Shale News

The Rotra Futura Roll-on/Roll-off (RoRo) vessel has entered operations, with the transportation of wind turbine blades from Denmark to the United States.The project supply vessel, specifically designed to handle larger and heavier offshore wind turbine components, collected the 108-meter-long blades at the Port of Aalborg, Denmark, under the supervision of deugro Denmark’s wind experts.The vessel, delivered in late March 2025, was developed as part of the the partnership between Danish logistics specialist deugro…

The Bonaparte CCS project has been awarded Major Project Status by the Australian Government. It is the first offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) project to receive the status in Australia.The Bonaparte CCS Assessment Joint Venture is operated by Inpex subsidiary Inpex Browse E&P (53%) and also involves TotalEnergies CCS Australia (26%) and Woodside Energy (21%).The awarding highlights the project’s recognized potential to support a lower carbon future as well as reflecting…

Danos Operations Services has been awarded a contract to provide production services for Beacon Offshore Energy’s new deepwater facility, the Shenandoah floating production system (FPS). The project will employ production operators, instrumentation and electrical technicians, mechanics, and offshore installation managers. Several employees began work on the platform in 2024.The Shenandoah facility is in the final stages of hook-up and is expected to begin producing oil later this summer.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced the publication of a Proposed Notice of Sale (PNOS) for an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of America.As directed by Secretary of the Interior and outlined in the PNOS, Lease Sale 262 will offer approximately 15,000 unleased blocks located 3 to 231 miles offshore across the Gulf’s Western, Central, and Eastern Planning Areas. Covering roughly 80 million acres, these blocks are situated in water depths ranging from 9 feet to more than 11…

The final inter-array cable has been installed at Îles d’Yeu and Noirmoutier (EMYN) offshore wind farm in France, being developed by Les Éoliennes en Mer Services.The 61st and final inter-array cable was installed on June 22 at the EMYN offshore wind farm, Louis Dreyfus TravOcean said on social media.The accomplishment paves the way for a transmission capacity of 512 MW.Geoquip Marine’s Geoquip Elena, converted into a Cable Laying Vessel (CLV) with a bespoke project-specific deck layout used in the operation…

Energy producer Shell has made a positive final investment decision on its Aphrodite gas project offshore Trinidad and Tobago, the company said on Tuesday.The project is expected to produce first gas in 2027 and have a peak production of 18,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day, it added in a release.Shell is a 45% shareholder in Trinidad's Atlantic LNG plant which has a capacity to produce 12 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) of the superchilled gas, but has been plagued by a shortfall of natural gas.

Retrofit specialist GLO Marine has secured hydraulic system upgrade job on Bluewater’s Haewene Brim floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, following the successful delivery of the project’s first phase.The contract builds on the collaboration between GLO Marine and Bluewater in  Phase 1 of the FPSO upgrade program, where GLO Marine delivered the full feasibility and engineering scope, including detailed technical analysis, prototype validation, and a complete set of engineering deliverables.Aa part of the second phase…

Gibraltar-based ship repair and conversion yard Gibdock has completed the repair and renewal of TechnipFMC's Deep Blue, a deepwaer pipelay and subsea construction vessel.TechnipFMC relocated Deep Blue from the U.S. Gulf for the works, also redeploying the asset outside Europe following completion of works.A well-known participant in ultra-deepwater field developments, Deep Blue includes an array of reel-lay, J-lay, and flexi-lay technologies. Featuring twin 2,800 MT capacity reels…

Australia conditionally approved on Wednesday a request by Woodside Energy to extend until 2070 the life of its North West Shelf gas plant, following a six-year review dogged by delays, appeals and backlash from green groups.The facility on the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia is the country's oldest and largest liquefied natural gas plant and a key supplier to Asian markets, but concerns that its emissions could imperil ancient rock art held up a decision.In a statement…

Australia is losing its competitive edge in attracting investment in natural gas exploration and production, threatening the nation’s energy security, economic growth and emissions reduction targets, a new report by Wood Mackenzie has found.The ‘Australia’s Natural Gas Investment Competitiveness’ report found that while global investment in gas exploration has grown by nearly 30% in the past five years, investment in Australia is lagging with just 15% growth recorded over the same period. The analysis included a CEO sentiment survey of Australian gas producers.

A latest research revealed that the upstream sector accounted for the bulk of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the global oil and gas industry in 2019, generating some high-value transactions during the process.According to GlobalData's theme report, ‘M&A in Oil and Gas – 2020’, the acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum by Occidental Petroleum in April 2019 for a purchase consideration of US$57bn was the highlight of oil and gas M&A activity last year, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.Ravindra Puranik, Oil & Gas Analyst at GlobalData, said: “In 2019, the upstream sector, more specifically the US shale plays, witnessed the highest deal activity in the oil and gas industry.

Houston-based Castleton Resources said that its subsidiary Castleton Commodities International LLC (CCI) has closed on the acquisition of the East Texas and North Louisiana Haynesville Shale assets of BG US Production Company LLC, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc. Pro forma for the acquisition, Castleton Resources will hold approximately 222,400 net acres in the region and produce approximately 334 MMcfe/d (net). Castleton Resources is owned by CCI and Tokyo Gas America Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. Concurrent with the transaction, Tokyo Gas America Ltd. will increase its interest in Castleton Resources from 30% to approximately 46%.

ESAI Energy, an oil & energy data provider, believes both the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) are overly optimistic in their November projections of US crude oil production in 2020, according to the company’s latest North America Watch.ESAI Energy sees a deceleration in growth to about 650,000 b/d next year, in contrast to the EIA and IEA forecasts of 1.0 million b/d and 900,000 b/d, respectively.ESAI points to declining capital expenditures by many shale producers in response to investor pressure to spend within cash flow, a service sector that is idling equipment and laying off workers…

U.S. shale operators are on track to grow 2019 oil production by around 16% over 2018 thanks to impressive operational execution so far this year.The third quarter earnings season revealed that shale companies increased their oil production by about two percent, all while cutting the midpoint guidance for yearly drilling and completions expenses, according to Rystad Energy.The energy research and consulting firm headquartered in Norway said that U.S. shale operators will continue expanding in the fourth quarter, growing oil production by at least 1.3 percent on a quarterly basis.“The actual results so far this year reaffirm our optimistic expectations for the remainder of the year.

Frac water demand is expected to increase 30% by 2022, with 53% of that increase taking place in the Permian Basin, said Rystad Energy in its recently released “Water Management Report”.The increase in water demand is mostly driven by increases in forecasted completions activity, and the continued trend towards longer laterals.Rystad Energy expects frac water demand across the US to hit 4.9 billion barrels in 2019, with 2.28 billion barrels taking place in the Permian Basin.Rystad Energy normally defines spare capacity as a country’s underutilized capacity, including any current outages.

Though bankruptcies among U.S. onshore exploration and production (E&P) companies are on the increase during these days, Rystad Energy doesn’t believe this indicates doom for the shale industry.“In a nutshell, we do not believe the recent bankruptcies that have beset a number of shale players are indicative of an industry-wide epidemic,” says Alisa Lukash, a senior analyst on Rystad Energy’s North American Shale team.During the next seven years, the top 40 US shale oil producers are expected to spend about $100 billion on debt instalments and interest unless further debt refinancing is applied.These drillers, which accounted for nearly half of US shale crude production in 2018…

US shale supply will peak at approximately 14.5 million barrels per day (bpd) around 2030, said the energy research and business intelligence company Rystad Energy.In the past decade, crude oil coming from shale patches such as the Permian in the US has grown from a negligible contributor to an upstream behemoth, reshaping the industry and the oil market.US Light Tight Oil (LTO) represented less than 1% of global oil supply just nine years ago. Today, US LTO represents close to 10% of total global oil supply, a percentage which is expected to continue its ascent going forward. But by how much? That is the million-dollar question.Different agencies and knowledge houses have responded to this with varying degrees of positivity and skepticism.

Natural gas flaring in the Permian dropped in the first quarter of 2019 – the first drop in one-and-a-half years, according to energy research firm Rystad Energy.Rystad Energy has been closely monitoring the level of natural gas flaring in the Permian since 2017. "Our previous quarterly estimate suggested that basin-wide gas flaring reached record-high levels of beyond 660 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019," it said.However, just released final data for the first quarter of 2019 have led to a downward revision of our previous flaring estimate by 7%, to 613 MMcfd.“This is the first time that has happened over the past 1.5 years.

Hydraulic fracturing operations in the Permian shattered old records in June. The prolific shale basin in Texas and parts of New Mexico in the US has reached new heights in terms of the number of fracked wells – both on a daily basis and in terms of absolute monthly wells. Rystad Energy estimates there were as many as 18 wells fracked per day across the entire Permian Basin, or almost 550 wells during the month of June. Previously, fracking in the Permian peaked at approximately 520 wells fracked in August 2018, while the peak daily rate was reached in February earlier this year.“The Midland platform has undoubtedly been the driver of this upwards trend with consistent month-over-month increases…

The increased output from the Permian Basin, located in West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico, has been the biggest contributor to the growth of super majors.A handful of industry insiders have recently speculated that the Permian may be on its way out, noting that well productivity in the Permian is declining. In fact, the truth is quite the opposite, said Rystad Energy.E&P operators active in the Permian Basin, spanning parts of Texas and New Mexico in the US, have been facing a growing number of concerns about the ability of the industry to achieve additional improvements in well productivity.Some market participants argue that the average well performance in the Permian is already declining…

Though the Permian Basin still dominates US land drilling, the pace of growth in this region has slowed significantly.Older tight oil wells decline by 20% per year without material intervention, according to Rystad Energy.Contrary to common belief, the Permian Basin systematically offers the lowest oil decline rates, along with the Bakken Shale.In turn, the Eagle Ford and DJ basins exhibit steeper decline rates throughout the first eight years of production across most vintages.Rystad Energy has examined all horizontal oil-producing wells in the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Permian and DJ Basins, turned-in-line between 2011 and 2017 with at least 24 months of reported production.The resulting sample includes 146,158 annualized production data points from 46,188 wells.

In a remarkable turnaround, the second quarter of 2019 is the first three-month period on record when US shale operators achieved positive cash flow from operations after accounting for capital expenditures, according to Rystad Energy.Rystad Energy has studied the financial performance of 40 dedicated US shale oil companies, focusing on cash flow from operating activities (CFO). This is the cash that is available to expand the business (via capital expenditure, or capex), reduce debt, or return to shareholders.In the second quarter of 2019, 35% of operators in the peer group balanced their spending with operational cash flow, and reported an accumulated $110 million surplus in CFO versus capex.“That is an industry first,” says Rystad Energy senior analyst Alisa Lukash.

Russian giant Gazprom saw the most production growth among world’s exploration and production (E&P) companies during the five-year span from 2014 through 2018.It’s followed by Chinese player PetroChina Company Limited and U.S. shale company EQT Corporation ranking second and third, respectively, said energy research firm Rystad Energy.Onshore resources – whether conventional or unconventional – are a major driver of growth, it said.“Gazprom, the clear leader in production growth, is the only company with a total growth of more than 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) over the last five years,” said Espen Erlingsen, Rystad’s head of upstream research.