US Interior’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Andrea Travnicek announced that the region-wide Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 253 generated $159,386,761 in high bids for 151 tracts covering 835,006 acres in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. 27 companies took part in the lease sale, submitting $174,922,200 in all bids.
On August 31, 2018, the fishing vessel Master D was transiting with three crewmembers in the Gulf of Mexico 45 miles southeast of South Padre Island, Texas, when a fire in the engine room erupted. After unsuccessfully trying to extinguish the fire, the crew abandoned the vessel without injury. The fire continued to burn until the vessel sank the next day. An oil sheen of around 400 yards by 1 mile was visible in the water after the sinking. The estimated property damage was more than $162,000, the NTSB report notes.
Enterprise Products Partners and Chevron US. Inc., announced long-term agreements, aiming to support the development of Enterprise’s Sea Port Oil Terminal in the Gulf of Mexico. Enterprise’s SPOT project includes onshore and offshore facilities, such as a fixed platform located around 30 nautical miles off the Brazoria County, Texas.
The US Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will offer 77.8 million acres for a region-wide lease sale scheduled for August 21, 2019. The sale would include all available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The non-essential personnel, who were evacuated from the Gulf of Mexico platforms ahead the Tropical Storm Barry, are now returning to their platforms as flights and normal crew-change activities are resuming, Shell informed.
As the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement informs, offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico have evacuated platforms and rigs in response to Tropical Storm Barry. Specifically, personnel have been evacuated from 283 production platforms, 42.3% of the 669 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
A Shell employee and a contractor with oilfield services provider Danos Inc, were killed during a routine test of a lifeboat launch and retrieval capabilities at Auger Tension Leg Platform in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico on Sunday morning.
The US Coast Guard issued its reporting requirements for the upcoming hurricane season at the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf, requesting that operators of all manned facilities and MODUs report only when personnel were stranded onboard AND not able to evacuate due to extreme circumstances.
US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Gulf of Mexico Regional Director Lars Herbst has established two panels to investigate two serious incidents that took place in the Gulf of Mexico last week. Investigation panels will issue reports with their findings regarding the causes and make suggestions on how to improve current safety measures after the investigations are completed.
Medium-sour crudes from the US Gulf of Mexico are being snapped up by overseas buyers, paving way for a record six supertankers to load at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) in a matter of weeks, Reuters reported citing people familiar with the matter.
