concern is very high.”
Even with some uncertainty over the impact, the potential for peril has triggered a lobbying frenzy by oil companies and industry groups mulling legal strategies and possible legislation to head off major disruption.
One lobbyist likened the situation to an “all-hands-on-deck” moment. Impacts could be felt well before the Dec. 20 deadline, colliding with a presidential election that’s putting the spotlight on economic stability and energy security.
Legal foundation. At issue is the government’s main Endangered Species Act analysis of oil and gas activity in the Gulf, a so-called biological opinion released in 2020 documenting how drilling, pipeline construction and other operations might jeopardize protected species in the region.
The broad assessment provides a legal foundation for oil and gas activity under existing Gulf leases. U.S. offshore drilling and leasing regulators generally rely on it instead of doing case-by-case evaluations.
Environmental groups challenged the biological opinion four years ago, arguing it didn’t properly analyze how oil operations affect endangered and threatened species. Last month, a Maryland-based federal district judge sided with them, tossing out the biological opinion — effective Dec. 20 — and sending it back to the National Marine Fisheries Service for a redo.
The agency had already started work on a new version preemptively, but told the court it might not be done “until late winter or early spring 2025.”
Without a valid biological opinion in place, energy regulators would likely be forced to consult on hundreds — if not thousands — of decisions annually, according to data they provided the court.
Cascading effects. The individual reviews would “overwhelm” the agencies and have “cascading effects” not just for oil operations in the Gulf but also renewable permitting on federal waters, Walter Cruickshank, the deputy director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, told the court in April.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which houses the fisheries service, and the Interior Department, which handles offshore oil and gas leases, said they are reviewing last month’s court decision, but declined to comment further.
The issue is already causing anxiety for some Gulf operators worried not just about delayed government approvals, but the viability of existing work authorized under the court-invalidated biological opinion.
At stake are operations as varied as traffic from ships supplying offshore platforms to continued production at long-permitted wells, according to industry lawyers who asked not to be named speaking about private legal discussions.
Oil companies and suppliers operating offshore could face additional legal jeopardy if they continue work without new authorizations.
The government previously authorized “incidental takes” — where oil and gas activities cause harassment, harm or other injury to certain species as long as companies are complying with the 2020 biological opinion.
Without that authorization in place, companies “will have to decide whether they continue to operate at their own risk,” or instead “shut down their activities” while waiting for a new biological opinion, Holland & Knight warned in an alert last week.
With about 2 MMbpd produced from the Gulf, the potential disruptions “would likely cause considerable economic and national security harm to our country,” said Erik Milito, head of the National Ocean Industries Association, which along with other industry trade groups, including the API, and Chevron USA Inc., has intervened to defend the government in the lawsuit. Talks with the government are ongoing.
Industry stakeholders are considering legal options, including seeking a stay, if another solution doesn’t materialize soon. They also have been talking with congressional offices about the issue, and are weighing legislation that could address the issue by giving the fisheries service more time.
“Given the vital importance of the Gulf of Mexico,” Milito said, “we remain optimistic that cooler heads will prevail, and we will see much-needed resolution to this issue.”
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Friday, August 23, 2024
Halliburton experiences cyberattack at campus in Houston, Texas
(WO) – Halliburton, a major U.S. oil field services firm, experienced a cyberattack on Wednesday, affecting some of its systems, particularly at its north Houston campus and global connectivity networks, Reuters reported.
Citing an emailed press release and unnamed sources close to the matter, Reuters says Halliburton is investigating the incident and working with external experts to resolve it. Some employees have been asked not to connect to internal networks.
Although details about the Halliburton attack are unclear, ransomware typically involves hackers encrypting data and demanding payment in exchange for a decryption key. If the ransom is not paid, hackers may threaten to leak sensitive information.
Halliburton provides drilling equipment and services to major oil and gas companies around the world. With nearly 50,000 employees globally, the company has a presence in over 70 countries.
This story was originally reported by Reuters.
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
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As US Coal Plants Shutter, a Renewed Focus on Nuclear ‘We’ll need an additional 200 gigawatts of nuclear capacity to reach net-zero emissions by 2050,’ the Energy Department stated.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/as-us-coal-plants-shutter-a-renewed-focus-on-nuclear-5704112
As the United States continues its rush to shutter the nation’s remaining coal plants, energy analysts are debating what should fill the gap to meet the growing need for electricity. Increasingly, many are pointing to nuclear energy as the solution.
This is happening as demand from data centers, electric vehicles, electric home heating, and othproducts are pushing ever more consumption onto the grid.
The agency, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), cited “clear evidence of growing resource adequacy concerns over the next 10 years” in its December 2023 Long-Term Reliability Assessment
https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/as-us-coal-plants-shutter-a-renewed-focus-on-nuclear-5704112
The rapid retirement of functional coal plants, which generated more than 16 percent of U.S. electricity production in 2023, is projected to leave large gaps in the country’s ability to meet projected demand for electricity, leaving most regions of North America at high or elevated risk of shortages and blackouts, according to the NERC .
How can the U.S. electricity industry fill this ever-widening hole? The options on the table are wind, solar, natural gas, and nuclear energy—each with its advantages and shortcomings.
Many who consider climate change to be an existential threat have pushed wind and solar energy as the best alternatives, arguing that they are the cheapest, cleanest option.
Critics say adding ever more wind and solar capacity could be paying more for less, as additional weather-dependent capacity falls short of producing electricity when consumers need it.
“We built a heck of a lot of wind capacity in 2023 in the United States, but the actual amount of wind electricity produced went down, simply because you have wind droughts,” energy economist Dan Kish, senior vice president of policy at the Institute for Energy Research (IER), told The Epoch Times.
“The windiest spots have been hit pretty hard with wind turbines, so now they’re going to places that are less prolific in terms of wind, and the result is you’re getting less wind per installed megawatt of wind power than you did before.”
“Our entire grid has been built with the goal of moving power to people when they need it,” Kish said, but noted that, increasingly, this is shifting to providing electricity “whenever the wind blows or the sun shines.”
Wind and solar require expensive backup power generation, typically gas or batteries, to fill the gaps when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, driving up costs to consumers.
Coal plants, while emitting more carbon dioxide (CO2), have provided an affordable, reliable, and flexible supply of “dispatchable” electricity, which can be ramped up or down to meet demand.
To date, while installed wind and solar capacity have increased, natural gas has been the prime beneficiary of the transition away from coal—both as a supplier of base-load power and as a backup to wind and solar when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
The EIA reported that natural gas consumption set new records every month between March 2023 and November 2023, as coal-fired electric-generating capacity declined.
“The combination of [artificial intelligence] and increased reliance on intermittent renewables means more natural gas—both because solar and wind can’t easily provide electricity with low harmonic distortions that delicate data center kit needs—but also because unreliable power sources infiltrate the grid, assuring 24x7 supply relies ever more on dispatchable, traditional energy, which is gas,” Simon Lack, founder and managing partner of SL Advisors LLC, told The Epoch Times.
While natural gas is abundant, affordable, and burns cleaner than coal, it doesn’t satisfy net-zero goals of “decarbonizing” energy and reducing global emissions by at least 43 percent by 2030, 60 percent by 2035, and reaching net-zero by 2050.
Given that, nuclear energy is increasingly being touted as the ideal solution.
By comparison, the capacity factors for wind and solar are the lowest of all major U.S. energy sources, at 35 percent and 25 percent, respectively.
Nuclear power plants are designed to run 24 hours per day, seven days per week, making them ideal for reliable, base-load electricity.
Energy economist Ryan Yonk, a director at the American Institute for Economic Research, said the safety of nuclear plants has improved with time, and although risk has not been completely eliminated, this leaves nuclear as the “no-carbon energy” of the future, provided that the industry can build plants that address risk concerns and regulatory concerns.
“If you really care deeply about CO2 and view it as a substantial problem, we have an established technology that doesn’t produce CO2, that produces large amounts of low-cost energy at relatively low risk,” he said.
Among the government initiatives was $6 billion in new loans, grants, and tax credits for nuclear facilities to keep aging plants up and running and restart some that had been shut down. This included $1.5 billion in loan guarantees to Holtec Palisades, LLC, to bring the shuttered 800 MW Palisades Nuclear Plant in Covert Township, Michigan, back online through 2050.
“Alongside renewable power sources like wind and solar, a new generation of nuclear reactors is now capturing the attention of a wide range of stakeholders for nuclear energy’s ability to produce clean, reliable energy and meet the needs of a fast-growing economy,” a White House fact sheet reads.
The bill includes more staffing for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which would theoretically speed the licensing process, reduce fees for plant applicants, and update the NRC’s mission statement, stipulating that it will not “unnecessarily limit” the production of nuclear energy.
According to the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, “we’ll need an additional 200 gigawatts of nuclear capacity to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and some of that could take place at or near retiring coal plants.”
The agency stated that more than 300 existing and retired coal plants could be converted to nuclear energy, and this would increase the U.S. nuclear capacity by more than 250 gigawatts, nearly tripling its current capacity of 95 gigawatts.
Borrowing land, plant, transmission connections and roads from existing coal plants could save up to 35 percent of construction costs for new nuclear plants, the DOE predicted.
States that are considering replacing coal plants with nuclear include Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
“By 2030, the U.S. nuclear industry will be equipped to lead the world in the deployment of innovative nuclear technologies to supply urgently needed abundant clean energy both domestically and globally,” GAIN reads.
Some analysts say it amounts to one government agency spending money to try to get another government agency out of the way.
“We’ve got the NRC that can’t seem to issue a permit or give a thumbs up to a project, and to compensate for that, we’ve got the Department of Energy pouring hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money into helping them get a permit,” Kish said.
The U.S. fleet of nuclear plants is approaching retirement age, raising questions about how much longer existing plants can continue to operate. The average life of a nuclear power plant is about 40 years, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The U.S. nuclear construction industry, having been shunned for decades, appears now to be showing new signs of life.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner Annie Caputo (C) tours the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station. Nine Mile Point Unit 1 in New York started operating in 1969, the oldest operating reactor in the United States. (Constellation Energy Corporation/CC BY 2.0)
In April, the fourth reactor of the Vogtle Nuclear Plant in Georgia, designed by Westinghouse, came online, making the plant fully operational.
Skepticism Remains
While this all suggests a surging demand for nuclear energy, concerns about nuclear energy linger.These concerns stem from the fact that nuclear energy creates nuclear waste and from the plant meltdowns at Chernobyl in Ukraine (1986), Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania (1979), and Fukushima in Japan (2011), as well as the time and cost to build nuclear plants.
Dean Cooper, the global lead for energy at the World Wildlife Fund, said in a March blog post, “Let’s be clear—there’s no new dawn for nuclear energy.
“The truth is that the construction of new nuclear power generation capacity is too slow, too expensive, and too risky to make a difference.
“Rather, governments must prioritize investments toward energy efficiency and deploying renewables, such as wind and solar, to decarbonize the grid.”
The report states that construction on two AP1000 reactors at the Summer Nuclear Station in South Carolina that began in 2012 was canceled in 2017, leaving South Carolina residents to pay the bill for a failed project that cost $9 billion.
Public opinion regarding nuclear energy still sees it as its second-best option to wind and solar when it comes to fighting climate change, although those perceptions may be changing.
Turbines from the Mount Storm Wind Farm sit behind the Dominion's Mount Storm Power Station in Mount Storm, W. Va., on Aug. 22, 2022. A survey of Americans shows that 72 percent of respondents favor expanding wind power. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
While this number is below the 78 percent who prefer expanding solar power and the 72 percent who favor expanding wind power, the survey noted that support for solar and wind power fell by double digits percentage points since 2020 while support for nuclear power grew by 13 percentage points.
Government intervention at the federal and state level is manipulating the industry away from what it can realistically achieve, they say, making the electric grid both more fragile and more expensive while disregarding Americans’ growing need for affordable, reliable energy.
“One of the major issues that comes up in the energy mix is that because we’ve spent so much time regulating and subsidizing within it, we don’t have a real clear sense of what the mix would be if it were based on consumer demand and the market’s capacity to provide,” Yonk said.
“One of the ways to get closer to that is to deal with the regulatory problems and to remove the subsidies so that we start to see the emergence of a mix that matches consumer demand; at the moment, we don’t have that.”
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