Tag: oil and gas industry

Military Ordnance in Gulf of Mexico Poses Threat to Shipping

North Sea , oil and gas

Leading Russian expert maintains New Russian oil platforms are not up for the task and shipping along the Northern Sea Route poses a great risk to Arctic nature, a leading Russian expert maintains.Talking at the international conference on Logistics in the Arctic, recently held in Murmansk, Mikhail Grigoriev claimed that new platforms built for operations in the Russian Arctic are insufficently well built.According to Grigoriev, an expert working for the science unit under the Russian Security Council, the two platforms built for the Shtokman project - the "Severnoye Siyanie" and the "Polyarnaya Zvezda", alone have about 700 flaws registered. The rigs, which formally were taken over by Gazprom-subsidiary Gazflot in 2011, are now based in the Far East. "When and how the flaws are to be eliminated, is incomprehensible," Rossiiskaya Gazeta quotes Grigoriev as saying. He believes the situation with the rigs is made more complicated with the continued postponments of the Shtokman project.Reportedly, Gazprom is now looking for a buyer for Gazflot and might hand over its ambitious vessel and rig development program to other companies.Grigoriev also voices concern about the quickly growing shipping along the Northern Sea Route. If an oil spill takes place half-way on the route, ...

Live drill for Gulf of Mexico equipment As part of the Obama administration's ongoing efforts to strengthen the oil and gas industry's ability to respond in the event of a deepwater blowout and ensure that offshore oil and gas production can continue to expand safely and responsibly, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today charged the Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC) with conducting a live drill this summer to deploy critical pieces of state-of-the-art well control equipment in the Gulf of Mexico.The exercise would demonstrate the ability of MWCC to mobilize a capping stack - a device similar to the one that stopped the flow of oil from the Deepwater Horizon's well - in a timely fashion from its on-shore base to the deep water seabed of the Gulf.This first-of-its-kind exercise will be overseen by Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), which tests capping stacks on the surface as part of its overall responsibility to enforce the tougher offshore safety requirements implemented in response to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill."In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, we undertook the most aggressive and comprehensive reforms to offshore oil and gas oversight in U.S. ...

To search for natural gas and oil Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said that Turkey will build its own seismic ship to search for natural gas and oil."A growing and developing Turkey cannot have a stagnant energy sector. All areas of Turkey are growing, therefore we will conduct our exploration activities with the latest technology," Yıldız said at a ceremony organized by the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries.A deal was signed between the General Directorate of Mineral Research Exploration (MTA), the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries and the contractor that will build the ship.The ship will be built at the Tuzla shipyard in northwestern Turkey with the support of local industry, said Yıldız. The ship will be equipped with the latest technology and will be used for two-dimensional and three-dimensional seismic exploration.According to Yılıdız, the ship will cost roughly 100 million euros and will be delivered to the MTA in 2014. The ship will be financed by the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry with mediation from the Undersecretariat of the Defense Industries as it is expert in shipbuilding commissions.When asked by reporters at the ceremony what will be the name of the ship, Yıldız said the ship currently does not have a ...

More than a $500 billion investment in a joint venture ExxonMobil (XOM) and Rosneft, the U.S. and Russian oil giants, said Wednesday that they could invest more than $500 billion in a joint venture that would explore for and produce oil in the Arctic and the Black Sea.Under the Exxon-Rosneft deal, the Texas-based company will have access to some of the world's richest sources of crude oil and other hydrocarbons in the Russian Arctic and Black Sea. In turn, Rosneft subsidiaries will take minority stakes in two Exxon projects in the U.S. and Canada and will have an option to take a stake in a project in the Gulf of MexicoIn a presentation in New York, Rosneft said recoverable hydrocarbon reserves at the three key Arctic fields are estimated at 85 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The companies are planning to drill the first exploratory wells in the Arctic's Kara Sea, north of Siberia, as early as 2014.The final investment decision is expected between 2016 and 2017, they said.Russian energy czar Igor Sechin promised the government's support for the project, which he said would help modernize the whole Russian economy. The deputy prime minister said the Arctic project is a ...

Collaboration on projects over their Gulf maritime boundary The United States and Mexico agreed Monday to work together on oil and gas development in the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico, paving the way to end a long-running moratorium on their maritime border.Under the deal, companies from the United States and Mexico would be encouraged to collaborate on projects over their Gulf maritime boundary but would be able to go ahead on their own if they do not find a partner.Mexican President Felipe Calderon, signing the agreement with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Pacific resort of Los Cabos, hailed the deal as a new sign of easing the historic distrust between the two countries."I will say this with great candor. We are setting aside the old fear that honestly exists among many Mexicans that Mexico's oil could be extracted unilaterally from the other side of the border," Calderon said.Calderon voiced hope that the agreement would stimulate investment, saying it "provides legal certainty in areas in which there were no clear rules and now there will be incentives for investment." Clinton was visiting Los Cabos for talks of the Group of 20 major economies, where she has voiced concerns about what ...

Global warming and its impact on Arctic

Scientists Urge Caution of US Arctic Drilling Plans Past energy sources continue plodding onward to an inevitable if slow demise, while the future of energy is researched in MIT labs, deployed in the California desert, and installed in Palestine even as Israel knocks it down.Scientists Urge Caution of US Arctic Drilling PlansTreeHugger's covered the significant risks over drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean -words to the effect of 'we have no way of responding to a spill in icy waters' have been uttered in Congressional hearings by the head of the Coast Guard. Now a group of 573 scientists have weighed in, calling for more research before the Obama administration plans for drilling proceed.Mongabay quotes Chuck Clusen of NRDC:The Arctic is the last wild ocean on the planet. Its waters and the abundant life they support are simply too sensitive to be drilled, especially since neither the oil industry nor scientists have identified a proven way to contain or clean up a spill in the Arctic's extreme conditions. At the very least, there should be no plan to lease these areas until key scientific studies have been done and until the oil and gas industry can demonstrate its ability ...

Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to make a return before the end of 2012 U.S. independent oil and natural gas produces, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., has announced the find of more natural gas than initially expected at its Cheyenne East project in the Gulf of Mexico. There were more than 50 feet of gas-bearing rock discovered, exceeding expectations.This is Anadarko's first find in the Gulf since last year's BP Macondo offshore oil spill, which they had a stake in. Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to make a return before the end of 2012.The current plan is to complete Cheyenne East, in which they own 100 percent, and tie it to Independence Hub, a platform that handles flow from several Gulf fields. Production is expected next year. The company is also anticipating an extensive program next year, given it can get U.S. permits. The permit process is still very slow, according to oil executives.Source: Maritime Executive