Louisiana Slams EPA over Lack of Urgency on Carbon Reduction Project Approvals
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving too slowly to allow states to permit and oversee carbon-reduction projects, according to Louisiana's governor, slowing millions of dollars in investments designed to tackle greenhouse gas reduction.Louisiana and other top oil-producing states say they can speed up permitting of carbon sequestration projects if allowed to handle decisions that currently fall under the EPA. There are dozens of these projects with multi-million…
Emergency Buy: LNG Tankers Start Offloading Cargo in Mexico
Mexico on Friday began discharging the first of at least four cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) bought under emergency to ease gas scarcity and power cuts at its Northern states after a cold snap hit supplies via pipeline from the U.S. South.The Marshall Island tanker Flex Courageous carrying U.S. LNG docked on Friday at the Manzanillo terminal on the Pacific Coast, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. The vessel is expected to discharge about 162,850 cubic meters that the government plans to supply to several power plants.A second cargo also from the United States on the tanker Seri Balhaf is waiting to discharge about 151,300 cubic meters of LNG at Mexico's Altamira terminal on the Gulf Coast…
Petrobras to Buy P-71 FPSO and Deploy It on Itapu Field
Brazilian national oil company Petrobras has agreed to buy the P-71 Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel and use it for the development of the Itapu field.Petrobras said that the FPSO was to be used at the Tupi field, however, after negotiations with its partners in BM-S-11 Consortium, Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda (25%) and Petrogal Brasil S.A. (10%), Petrobras agreed to buy the FPSO for $353 million, the amount corresponding to the partners' share in P-71.The P-71…
Suncor Extinguishes Fire on Terra Nova FPSO
A fire broke out on Saturday aboard Suncor Energy-operated Terra Nova FPSO offshore Canada, the offshore oil and gas regulator C-NLOPB said.Suncor told C-NLOPB that everyone onboard was accounted for and safe, and that the fire had been extinguished."There are no injuries and we await further information from Suncor as to the extent & their assessment of the cause," the C-NLOPB said Saturday. According to a report by CBC, there are 82 people aboard the FPSO.Per C-NLOPB, there is no gas or crude held onboard the FPSO which has been shut down for maintenance."The facility is not producing at this time,” CNLOPB tweeted on May 30.To remind…
OGA: UK North Sea Gas Less Carbon Intensive than Imported LNG
Gas produced from the offshore platforms in the UK North Sea is less carbon-intensive than LNG imported in the UK, the UK oil and gas regulator OGA said Tuesday.According to the OGA analysis, the production of natural gas from the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) creates less than half as much greenhouse gas as imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).Per the OGA, gas extracted from the UKCS has an average emission intensity of 22 kgCO2e/boe; while imported LNG has a significantly higher average intensity of 59 kgCO2e/boe.Worth noting…
Chevron exits Indonesia's Makassar Strait block
Chevron will exit the Makassar Strait gas block in the Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) offshore natural gas project to focus on more promising areas in the venture, Indonesian officials said on Wednesday.Indonesia's energy minister had issued a decree terminating Chevron's Makassar Strait production sharing contract (PSC) after it decided not to extend its operation of the block beyond 2020, upstream oil and gas regulator SKKMigas said."Chevron was not interested in requesting an extension," SKKMigas chairman Amien Sunaryadi told reporters.
BP to supply LNG to Indonesia
BP has signed an agreement with Indonesian state-owned power utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to supply 16 LNG cargoes annually from Tangguh project during the period 2020 to 2035, Reuters reported. The Indonesian oil and gas regulator SKKMigas said that the supply will be directed to different destinations so that PLN can use it for various power plants in Indonesia. The government is expected to get $5 billion in revenue from LNG sales during the period of the contracts, said SKKMigas chief Amien Sunaryadi in a statement. Indonesian LNG producers have faced an increase in uncommitted cargoes of the super-cooled fuel in recent years amid an expansion of cheap gas production globally and sluggish development of domestic LNG consumption.
Indonesian Approved $1.5 bln of O&G Projects from Jan-Apr
Indonesia's upstream oil and gas regulator, SKK Migas, approved development plans for 18 oil and gas projects from January to April, with a total investment of $1.496 billion, it said in a statement on Sunday. SKK Migas estimated the cumulative oil and condensate production from the 18 projects to be 45 million barrels, while the natural gas production is estimated at 271 billion cubic feet. The projects are projected to start between 2016 to 2020, the statement said. Most of the projects approved are operated by Chevron Pacific Indonesia, the local unit of U.S. oil and gas firm Chevron Corp. (Reporting by Wilda Asmarini; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
Indonesia Seeks Buyers for LNG Cargoes
According to a report in Reuters, Indonesia is seeking buyers for "three to four" uncommitted liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes from its Bontang refinery operated by state energy company Pertamina in 2016. "If there's a domestic buyer that wants them we'll prioritise them for domestic use," SKKMigas vice president of gas commercialisation Sampe L. Purba told reporters, noting that these were the country's only uncommitted cargoes for 2016. Indonesia is expected to consume 60 LNG cargoes in 2016, Purba said, 80 percent of which will be used to generate electricity. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s LNG exports face a tough challenge from new projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea, an analyst at Indonesian oil and gas regulator SKKMigas said.
Second Quake hits North Oklahoma
A magnitude 4.1 quake hit near the north Oklahoma town of Medford on Friday, the second temblor in two days to hit the area where energy extraction takes place. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 4.6, struck at 4:40 p.m. at a shallow depth of 4.9 miles (8 km) with the epicenter 9 miles (15 km), north-northwest of Medford. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries. A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck northern Oklahoma early on Thursday, rattling residents out of their beds and shaking the ground across a 100-mile (160-km) radius that included the city of Tulsa and the state of Kansas.
Shell to Sell Interest in Brazilian Offshore Project
Shell has announced an agreement to sell a 23% interest in the Parque das Conchas (BC-10) project offshore Brazil to Qatar Petroleum International for approximately $1 billion, subject to closing . The transaction is subject to approval by the National Petroleum and Gas Agency (ANP, Brazil’s Oil and Gas regulator) and the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE, Brazil’s anti-trust authority). Shell will continue to operate BC-10 with a 50% working interest and retains a significant upstream presence in Brazil.
Indonesia Cabotage Rule May Lower Offshore Production
According to a report from Bloomberg, Indonesia’s offshore oil and gas output may drop as production and shipment of the fuels using foreign-owned vessels will be banned under the cabotage rule starting May 7, the nation’s oil and gas regulator said. (Source: Bloomberg)
