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Gas Development News

03 Mar 2024

Esgian Week 9 Report: Dolphin, Diamond and Seadrill Updates

© AndSus / Adobe Stock

Esgian reports rig-related updates from Dolphin Drilling, Diamond Offshore, and Seadrill in its Week 9 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report Outline:ContractsDespite Tullow Oil’s recent announcement that it would take a break from drilling offshore Ghana, Noble Corp. has stated that there has been no contract termination announcement and that its 12,000-ft drillship Noble Venturer is currently still contracted to Tullow into March 2025.Masirah Oil Ltd has signed a rig contract with…

02 Nov 2023

US Postpones Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Auction Due to Litigation

Credit: james_pintar/AdobeStock

The Biden administration on Thursday postponed a Nov. 8 sale of offshore drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico pending the outcome of a lawsuit over oil and gas development and federal protection of an endangered species of whale.The move comes after a U.S. appeals court on Oct. 26 temporarily paused a lower court order requiring the Interior Department's U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to expand the auction, which was originally scheduled to be held in September.Oral arguments are scheduled for Nov.

09 Oct 2023

US Committed to Tackling Offshore Wind Challenges -Intelatus

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Despite the negative headlines around the longer-term prospects for the U.S. offshore wind segment, business intelligence company Intelatus Global Partners sees continued efforts by the federal government and, in particular, the East Coast states to find solutions to the challenges faced by the industry as whole, which can be grouped under three headings: high inflation, supply chain development and high interest rates.On the side of the federal government, offshore wind leasing and permitting is being prioritized over oil and gas development.

14 Aug 2023

FLNG Unit for BP's Tortue Ahmeyim Project Nearing Completion

Credit: BP

The Golar Gimi FLNG unit, being built for BP's Tortue Ahmeyim project in Senegal/Mauritania offshore area, is set to sail away next month.According to Golar LNG, tasked with delivering the unit, the FLNG Gimi conversion works 97% complete. Golar LNG said that FLNG Gimi was scheduled to leave the yard in September 2023. „Final checks, storing up and sea trials will then take place in Singapore ahead of her voyage to Mauritania and Senegal, expected to commence around the end of September/early October…

20 Jul 2023

LNG Barge Clean Canaveral Bunkers First Cargo Ship in Canaveral

LNG bunker barge transferring LNG to Damia Desgagnés at Port Canaveral (Photo: JAX LNG)

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker barge Clean Canaveral completed its first barge-to-ship bunkering of a cargo vessel at Port Canaveral’s South Cargo Berth 4. JAX LNG, along with Polaris New Energy, handled the LNG refueling of the Damia Desgagnés on the ship’s inaugural call to Port Canaveral. The asphalt/bitumen tanker Damia Desgagnés completed her discharge of cargo and then JAX LNG proceeded with Desgagnés’s first barge-to-ship bunkering of LNG. The seafarers safely transferred approximately 400 cubic meters of LNG from North America’s largest LNG bunker barge…

14 Jul 2023

Shearwater in 'Pioneering' Seismic Survey Project Offshore Norway

©Shearwater

Offshore seismic survey specialist Shearwater on Friday announced a new project with the Austrian oil firm OMV for a "pioneering" towed streamer survey with Ocean Bottom Nodes over the Berling gas and condensate discovery in the Norwegian Sea. Spanning 1040 sq.km, this hybrid survey starts in July 2023 and will last for three months. Shearwater's vessels, SW Tasman and Oceanic Vega, will lead the operations. SW Tasman will operate as an ROV node deployment vessel for first time…

09 Mar 2023

US Needs Until Year-end to Complete Offshore Drilling Plan

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The Biden administration needs until the end of this year to finalize a long-awaited five-year plan for offshore oil and gas development in federal waters, according to court documents filed this week.The U.S. has been without a congressionally-mandated five year schedule of offshore oil and gas auctions since the previous one expired in June 2022. The process is being closely watched by the oil and gas industry, which has pressed for more leasing to boost domestic fuel supplies, and by environmentalists, who say drilling conflicts with President Joe Biden's promise to fight climate change.

11 Jan 2023

Elizabeth Klein Named BOEM Director

Elizabeth Klein (Photo: BOEM)

The U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday named Elizabeth Klein, a lawyer who worked in the Obama and Clinton administrations, to head the bureau that oversees offshore oil, gas and wind development.Klein will take over for the current head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Amanda Lefton, who has resigned from the post effective Jan.

30 Sep 2022

DOF Subsea Nets U.S. Gulf of Mexico Work

Subsea services company DOF Subsea said Friday it had won multiple contracts in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The company has received a contract award for the provision of services to "a major operator" in the Gulf of Mexico, starting in the fourth quarter of 2022.

12 Sep 2022

Exmar Pens LNG Carrier Deal with Eni. Closes Tango FLNG Sale

Belgian shipowner Exmar said on Friday it had signed a 10-year charter deal for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessel Excalibur with Eni as the Belgian shipowner closes the sale of its Tango LNG barge to the Italian energy group.The squeeze on oil and gas imports from Russia, following what Moscow calls "a special military operation" in Ukraine, has left Western powers scrambling to plug the energy gap, pushing them to expand LNG capacity.Exmar, which had been struggling to find a user to charter one of its giant LNG ships, said in August it had agreed to sell its Tango LNG floating liquefaction facility to Italy's Eni for 572 million to 694 million dollars.The group said in an earnings report that it had recently signed an agreement to acquire 100% of Excalibur…

25 Aug 2022

East Timor Expects Australia to Back Greater Sunrise Gas Development via Timor

File image - Credit: Woodside

East Timor is confident the Australian government will support plans for gas from the massive Greater Sunrise offshore field to be processed in Timor rather than Darwin, the country's petroleum authority head said on Thursday.Greater Sunrise lies in waters between East Timor and Australia and holds an estimated 7.3 trillion cubic feet of gas which the Timorese urgently want to develop as the impoverished nation's main revenue source, the Bayu Undan oil and gas field, is set to…

05 Aug 2022

Eni Buys Exmar's Tango FLNG for Use in the Congo

(Photo: Exmar)

Italian oil major Eni announced it has signed a deal to to buy the Tango FLNG floating liquefaction plant from Belgium-based Exmar for use in the Republic of Congo. Under the agreement, Eni will acquire Exmar's company Export LNG Ltd, which owns the Tango FLNG.Tango FLNG, delivered in 2017, has a storage capacity of 16,100 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and a liquefaction capacity of up to 0.6 million tons per year.The value of the transaction is in a range of $572 and $694 million, depending on the unit's performance during the first six months on site, Exmar said.

21 Jul 2022

Biden Moves to Expand Offshore Wind to Gulf of Mexico

Credit: BOEM

The Biden administration on Wednesday said it had identified 700,000 acres for possible offshore wind energy development in the Gulf of Mexico, seeking to expand a growing clean energy industry to a major U.S. oil and gas hub.It also said President Joe Biden would direct his Interior Department to move ahead with offshore wind development in areas of the Atlantic coast where former President Donald Trump banned oil and gas development."Today we open up yet another coast and frontier in expanding offshore wind…

04 Jul 2022

Five-year Plan: U.S. to Hold Between Zero and 11 Offshore Drilling Lease Sales

Credit:  flyingrussian/AdobeStock

President Joe Biden's administration on Friday unveiled a five-year proposal for offshore oil and gas development in areas of existing production, and said the final plan may have anywhere from zero to 11 lease sales.The range of options, between two auctions a year and none at all, sought to balance the administration's efforts to fight climate change with its calls to increase oil and gas supplies in the face of soaring fuel prices.The proposed plan includes no more than 10 possible sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one in the Cook Inlet off the coast of Alaska…

30 Jun 2022

Biden Administration Offshore Drilling Plan Delayed

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The Biden administration on Thursday delayed the rollout of a proposed five-year offshore oil and gas development plan that had been promised by the end of the month, according to sources.Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland in May had vowed to unveil the draft proposal ahead of the June 30 expiration of the current plan. The department will not be able to hold any offshore oil and gas lease sales until a new plan is finalized.Briefings with officials meant to take place Thursday ahead of a public announcement were unexpectedly delayed, according to sources.

30 Jun 2022

Biden Drilling Plan May Exclude All Waters Beyond Gulf of Mexico

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The U.S. Interior Department has recommended to the White House that all federal offshore oil and gas drilling auctions over the next five years be located in the Gulf of Mexico, where the drilling industry has already been focused for decades, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The recommendation to exclude all other waters from offshore oil and gas development comes as U.S. President Joe Biden seeks to balance his goal to transition the country away from fossil fuels against a Congressional requirement to hold regular drilling auctions…

25 May 2022

LNG Prices Could Stay High for a Few Years, Woodside CEO Says

Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill  - Credit: Woodside

Woodside Energy Group, Australia's top independent natural gas producer, sees liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices staying high for a few years as the market adjusts to supply disruptions after sanctions on Russia for its Ukraine invasion."With the invasion, we are seeing the world try to move away from Russian hydrocarbons and that means that demand for LNG from places like Australia is up," Woodside Chief Executive Meg O'Neill said."We do expect ... prices to remain elevated for the next year…

20 May 2022

U.S. Preparing New Five-year Plan for Offshore Oil and Gas Auctions

Credit: Stephanie/AdobeStock

The Biden administration will propose a new five-year plan for offshore oil and gas development by June 30, the date when the current plan expires, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said on Thursday.The announcement comes as the administration has faced pressure from Republican lawmakers to expand domestic drilling to address soaring fuel costs. President Joe Biden, however, wants to reform the federal government's oil and gas program to consider its impacts on climate change.Haaland testified before the Senate energy committee to answer questions on the administration's 2023 budget proposal…

13 May 2022

NOIA: U.S. Gov't Move Against Offshore Oil & Gas Lease Sales 'Devastating to Americans'

An oil platform in Cook Inlet, Alaska/Image by Paul/AdobeStock

Erik Milito, president of the U.S. National Ocean Industries Association, said this week that the U.S. government's decision not to hold offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Cook Inlet was expected, but also "devastating to Americans.""This decision is not surprising at all. As early as March 2020, then-candidate Biden made it clear that he would stop federal oil and gas development if elected. This was followed by additional formal campaign declarations…

02 May 2022

German Offshore Wind Firm RWE Eyes Business with Louisiana Companies

Credit: RWE

RWE Renewables, a German offshore wind giant is looking to build an offshore wind supply chain in Louisiana, one of the top U.S. oil and gas producing states. RWE said last week it would collaborate with Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.) and GNOwind Alliance to build a program that will accelerate the engagement of Louisiana's supply chain with offshore wind and benefit all Louisianians. Greater New Orleans, Inc. is the regional economic development nonprofit organization serving the 10-parish region of Southeast Louisiana.Over the next six months, GNO, Inc.

28 Mar 2022

Clean Canaveral Completes Inaugural LNG Bunkering

The Clean Canaveral providing cool-down services and bunkering LNG to the Eagle Brasilia (Photo: Polaris New Energy)

The Clean Canaveral, a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker barge operating along the coast of the southeastern United States, recently completed its inaugural bunkering in Jacksonville, Fla. The Clean Canaveral has a capacity of 5,500 cubic meters, making it the largest Jones Act LNG bunker barge. The vessel operates as an articulated tug barge unit (ATB) and is owned by Polaris New Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Seaside LNG Holdings.The operation marks the first barge-to-ship cool down performed in the United States.

28 Jan 2022

U.S. Judge Annuls Gulf of Mexico Oil Auction Over Climate Impact

A drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico - Credit:flyingrussian/AdobeStock

A federal judge invalidated the results of an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday saying the Biden administration failed to properly account for the auction's climate change impact.The decision has cast uncertainty over the future of the U.S. federal offshore drilling program, which has been a big source of public revenue for decades but also drawn the ire of activists concerned about its impact on the environment and contribution to global warming.The Gulf of Mexico accounts for 15% of existing U.S.

15 Nov 2021

SCF gets $110m Credit Facility to Finance Ice-Class Shuttle Tankers

PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group) signed a $110 million credit facility, for 10 years, with ING BANK N.V., SMBC BANK EU AG and UNICREDIT BANK AG, to finance two new ice-class shuttle tankers.The ships, scheduled to be delivered in Q1 2022, will serve the Sakhalin-1 project (oil and gas development in the Sea of Okhotsk, on the north-eastern shelf of Sakhalin Island, Russia. Exxon Neftegas Ltd. (an affiliate of Exxon Mobil) is the project’s operator and acts as the charterer for the vessels.