Natural Gas Drilling News

Carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. liquefied natural gas facilities have jumped to 18 million tons per year, up 81% since 2019, adding a volume of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere equivalent to that produced by several big coal plants, according to United States government data.They could more than double to 45 million tons per year by the end of the decade as new facilities, encouraged by soaring overseas demand for the super-cooled fuel, come online, according to company projections provided to the U.S.

U.S. energy firms cut oil rigs for a fourth week in a row to the lowest level since November 2009, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday, as energy firms keep slashing spending despite a more than 50 percent jump in crude futures since hitting a near 13-year low in February. Drillers cut 3 oil rigs in the week to April 15, bringing the total rig count down to 351, Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report. The number of U.S. oil rigs operating compares with the 734 rigs operating in the same week a year ago. In 2015, drillers cut on average 18 oil rigs per week for a total of 963 for the year, the biggest annual decline since at least 1988 amid the deepest rout in crude prices in a generation.

The Obama administration will announce Thursday safety regulations for offshore oil and natural gas drilling to prevent the kind of explosion that happened six years ago on a BP rig in the Gulf of Mexico, an official told Reuters. The Department of Interior will unveil the final version of its well control regulations, which will require more stringent design and operating procedures for well control equipment used in offshore oil and gas operations, said the official, who is close to the rulemaking process.

U.S. energy firms cut oil rigs for a third week in a row to the lowest level since November 2009, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said Friday, as energy firms keep slashing spending despite crude futures prices jumping roughly 50 percent  since hitting a near 13-year low in February. Drillers cut 8 oil rigs in the week to April 8, bringing the total rig count down to 354, Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report. The number of U.S. oil rigs currently operating compares with 760 rigs operating in the same week a year ago. In 2015, drillers cut on average 18 oil rigs per week for a total of 963 for the year, the biggest annual decline since at least 1988 amid the biggest rout in crude prices in a generation.

Force to receive 2 more advanced German Dolphin-class submarines in 2014, and a long range air defense system, in an unprecedented upgrade, reports the Jerusalem Post. The navy has been working with Israeli defense companies to develop a range of sea and underwater combat technologies, from radars to electronic warfare capabilities. Despite budget cuts, the IDF is in the midst of a multi-year force buildup process, and the navy is going through an unprecedented phase marked by weapons upgrades, reports the Jerusalem Post, citing Navy sources.

According to a June 26 report from Reuters, Venezuela is studying offers to restart drilling at an offshore natural gas well in the Caribbean Sea after an exploration platform sank there last month, the country's state-run oil company PDVSA said. The Aban Pearl rig, built by India's Aban Offshore Limited, was drilling 150 km from Venezuela's northeastern coast when it vanished beneath the waves without fatalities or immediate environmental damage. (Source: Reuters)

According to a report from the Associated Press, the U.S. Interior Department moved closer on Nov. 12 to opening waters off Virginia to oil and gas drilling, although the offshore development plans could be scrapped by the next administration under President-elect Obama. Interior's Minerals Management Service gave notice that it is conducting a formal examination of the environmental impact of oil and natural gas drilling 50 miles out from Virginia's coastline. (Source: Associated Press)

The Interior Department proposed giving energy companies credits for future royalties owed to the government on oil and natural gas drilling if they give up certain exploration leases in the Gulf of Mexico that are near the Florida coastline. Legislation passed by Congress mandated a moratorium on oil and gas leasing in federal waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico that is within 125 miles of the Florida coastline and in a portion of the central Gulf that is closer than 100 miles of the state's beaches. Congress allowed energy companies to exchange existing leases in the affected areas for credits on bonuses paid to drill on other government offshore tracts or credits for royalties due on oil or gas pumped from other leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

According to Reuters, the U.S. House of Representatives will not accept legislation passed by the Senate that keeps most U.S. Atlantic and Pacific waters off-limits to energy exploration, a key U.S. Republican lawmaker. Comments by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, chairman of the House Energy Committee, indicate dimming prospects that the energy legislation will pass Congress this year. House Republicans will not concede to Senate lawmakers' calls to accept an offshore drilling bill that expands energy exploration only narrowly, he said. Barton's comments to reporters at the Independent Petroleum Association of America's annual meeting signal tough going for offshore drilling legislation once Congress returns for a short voting session after the Nov. 7 mid-term elections.

President George W. Bush on recently said he was open to pending proposals in Congress to expand oil and natural gas leasing in federal waters provided it was at least 100 miles offshore. About 3 million acres in the eastern Gulf of Mexico would be opened to oil and natural gas drilling under a bipartisan Senate bill but the legislation could face problems from Florida and other coastal lawmakers as it moves to the floor. There are also efforts in the U.S. House to expand the areas in which industry can drill, although it remains unclear whether high energy costs will soften longstanding resistance to the idea from voters. Currently, only the central and western Gulf of Mexico and limited parts offshore Alaska are open to industry.

British Columbia's government is pushing to end a nearly four-decades-old ban on offshore oil and natural gas drilling to encourage exploration, Bloomberg reported. Fields off Canada's westernmost province's shores hold as much as 10 billion barrels of oil and 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to government estimates. It could be the biggest offshore reserves for any province based on these estimates, topping Newfoundland on the east coast. British Columbia is working to get a federal and provincial ban lifted. Talks with the former Liberal Party government started four years ago with limited progress. The province will now negotiate with the new Conservative Party government of Stephen Harper, a native of the oil-rich province of Alberta.

Norway’s Petrojack ASA is selling three jackup oil rigs, being built in Singapore, for $600m. Awilco Offshore ASA and Sinvest ASA will share the cost of the three offshore oil and natural gas drilling platforms. The Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 deep drilling rigs had been slated for sale to Transocean Inc., but the Houston company decided not to purchase the units. (Source: Monsters and Critics.com)

A federal agency developing a plan for oil and natural gas drilling off Florida's shores has agreed to hold a public hearing in Tallahassee next month. The Minerals Management Service, part of the Interior Department, last week began holding a series of 13 meetings on its next five-year Outer Continental Shelf leasing program that would include a huge area in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Panhandle. Florida politicians have complained that none of the meetings were scheduled in the state. Most are being held in Alaska with others scheduled in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Virginia. The added Florida meeting is scheduled for April 6.

An effort to open Virginia's coast to offshore drilling gained new momentum in Congress when Virginia's senators introduced legislation giving states the option to drill for natural gas. The bill would give governors of coastal states the power to opt out of a federal moratorium that prohibits offshore drilling in most U.S. coastal waters. The new legislation comes one week after the Bush administration signaled its support for such proposals by calling for a study of potential gas and oil development in Virginia waters. Unlike other recent drilling bills, however, the new legislation is limited to natural gas drilling - thereby keeping in place a federal ban on offshore drilling for oil.

Flow of first oil was announced by partners in the Genesis Project, a deepwater oil and natural gas drilling and production facility in 2,600 ft. of water in the Gulf of Mexico, located 150 miles south of New Orleans. Genesis is expected to produce approximately 30,000 barrels of oil and more than 20 million standard cu.-ft. of natural gas per day during 1999. Production is planned to increase at a steady pace so by the year 2000 Genesis will reach its peak production capacity of 55,000 barrels of oil and 72 million cu.-ft. of natural gas per day. Genesis utilizes a unique floating spar platform - the first ever to accommodate both drilling and production facilities.

According to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS), deepwater drilling (1,000 ft. and deeper) shows the greatest potential of development, and certainly has garnered the attention (as well as the E&P dollars) of offshore oil production industry leaders. By yearend 2003, the MMS estimates as much as 63 percent of the oil production and 29 percent of the daily gas production will come from deepwater reserves. In August of 1998 there were 30 (temporary and permanent) deepwater rigs drilling simultaneously in the Gulf of Mexico's Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), at depths greater than this. The proliferation of deepwater development projects will likely continue to grow…

Demand for offshore rigs in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico has softened after a natural gas drilling boom in the first half of 2001, but forces that could support a recovery may already be at work, analysts said on Monday. Drilling has slowed down in the waters off the Texas and Louisiana coasts in response to a steep drop in U.S. natural gas prices from record highs of around $10 per thousand cubic feet at the end of last year to levels of around $3 in recent weeks. The number of rigs working in the U.S. Gulf fell to 165 last week from 168 the previous week, bringing the utilization rate for the U.S. Gulf drilling fleet down to 77.8 percent from 90.5 percent in late April, according to Offshore Data Services.

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico region is again poised to prosper, spurred by the buzz of activity surrounding the oil patch, and specifically the renewed vigor with which companies will explore and develop deepwater fields for the production of natural resources. Though the resumption of business at "full throttle" has taken perhaps a bit longer than many observers would have initially predicted, particularly given the continued high price of oil and gas and the "pro" oil industry political team occupying the White House, it is a safe bet that, at least for the next several years, the offshore oil business will ensure that the marine business in the GOM region is a prosperous one.

The Senate on Thursday backed a White House compromise that drastically reduced proposed oil and natural gas drilling off Florida's Gulf Coast, rejecting a bid by the state's Democratic senators to temporarily block development of the tract. Voting 67-33, the Democratic-led Senate rejected an amendment pushed by Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Bob Graham to delay for six months oil and gas leasing in a lucrative tract in federal waters off the coasts of Florida and Alabama. After the Republican-led House of Representatives voted last month for a six-month ban on the leasing, President George W. Bush agreed to shrink the tract by 75 percent and keep it at least 100 miles away from Florida's beaches. Florida lawmakers, including Gov.

The boom in U.S. onshore oil and natural gas drilling has yet to peak, bolstering forecasts of continued strong demand for rigs, analysts and executives said this week. But growth in the onshore rig market is likely to slow down next year, and activity in the offshore market is already tailing off, with some companies sending rigs away from the Gulf of Mexico to other countries where profits may be better. "We expect to see 30 to 33 percent growth in the total U.S. rig count this year over 2000," an analyst said. "The problem is, we'll only see 8 percent growth from 2001 to 2002, and then companies will have to add units," the analyst added, noting that the 2001 rig count increased 49 percent from 1999 to 2001.

Record gas prices, OPEC solidarity and a U.S. administration doling out incentives for exploration and production all add up to good news for those companies conducting business in or profiting from the offshore market. There is little doubt that the international offshore market, led by the Gulf of Mexico, is poised for a record rebound in the second half of 2001 and beyond. The tandem of high crude prices — spurred by OPEC's seeming solidarity on controlling output — combined with the emphasis on expanding offshore production by the new U.S. administration seemingly provides the proverbial "win-win" for all companies that makes its living finding and recovering resources, or those companies that supply vessels, products and services to the offshore oil business.

Global Marine Inc. Chief Executive Bob Rose expects daily rental rates, or dayrates, for offshore oil and gas drilling rigs to surpass their highs of three years ago in 2001. "We will see rates exceed the 1997-98 high levels. That will very definitely be this year," Rose said. Dayrates are currently running at about 74 percent of their 1997/98 highs, Rose said, with the West African and North Sea markets now showing signs of recovery as a longer-established natural gas drilling boom continues in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Rose said that as a result of a recent expansion of its fleet of rigs, Global Marine was capable of annual earnings per share of about $3.25 if market conditions matched those of 1997.

New legislation that would bring natural gas drilling 20 miles off coastlines in Florida and other states is scheduled to be heard by a U.S. House Committee in Washington, D.C., according to AP reports. The bill is the latest in a series of attempts to expand offshore drilling due to price increases and shortages linked to fuel supply disruptions caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf of Mexico. Drilling opponents so far have been able to beat back attempts to lift presidential and congressional moratoriums on offshore drilling. Oil and gas rigs are seen as a threat to beaches that are vital to the Florida's tourism industry, according to the report. The natural gas bill is being offered by Reps. John E. Peterson, R-Pa., and Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii.