Bsee News

Asian Oil & Gas (AOG) is hosting a webinar on the groundbreaking patents that are pushing multiphase detection, measurement, and control technology forward.Throughout the oil and gas and petrochemical industries, liquid-to-liquid separation is a fundamental process. Though instrumentation has come a long way, a new high performance, cost-effective time domain reflectometry (TDR) based multi-phase detector is now available and ideal for widespread adoption. It handles changing…

Multiple training and personnel safety failures led to a 2020 worker casualty on board the Pacific Khamsin drillship in the Gulf of Mexico, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said in a recent report..A rig crewmember was killed on August 23, 2020 while assisting his team in breaking out bolts and pulling riser joints to the surface as the Pacific Drilling drillship crew prepared to secure the well and evacuate the location ahead of incoming storms. The drillship was under contract with Total E&P USA, conducting well operations in Garden Banks Block 1003, approximately 174 miles offshore Louisiana at the time of the incident.A panel comprised of BSEE subject matter experts…

The Biden administration on Monday proposed offshore drilling safety measures that it said would help prevent oil spills and protect workers and the environment.The proposal aims to restore safety provisions put in place by the Obama administration in 2016 following the fatal 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill, the worst in United States history.The Trump administration had revised the rules in 2019 to reduce what the oil and gas industry said was a financial burden.The Interior Department…

Response crews have collected more than one million gallons of oil from a Gulf of Mexico spill that has been ongoing for nearly 20 years.The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and partner agencies have been working to contain oil that continues to leak from damaged wells in Mississippi Canyon Block 20 (MC-20), located 11 miles south of the Louisiana shoreline, after storm surge from Hurricane Ivan in 2004 triggered an underwater mudslide that toppled Taylor Energy's MC-20 platform. The active spill is the longest-running in U.S.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s National Oil Spill Response Research and Renewable Energy Test Facility, known as Ohmsett, has now reopened after undergoing significant refurbishment over the past eight months as part of BSEE’s ongoing maintenance plan. Originally constructed and operated by the U.S. EPA in 1974, the facility was passed to the U.S. Navy and then to the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service in 1990. Today, it is the only facility in the U.S. conducting full-scale oil spill response research, equipment testing and training using live oil.

U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) inspectors and engineers last week carried out an offshore regulatory pre-production inspection of Murphy Oil’s King’s Quay floating production system (FPS) platform. The facility, a semi-submersible FPS, is now currently moored in Green Canyon Block 433 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, about 175 miles south of New Orleans.“The first offshore follow-up inspection is a very crucial time in the installation of a new production platform in the Gulf,” said BSEE Houma District production supervisor Micah Charpentier.

The company that operates the pipeline that spilled an estimated 3,000 barrels of oil into the Pacific Ocean off California has an 800-page manual on handling an oil spill - but it is unclear whether its employees followed those procedures.Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp and several state and federal regulatory agencies have provided differing accounts of what happened on Oct. 2, when the pipeline spill that fouled beaches, killed wildlife, and closed down fishing along miles of coastline was officially reported.The U.S.

Democratic members of Congress from California seized on the oil spill off the state's coast to promote federal legislation to ban all offshore oil drilling, as investigators searched for what caused the pipeline to burst.About 3,000 barrels (126,000 gallons) of crude oil spilled into the Pacific Ocean, killing wildlife, soiling the coastline, and forcing officials to close beaches in several cities in Orange County, just south of Los Angeles. The spill follows dozens of incidents in the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Ida, which slammed into the U.S.

U.S. Gulf Coast crude oil exports are flowing again after recent hurricanes took out 26 million barrels of offshore production, according to sources and Refinitiv Eikon data, with local prices easing as more shipments moved out of the region.Hurricanes Ida and Nicholas damaged platforms, pipelines and processing hubs, shutting in most offshore production for weeks. Restarts continued on Thursday with about 28% of U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude output offline. Some vessels remained at sea waiting to load U.S. crude.But of more than 50 tankers set to load U.S.

Energy companies worked to restore pipeline service and electricity after Tropical Storm Nicholas passed through on Tuesday, allowing them to return to repairing the significant damage caused by Hurricane Ida two weeks ago.Nicholas, downgraded to a tropical depression late Tuesday, caused rain, flooding, and power outages in Texas and Louisiana, where some refineries remained offline in the wake of Hurricane Ida. The earlier storm shuttered most U.S. Gulf offshore oil and gas production.Colonial Pipeline, the largest U.S.

Royal Dutch Shell on Monday began evacuating staff from a U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil platform, and other energy companies began preparing for hurricane-force winds from a second Gulf Coast storm in as many weeks.Tropical Storm Nicholas was about 105 miles (115 km) south of Port O'Connor, Texas, and moving north with winds of 60 miles per hour (97 kph). It could become a hurricane just ahead of landfall on Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.Waves stirred up by Nicholas neared 12 feet (3.7 m) in height were reported outside of Port Aransas…

Damage to oil production facilities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico kept output largely halted on Sunday, a week after Hurricane Ida made landfall, according to offshore regulator the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).Energy companies have been coping with damaged platforms and onshore power outages and logistical issues, slowing efforts to restart production. Some 88% of crude oil output and 83% of natural gas production remained suspended.About 1.6 million barrels of crude oil remained offline, with only about 100,000 barrels added since Saturday.

Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corporation has sent a force majeure notice to its client Shell over the Noble Globetrotter II drillship contract after the rig was damaged earlier this week in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in severe weather during Hurricane Ida. The 2013-built ultra-deepwater drillship has a contract with Shell lasting until early September 2023 at a flexible day rate of at least $275,000.U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday that the drillship, located 80 nautical miles south, southeast of Grand Isle, La., in the Gulf of Mexico, had sustained damage and that a plan was being developed to bring the vessel into port for repairs.Around 140 crew members were on board when the storm hit, Reuters reported earlier this week, citing USCG petty officer Carlos Galarza said.Noble Corp.

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday it is responding to a drillship that reportedly sustained damage as Hurricane Ida ripped through the Gulf of Mexico and into Louisiana as a Category 4 storm.The agency said it was notified during the storm that the ultra-deepwater drillship Noble Globetrotter II had been damaged, and that it had been in touch with both the vessel's master and owner Noble Corporation since Sunday to gauge the extent of any damage and to ensure readiness of onboard lifesaving equipment.The Liberian-flagged drillship and its 100-plus crew are currently located 80 nautical miles south, southeast of Grand Isle, La. The vessel's U.S. licensed master has maintained that the drillship was not in distress and is not actively taking on water, according to the Coast Guard.

Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana on Sunday as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm, forcing those who did not flee to brace themselves for the toughest test yet of the billions of dollars spent on levee upgrades following Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago.Ida came ashore near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, at 11:55 a.m. CDT (16:55 GMT), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Hurricane-strength winds extended 50 miles (80 km) out from Ida's eye, forcing New Orleans to suspend…

Energy firms on Sunday had suspended 1.74 million barrels per day of oil production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), as Hurricane Ida slammed into the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 storm.Ida made landfall on Sunday near Port Fourchon, the land base for the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the largest privately-owned crude terminal in the United States.Oil companies raced to evacuate employees from offshore infrastructure in the days ahead of the storm, prompting shutdowns at their facilities in the Gulf.Almost 94% of U.S.

Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) announced Dr. Tom Coolbaugh has joined the team as the Program/Facility Manager for Ohmsett – The National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility. He will have oversight of the day-to-day operations, maintenance and testing at the facility, while ensuring facility users’ needs are met.Dr. Coolbaugh recently retired after 32 years with ExxonMobil Corporation, most recently as the Technology and Advocacy Advisor in the Emergency Preparedness and Response organization.

Energy companies were securing offshore production platforms and evacuating workers on Tuesday, some for the sixth time this year, as a major hurricane took aim at U.S. oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.Hurricane Delta, the 25th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season, was churning in the Caribbean with sustained winds of 140 miles per hour (225 kph), already a dangerous Category 4 storm that is expected to scrape across Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and re-enter the…

Norwegean surveying services company TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company (TGS) has been awarded a five-year contract for Digital Well Log Data Processing with the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), a federal agency tasked with overseeing offshore oil and gas activities.TGS has been providing Digital Well Log Data Processing services to BSEE since 2004, said the provider of multi-client geoscience data to oil and gas Exploration and Production companies worldwide.BSEE requires complete, defect-free sets of processed, high-quality open-hole digital well log data and contracts companies to serve as an agent of BSEE for the processing…

The US should define the Gulf of Mexico Shallow Water Province as a distinct entity to avoid stranding more than $20 billion of its oil and gas resource, said a new research.According to a research from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) the GOM Shallow Water Province, comprised of water less than 200 meters deep, is a historically energy-rich area which now produces natural gas, accounting for 33% of the gulf’s gas production and just over 10% of its oil production.Production and infrastructure investment used to be substantially higher in the Shallow Water Province…

The Trump administration on Thursday proposed to loosen Obama-era safety regulations for the oil industry in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska to ease the way for petroleum extraction in the region, an effort that President-elect Joe Biden will likely throw out once in office.The proposal would revise a suite of Obama-era rules crafted to improve safety in the extreme conditions of the Arctic after a Shell drilling rig ran aground there in 2012. The company later abandoned oil exploration in the region and there are no active drilling operations there.Now, much of the U.S.

U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil companies shut around 82 percent of oil production on Monday and evacuated personnel bracing for the impact of two tropical storms Marco and Laura.From operator reports, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said Monday that approximately 82.4 percent of oil production and 56.92 percent of the natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico had been shut-in. Based on data from offshore operator reports submitted as of 11:30 CDT Monday, personnel has been evacuated from a total of 281 production platforms…

The U.S. offshore safety regulator BSEE has formed a panel to investigate a fatal incident that happened earlier this month at a Fieldwood Energy-operated oil platform, in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Louisiana.As previously reported, an offshore worker died on Saturday, May 15, in an incident that, according to Fieldwood, happened during a non-emergency casing pressure test on a shut-in well, at Eugene Island Block 158, Platform #14.The platform sits around 125 miles southwest of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico.Now…