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Gom Oil News

05 Dec 2023

US Coast Guard Responds to Another GoM Oil Spill

A Main Pass Gathering Company, LLC Panther helicopter conducts an overflight to observe visible sheen off the coast of Louisiana, Nov. 18, 2023. (Source: US Coast Guard)

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday it was responding to an oil discharge near the Main Pass Oil Gathering (MPOG) Co's pipeline system in the Gulf of Mexico, while the main pipeline and several surrounding ones remained shut in."The reported sheen is being investigated and has not been confirmed to be associated with the November 16 observed initial discharge," the Coast Guard said.The Coast Guard had not yet identified any damage or indication of a leak after surveying the entire length of the pipeline along with 22.16 miles (36 km) of surrounding pipelines.

20 Dec 2019

BY THE NUMBERS: the OSV Markets

US Offshore Support Vessel Analysis 2018 and 2019. The US GOM Offshore Support Vessel (OSV) market is suffering, utilization remains poor, and many owners are still squeezed financially. However, a poor market forces people to adapt and for those willing to take risks, the upside can be extremely large.US Owners 2018 vs. 2019: Within the US GOM, 2018 saw a period of strategic thinking and tactical business decisions. Tidewater Marine completed their merger with GulfMark Offshore to create the world’s largest OSV player.

25 Nov 2019

GoM Oil Output Set for Record Year

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico is positioned for another year of record oil production in 2020, despite massive cuts in investment.According to Rystad Energy, most of this growth coming from deep water projects.“2020 is expected to be another record year with average production above 1.9 million barrels per day,” says Joachim Milling Gregersen, an analyst on Rystad Energy’s upstream team.Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has grown every year since 2013, with an average of 104,000 barrels per day added annually. An essential contribution has come from infill drilling in legacy producing fields such as Mars, Thunder Horse and Tahiti.The top contributors to supply growth in 2019 have so far been the Big Foot and Crosby fields.

09 Apr 2015

Statoil Reports GoM Oil Discovery

The Maersk Developer drilling rig. (Photo: Jonathan Bachman - AP - Statoil)

Statoil has made an oil discovery in its Miocene Yeti prospect located in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), the company announced today. “The Yeti discovery expands the proven sub-salt Miocene play further south and west of the Big Foot field,” said Jez Averty, Statoil’s senior vice president, exploration for North America. The Yeti discovery was made in Walker Ridge (WR) block 160, which is located approximately 15 kilometers south of the Big Foot field, and 11 kilometers from the Cascade field. All of the blocks making up Yeti were accessed by the current owners in recent years.

15 Apr 2014

BOEM Proposes GoM Oil and Gas Lease Sale

Photo courtesy BOEM

As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to continue to expand safe and responsible domestic energy production, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Tommy P. Beaudreau today announced that the bureau will offer more than 21 million acres offshore Texas for oil and gas exploration and development in a lease sale that will include all available unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area. Proposed Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 238…

27 Sep 2013

Bollinger Builds

Lockport, La.-based Bollinger Shipyards, Inc. is humming with work from oil and gas companies and government agencies. Family-owned and operated, Bollinger has 10 shipyards -- nine in south Louisiana and one in Texas -- along with 28 drydocks and 3,000 employees in four administrative locations. Last month, we caught up with Ben Bordelon, Bollinger’s Executive Vice President of Repair, for his outlook on the firm and the Gulf of Mexico. Bordelon is the nephew of Boysie Bollinger, who has been at the helm as CEO since 1985.

26 Mar 2013

Six Mile Deep GoM Oil Strike

Coronado Discovery Location: Image credit Chevron

Chevron Corporation has announced an oil discovery at the Coronado prospect in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The Walker Ridge Block 98 Well No. 1 encountered more than 400 feet (122 m) of net pay. The well is located approximately 190 miles (308 km) off the Louisiana coast in 6,127 feet (1,868 m) of water and was drilled to a depth of 31,866 feet (9,713 m). The well results are still being evaluated, and additional work is needed to determine the extent of the resource. Chevron, with a 40 percent working interest in the prospect, is the operator of the Coronado discovery well.

24 Jan 2013

Guarded Optimism for 2013 from U.S. Gulf Boatbuilders

Caveats and some doubts remain. Marine companies along the Gulf of Mexico will be busy in 2013 producing offshore vessels to meet expected growth in the region’s deepwater drilling sector over the next several years. Vessel repairs will be active too. Worker training will be stepped up to address a skilled labor shortage. And nearly three years after BP’s spill off coastal Louisiana, safety will remain a priority. But with the nation teetering on a fiscal cliff – which may spur tax increases and government spending cuts – demand for official and military vessels could be affected…

17 Apr 2012

Latest BSEE Update on GOM Oil Sheen

Statement from BSEE, April 16, 2012 as of 2:30 p.m. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has confirmed that a modest amount of oil is being released from a natural seafloor seep previously suspected as the source of an oil sheen reported last week in the Gulf of Mexico. BSEE, along with natural seeps experts from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, viewed videotape from a remote operated vehicle survey deployed by Shell to make the final determination confirming the on-going release of oil from the natural seep.

02 Apr 2012

BOEM Announces Meetings for New GOM Oil & Gas Lease Sales

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold a series of public scoping meetings to gather information for an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed oil and gas lease sales in Gulf of Mexico’s Eastern Planning Area offshore Florida and Alabama. This EIS is for proposed Lease Sales 225 and 226, which are included in the Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017. A leasing program consists of a proposed schedule of oil and gas lease sales indicating the size, timing, and location of proposed leasing activity for the five-year period following its approval by the Secretary of the Interior.

26 Jan 2012

Feds Unveil Central GOM Oil & Gas Plan

Obama Administration Announces Proposed Central Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale; sale Will Make Nearly 38 million Acres Available as Part of the President’s Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future. The Obama administration has announced that the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold the consolidated Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 216/222 in New Orleans on June 20, 2012. The sale will include all available unleased areas in the Central Planning Area offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. President Obama will discuss today’s announcement during remarks in Nevada later today, in which…

11 Sep 2011

Offshore Vessel Operators Suffer As Gulf Oil Output Sags

Marine Management, LLC managing member Cliffe Laborde (left), with Peter Laborde

As seen in the August edition of MarineNews, Susan Buchanan updates readers on the GOM oil production situation. BP's gushing well was capped more than a year ago but life is hardly back to normal in the U.S. Gulf--where rigs and vessels remain underutilized. At least ten rigs have moved overseas since last summer. Gulf oil production is below pre-spill levels and won't recover anytime soon, analysts say. Issuance of drilling permits picked up this spring as operators agreed to use oil-containment systems but permitting lags earlier rates.

22 Jul 2010

Oil Majors to Invest $1B in GOM Oil Containment System

Today four oil majors – Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell – announced a plan to build and deploy a rapid response system that will be available to capture and contain oil in the event of a potential future underwater well blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Significantly, the companies have already committed $1 billion to fund the initial costs of the system, and the four will form a non-profit organization, the Marine Well Containment Company, to operate and maintain this system. Other companies will be invited and encouraged to participate in this organization.

23 Jun 2010

Global Reactions to GOM Oil Spill

According to a June 20 report from the Associated Press, in reaction to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Britain has doubled rig inspections. Bulgaria scrapped plans for a new oil pipeline. Canada's offshore regulator is tightening oversight of its deepest-ever exploration well, being drilled by Chevron off the coast of Newfoundland. Meanwhile, China's offshore oil company, China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, said it is upgrading its blowout preventer system and diving equipment for a drilling rig being built in Shanghai. And France's Total has formed two task forces to check facilities and strengthen contingency plans for any potential major pollution. (Source: the Associated Press)

10 May 2010

GOM Oil Spill, Multiple Companies Implicated

According to a May 8 report from the New York Times, Congress is preparing to hold hearings on the April 20 explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Implicated are BP, the British company that leased the deepwater rig, Transocean, the rig’s owner and operator, Halliburton, which handled a critical procedure about a day before the accident, and Cameron International, which made the blowout preventer that failed to engage. All four companies have been summoned to Capitol Hill to answer questions. (Source: New York Times)

26 Apr 2010

Plan to Stop Leaking GOM Oil Well

According to a report from Reuters, U.S. agencies on April 25 approved a plan to use remote-controlled underwater vehicles to seal a leaking oil well beneath a drilling rig that exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last week. The well, 5,000 feet under the ocean surface off Louisiana's coast, is leaking about 1,000 barrels of oil a day. (Source: Reuters)

30 Jun 2009

GOM Oil Production to Reach Record High

According to a report from the Offshore Magazine, Gulf of Mexico oil production is forecast to increase substantially over the next few years, possibly reaching 1.9 MMb/d in 2013 which would be a record high. This is MMS’ best-case scenario, which factors in industry-announced discoveries and undiscovered resources. (Source: Offshore Magazine)

13 Sep 2000

BP Amoco To Update Mammoth GOM Oil Discovery Soon

BP Amoco Plc said it should be able to provide an update on its giant Crazy Horse deepwater oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico when two appraisal wells are completed during the next couple of months. "I would say the preliminary results are very encouraging and hopefully we will have some news in the near future," BP Amoco's Houston region Vice President David Welch told reporters after addressing the American Petroleum Institute's Houston chapter. The London-based company announced the Crazy Horse discovery last year, estimating that it contained reserves of at least one billion barrels of oil, making it the biggest ever deepwater discovery in the Gulf of Mexico.

08 Sep 2005

GOM Oil Industry Starts Comeback

Following a nearly complete shutdown of the oil and gas business in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, signs indicate a comeback is starting, slow but steady. According to a Reuters report, oil and gas operations recovered slowly on Wednesday, with oil companies struggling to contact all of their workers and assess damage to rigs. Refinery progress was slow but steady. Three of eight refineries that Katrina completely shut have returned either full or partially, including Marathon Petroleum Co. LLC's large 245,000 barrels per day (bpd) plant in Garyville, Louisiana. Offshore, oil and gas production has also been on the rise after Katrina shut nearly all output.

23 Jan 2006

Slow Recovery for GoM Oil Industry

The Gulf of Mexico's offshore petroleum industry is far from recovering from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and at least one-sixth of the region's normal daily oil production will still be offline at the start of next storm season, the AP reported. Katrina and Rita destroyed 115 of the Gulf's 4,000 production platforms and damaged another 52, according to a report released last week by the Minerals Management Service, which manages federal offshore leases. The storms also damaged 183 pipelines, including 64 classified as major. Only 22 had been returned to service. There are about 33,000 miles of petroleum pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico, 22,000 miles of which were exposed to the two storms.

30 Jan 2006

Wreckage in Gulf Poses Problems

Many unmarked marine hazards listed in the Coast Guard's latest Local Notice to Mariners, such as missing oil platforms to sunken boats to unidentified debris fields have been reported in the weekly updates since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept through the GOM oil patch. Even as some wreckage is located and cleaned up, more lost and sunken platforms -- or pieces of them -- are being discovered and reported to the Coast Guard every week. Since November, at least three ships have collided with wrecked oil platforms in the Gulf, with one incident resulting in one of the Gulf's largest oil spills. And with commercial and recreational fishing in the Gulf about to shift into high gear…