Undiscovered Oil News

As part of a joint military exercise with the Philippines, the U.S. Navy is slated to sink a mock warship on April 26, 2023, in the South China Sea.The live-fire drill is not a response to increased tensions with China over Taiwan, both the U.S. and the Philippines have stressed. But, either way, Beijing isn’t happy – responding by holding its own staged military event involving actual warships and fighter jets deployed around Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own.The tit-for-tat war games underscore a reality that U.S.

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.

The United States has a world-leading 293 billion barrels of recoverable oil resources, which is 20Bbbl more than Saudi Arabia and 100Bbbl more than Russia, with the Permian Basin leading that charge.Rystad Energy’s estimate of US recoverable oil is also five times more than officially reported proven reserves as published in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2019.Tight oil plays in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico now hold 100 billion barrels of recoverable oil resources, according to Rystad Energy’s analysis. Shale/tight resources in the Permian thus remain largely flat from the previous year, as production has been replaced through improvements in well configuration…

The nuclear icebreaker Lenin, the pride and joy of the Soviet Union's Arctic great game, lies at perpetual anchor in the frigid water here. A relic of the Cold War, it is now a museum. But nearly three decades after the Lenin was taken out of service to be turned into a visitor attraction, Russia is again on the march in the Arctic and building new nuclear icebreakers. It is part of a push to firm Moscow's hand in the High North as it vies for dominance with traditional rivals Canada, the United States, and Norway as well as newcomer China.

Industry analyst and environmental consultant Dagmar Schmidt Etkin, PhD, takes a hard look at a rapidly shifting operational landscape in the Arctic. Always an honest broker of information, Etkin tells it like it is. Oil spill risk is present anywhere that oil is present in reservoirs, or is transported, consumed, stored, and handled in some way. The Arctic is no exception. Not only are there oil reserves in the Arctic, some of which are being or will soon be considered for exploration and production, there is also oil being transported as cargo or as fuel to Arctic communities.

Norwegian oil major Statoil said on Tuesday it will pull out of Alaska's Chukchi Sea, just weeks after Royal Dutch Shell abandoned the treacherous waters there after spending billions on oil exploration work. The latest pullback comes as oil companies slash spending on expensive offshore projects during the worst price crash in six years. Businesses, politicians and environmental groups have squared off over drilling in the Arctic, which is widely believed to have large undiscovered oil resources. Statoil said it will exit 16 leases it operates and its stake in 50 leases operated by ConocoPhillips. "Since 2008, we have worked to progress our options in Alaska.

The Obama administration on Monday granted Royal Dutch Shell the final permit to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic for the first time since 2012, a move environmentalists vowed to fight. The Interior Department gave Shell the final permit to drill into the oil zone in the Chukchi Sea off northern Alaska after the Fennica, an icebreaker the company leases that carries emergency well-plugging equipment, was repaired after suffering a gash in its hull. The permit was expected as…

Russia has submitted its bid for vast territories in the Arctic to the United Nations, AP reported as the Foreign Ministry saying. The ministry said in a statement that Russia is claiming 1.2 million square kilometres (over 463,000 square miles) of Artic sea shelf extending more than 350 nautical miles (about 650 kilometres) from the shore. It said the bid contains new arguments. “Ample scientific data collected in years of Arctic research are used to back the Russian claim,” it said. Moscow also is asserting ownership of the emerging Northern Sea Route, the potentially lucrative seasonal shipping route opening above its northern coastline as Arctic ice melts. Rivalry for Arctic resources has intensified as shrinking polar ice is opening up new opportunities for exploration.

Ten major environmental groups filed a lawsuit on June 2 challenging the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM) approval of Royal Dutch Shell's exploration plan for drilling in the Chukchi Sea this summer. The lawsuit seeks a review of permits granted to Royal Dutch Shell PLC by the BOEM for exploratory drilling in the Chukchi (chuk-CHEE’) Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast. Shell paid $2.1 billion for its Arctic leases. The oil giant intends to drill six exploratory wells this summer at a site about 75 miles northwest of the Alaska hamlet of Wainwright. Although Shell still needs drilling permits and other government authorizations, the ocean energy bureau's approval of its exploration plan was a significant milestone.

Several environmental groups sued the United States on Tuesday to derail Royal Dutch Shell PLC's plan to drill in the Arctic Ocean as soon as July. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, gave conditional approval in May to Shell's resumption of fossil fuel exploration in the Arctic, which was paused after a mishap-filled 2012 season. The decision was met with approval by some Alaska lawmakers, who believe it will bring money and jobs to the state, as well as protests from environmentalists. The Sierra Club and nine other groups sought to overturn the government's decision in a petition with the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. Shell representatives could not be reached for comment.

Royal Dutch Shell's return to oil drilling in the U.S. Arctic for the first time since 2012 took a big step forward on Monday when the Obama administration approved the company's exploration plan. The Department of Interior conditionally approved Shell's plan to explore for oil in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska. Shell has already spent about $6 billion on exploration in the Arctic. The Arctic is estimated to contain about 20 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and natural gas, but its recovery could be decades away.

Royal Dutch Shell's quest to return to Arctic drilling for the first time in three years could face delays after Seattle ruled that the city's port must apply for a permit before hosting rigs. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a Democrat who has fought against new projects by coal and oil companies, threw a serious barrier in front of the waterfront when he announced the port doesn't have the right permit to allow Shell's vessels to dock at Terminal 5. He applauded the requirement by the city's planning department. Despite months of public outcry and protests against plans to moor Royal Dutch Shell’s Arctic oil drilling fleet in the Port of Seattle, the oil giant’s ship is inching closer to the Emerald City.

Royal Dutch Shell's quest to return to Arctic drilling for the first time in three years could face delays after Seattle ruled that the city's port must apply for a permit for the company to use it as a hub for drilling rigs. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a Democrat who has fought against new projects by coal and oil companies, applauded the requirement by the city's planning department. "This is an opportunity for the port and all of us to make a bold statement about how oil companies contribute to climate change, oil spills and other environmental disasters - and reject this short-term lease," Seattle's Mayor Ed Murray said on his website. The Puget Sound region has a decades-long history as a hub for equipment used in energy drilling in Alaska.

An environmental group and a law clinic petitioned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Royal Dutch Shell has adequately disclosed to investors the risks of oil exploration in the harsh Arctic waters, the groups said on Tuesday. The U.S. Interior Department is mulling whether Shell can drill test wells for crude and gas off Alaska this summer. The company abandoned exploratory drilling efforts in 2012, an accident-plagued season in a region with little infrastructure for emergency response. Oceana, an international environmental group, and the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Chicago…

William Cho, Head of MatthewsDaniel Weather, a division of the Bureau Veritas Group, explains why improvements in drilling technologies and weather monitoring systems have made offshore shelf drilling operations in the Arctic Circle increasingly attractive to upstream oil and gas companies and their investors. Rising crude oil prices motivate not only technological innovators to explore cheaper alternative energy sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines, but also upstream oil and gas companies to explore new oil reserves which had not otherwise been economical.

The United States is considering limiting hi-tech exports to Russia's Arctic oil and gas industry as part of plans to strengthen sanctions against Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine, a U.S. envoy said on Wednesday. On the eve of a NATO summit in Wales, the United States is expected to join the European Union in imposing new sanctions on Russia after EU leaders agreed at the weekend that the direct engagement of Russian troops in Ukraine in support of separatist rebels merited such a step. "We are looking at further tightening of restrictions on energy exports and the licensing of hi-tech exports, not only to the energy sector but specifically to Arctic oil and gas," the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Anthony Gardner, told Reuters in Brussels.

China and the United States appear headed for a damaging confrontation over the extent of China's territorial claims in the South and East China Seas. Now that China has become the world's largest importer of oil, and energy more generally, the country's need to develop more indigenous energy supplies has become urgent. Expecting China to put the South and East China Seas off limits to exploration and production until disputes over sovereignty can be resolved through some undefined legal or diplomatic process is unrealistic. Part of the problem is that western analysts and policymakers still fail to appreciate the strategic importance of these areas.

Territorial disputes over tiny islands and reefs in the South China Sea are poisoning relations between China and its neighbours in Southeast Asia. "In recent months, China has undertaken destabilising, unilateral actions asserting its claims in the South China Sea," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told an audience in Singapore last month. "(China) has restricted access to Scarborough Reef, put pressure on the long-standing Philippine presence at the Second Thomas Shoal, begun land reclamation activities at multiple locations, and moved an oil rig into disputed waters near the Paracel Islands," Hagel complained at the Shangri-La Dialogue.

The Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, Admiral Bob Papp, Jr. spoke of the Arctic as an emerging frontier during the 2013 State of the Coast Guard Address in February 2013. He said, “… one example of what our future holds can be seen in the emerging frontier of the Arctic, where there is a new ocean appearing. In September 2012, we observed the lowest sea ice extent in recorded history, and there are vast areas of open water where there used to be ice…As the receding ice increasingly gives way to commercial ventures…

In general the floating production sector looks healthy and growth remains strong. But the sudden expansion of shale oil and tight oil production could disrupt the growth trajectory in the deepwater sector. The underlying drivers for deepwater development point toward continued sector growth. Spot and futures crude pricing is at levels supporting deepwater development. Oil demand keeps growing and there continues to be need for new future sources of oil. The threat of supply disruption from traditional sources remains, prompting oil companies to look at alternative sources. Activity in the deepwater sector is robust. More than 200 deepwater projects are in the planning stage that will likely require a floating production system for development.

The need for a comprehensive and risk-aware understanding of Arctic dynamics before proceding with development is emphasised in a recent research paper. The melting of the Arctic is expected to offer prospects for maritime transport and hydrocarbon exploitation that could potentially create an Arctic economic boom. In principle, more accessible Arctic sea routes could offer substantial savings in logistics between Asian, American and European markets when compared to the current global maritime trade routes via the Panama and Suez Canals. It is estimated that as much as 13 per cent of undiscovered oil deposits and 30 per cent of undiscovered gas deposits on the globe are located in the Arctic area.

Keppel Singmarine Pte Ltd (Keppel Singmarine) has completed Asia’s first two icebreakers, built for one of the harshest marine frontiers on Earth, the Arctic sea for client, LUKOIL-Kaliningradmorneft (LUKOIL). Mr Charles Foo, Chairman of Keppel Singmarine, said “This is the first time that icebreakers meant for the Arctic region have been built in the tropics. The second vessel was named Varandey by Mrs Lyudmila Velikova, wife of Mr Victor Velikov, Deputy General-Director of LUKOIL at a Russian-themed ceremony at Marina at Keppel Bay today.

Sea traffic in the famed Northwest Passage will soon be monitored by underwater listening devices to be installed by Canada to bolster its disputed claim over the Arctic. Canada's military will start keeping tabs on trespassers -- ships and submarines -- in the region as early as mid-2008, said public broadcaster CBC. The detection technology is to be installed at Gascoyne Inlet on Devon Island, near one of the main arteries of the passage that links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the CBC said, citing unnamed sources. Canada is at odds with Russia, Denmark, Norway and the United States over 460,000 square miles of Arctic seabed. Each nation is claiming overlapping sections of the sea floor, believed to hold 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves.