U.S. Federal Gulf of Mexico production to set records through 2020
U.S. crude oil production in the U.S. Federal Gulf of Mexico (GOM) averaged 1.8 million bpd in 2018, setting a new annual record. EIA expects oil production in the GOM to set new production records in 2019 and 2020, even after accounting for shut-ins related to Hurricane Barry in July 2019, and including forecasted adjustments for hurricane-related shut-ins for the remainder of 2019 and for 2020.
Based on EIA's latest Short-Term Energy Outlook's expected production levels at new and existing fields, annual crude oil production in the GOM will increase to an average of 1.9 million bpd in 2019 and 2 million bpd in 2020.
Producers expect eight new projects to come online in 2019 and four more in 2020. EIA expects these projects to contribute about 44,000 bpd in 2019 and approximately 190,000 bpd in 2020 as projects ramp up production.
For more information, visit www.eia.gov or call (202) 586-8800.
Interior to hold region-wide oil and gas lease sale for Gulf of Mexico
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is offering approximately 78 million acres for a region-wide lease sale scheduled for March 2020. The sale would include all available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico that are not subject to the congressional moratorium.
The Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf, covering about 160 million acres, is estimated to contain approximately 48 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and 141 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered technically recoverable natural gas.
Lease Sale 254, scheduled to be live-streamed from New Orleans, will be the sixth offshore sale under the 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. Under this program, 10 regionwide 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 (504) 731-7815.
Oil and gas revenues generate $1 billion for Permanent School Fund
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush recently unveiled that a historic $1 billion in revenue has been generated by oil and gas leases on Permanent School Fund (PSF) land.
During the 2019 fiscal year, revenues generated from oil and natural gas exploration and production on PSF lands exceeded $1 billion for the first time in the history of the Texas General Land Office. The record-breaking revenue can largely be attributed to the new development of oil and natural gas in the Delaware Basin, the western sub-basin of the Permian Basin. Recently, oil and gas operators have been drilling 1-milelong to 2-mile-long horizontal lateral wells in the Bone Spring and Wolfcamp formations within the basin, where the PSF owns several million acres of mineral rights.
For more information, visit www.glo.texas.gov or call (800) 998-4456.
Railroad Commission of Texas launches interactive statewide maps
The Railroad Commission of Texas has launched its first-ever interactive data maps, providing oil and gas production and the locations of abandoned wells plugged by the commission statewide and by individual counties. The data is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, beginning with calendar year 2018. From January 2019 onward, the maps will be updated each month with year-to-date statistics.
"Instead of having to create spreadsheets and conduct other extensive analysis, users can now quickly determine which county produced the most oil or natural gas in a year," said Railroad Commission Executive Director Wei Wang. "These are the first of several interactive data visualization tools we are planning to release in the upcoming months to better inform the public about the state's energy production and our agency's regulation."
For more information, visit www.rrc.state.tx.us or call (512) 463-4817.