Region-wide Gulf lease sale yields $124.7 million in high bids
Interior Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Joe Balash recently unveiled the region-wide Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 250 generated $124,763,581 in high bids for 148 tracts covering 815,403 acres in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. A total of 33 companies participated in the lease sale, submitting $139,122,383 in bids.
Lease Sale 250, livestreamed from New Orleans, was the second offshore sale held under the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2017-2022. Under this program, 10 region-wide lease sales are scheduled for the Gulf, where resource potential and industry interest are high and oil and gas infrastructure is well established. Two Gulf lease sales will be held each year and include all available blocks in the combined Western, Central and Eastern Gulf of Mexico Planning Areas.
For more information, visit www.doi. gov or call (202) 208-3100.
BSEE increases safety inspection time offshore
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is increasing physical inspection time offshore, while reducing taxpayer burden by nearly $20 million over 3.5 years, providing significant cost-savings to the American public. Exploring ways to make inspections more efficient and reduce helicopter operating expenses, a team of BSEE leaders in the Gulf of Mexico region developed the new approach.
Taking advantage of technology allowing for access to electronic records onshore, BSEE's inspectors will now have significantly more time to inspect operations offshore, ensuring safety at more than 2,200 facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. It will also reduce helicopter operating expenses by 15 percent without impacting safety and environmental protections.
For more information, visit www. bsee.gov or call (202) 208-6184.
API releases new estimates of OCS oil and gas benefits by region
According to new economic studies released recently, opening the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to offshore oil and natural gas development would be an economic catalyst -- promoting U.S. jobs, investments and increased tax revenue -- for states across the country.
"With more than 94 percent of the total acreage in federal offshore waters currently inaccessible, opening the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to safe and responsible offshore energy development could further advance our energy renaissance, including more higher-paying jobs, investments in local communities, additional state revenue for public education and infrastructure, and long-term energy self-sufficiency," said API Director of Upstream and Industry Operations Erik Milito.
According to the four regional studies by Calash and Northern Economics, which analyze the potential economic impact of oil and natural gas development in the OCS by region, the U.S. could see significant economic gains.
For more information, visit www.api. org or call (202) 682-8000.
BSEE launches risk-based inspection program
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has implemented a new Risk-Based Inspection Program that employs a systematic framework to identify facilities and operations that exhibit a high-risk profile. The risk-based inspections supplement BSEE's existing National Safety Inspection Program. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act authorizes BSEE to conduct annual scheduled inspections and periodic unannounced inspections of all oil and gas operations. The new risk-based inspection protocol looks beyond compliance and assesses the integrity of critical safety systems on facilities and operations that have had multiple incidents of noncompliance or events and may need more attention.
Inspection findings and incident reports are used by BSEE to assign a risk factor score to each production facility in the Gulf of Mexico.
For more information, visit www. bsee.gov or call (202) 208-6184.
Industry to invest $36.6 billion in top 10 projects in Gulf by 2025
Approximately $36.6 billion will be spent by 2025 to bring the top 10 projects on line, while their lifetime capex will exceed $51.5 billion. Differentiating by water depth, full-cycle capital expenditure is expected per barrel of oil equivalent to average $11.1 for deepwater and $12 for ultra-deepwater, according to GlobalData.
Over $51.5 billion in capital expenditure will be spent over the lifetime of the top 10 upcoming oil and gas upstream projects in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to produce 4.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
These 10 projects, selected from 28 upcoming projects in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, will contribute incremental capacity of 598,000 barrels of oil equivalent to global supply by 2025.
For more information, visit https:// energy.globaldata.com or call +44 (0)207 832 4399.