ConocoPhillips
Grants Final Approval for Willow Oil Project
U.S. oil giant
ConocoPhillips gave the financial greenlight to its $8 billion Willow oil
and gas drilling project in Alaska.
“With this project
authorization, we've begun winter construction,” CEO Ryan Lance said.
Environmental and
indigenous groups in November asked a federal court in Alaska to
temporarily bar ConocoPhillips from going forward with construction of the
project in the state's Arctic, arguing a stay is necessary to stop imminent
cultural and environmental harms.
The Willow project area
holds an estimated 600 million barrels of oil, and ConocoPhillips has said the
project will produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak.
The project development
has been backed by Alaskan officials, who are hoping it will help offset oil
production declines in a state whose economy relies heavily on the oil and gas
industry.
Exxon Gaining 1.2 mtpa of
LNG from Mexico Pacific
ExxonMobil LNG Asia
Pacific signed a contract to buy an additional 1.2 mtpa of LNG for Mexico
Pacific, the company said.
The supply, from a
proposed third train at Mexico Pacific’s Saguaro Energia project on the west
coast of Mexico, will be purchased on a free-on-board basis over a 20-year
term, Mexico Pacific said.
With the agreement,
Mexico Pacific has reached the sales required to make a final investment
decision later this year on the third train, CEO Ivan Van der Walt said in a
release to the media.
The $15 billion Saguaro
Energia project designed to ship 15 mtpa of LNG from the Permian
Basin in the United States to Asia.
U.S. Proposes Fee on
Methane from Big Oil, Gas Producers
The United States put
forward a fee requirement on emissions of methane from large oil and
gas producers as required under the 2022 climate law.
The fee, proposed by the
Environmental Protection Agency, applies to large oil and gas facilities that
report methane emissions of more than 25,000 mtpa of carbon dioxide
equivalent.
As directed by the
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the fee starts at $900 per ton in 2024,
increases to $1,200 for 2025 and $1,500 for 2026 and beyond, the EPA said. It
only applies to the emissions that exceed the specified levels.
Over time, fewer
facilities will face the charge as they reduce their emissions and become
eligible for compliance exemptions, the EPA said, adding it act as a backstop
to wider regulations on the greenhouse gas from energy operations.
“Today’s proposal, when
finalized, will support a complementary set of technology standards and
historic resources from the Inflation Reduction Act, to incentivize industry
innovation and prompt action,” EPA
Administrator Michael Regan said in a media release.
In December, the EPA
finalized a wider rule on methane from oil and gas operations at the
COP28 climate talks in Dubai, which bans routine flaring of natural gas
produced by newly drilled oil wells.
Talos Acquire
QuarterNorth Energy for $1.29 Billion
Talos Energy will boost
its presence in Mexico through the purchase of $1.29 acquire of privately held
QuarterNorth Energy in a cash-and-stock deal transaction.
QuarterNorth, an
exploration and production company with ownership in six major fields, will add about 30,000 MMboe/d) for the full
current year and about 69 MMboe in proved reserves.
“(Low decline rate)
requires a little lower reinvestment rate particularly for next year, maybe
even into 2025 and that’s going to generate a lot of free cash flow,” said Talos
CEO Timothy S. Duncan, during a
conference call.
Talos was one of only a few
companies that made significant finds in the offshore oil and gas exploration
areas of Mexico last year. Several companies, including Chevron and Repsol ceased
looking following disappointing results.
The deal is expected to
close by the end of the first quarter of the current year.
Blinken Pushes Bosnian
Lawmakers to Pass Gas Pipeline Law
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Bosnian lawmakers to approve
legislation that would allow construction of a natural gas pipeline with Croatia, as an alternative to relying
on gas from Russia.
In a letter to Bosnia's Foreign Minister Elvedin Konakovic,
published by news provider istraga.ba, Blinken called on and end what he called
official obstruction “on this matter.”
Bosnia relies solely on Russian gas supplies, which it is
shipped via Serbia through the TurkStream pipeline.
The project to build the South Interconnection Gas Pipeline, bringing
natural gas to Bosnia from an LNG terminal on the Croatian island of Krk, was
approved two years ago in the lower house, but has been blocked in the upper
house.
“We urge the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina House of Peoples
to pass the law on the Southern interconnection,” Blinken’s letter said.
Flowmeter Market Grow on
Strength of Expansion
A new research
study found that the worldwide ultrasonic
flowmeter market has been driven to new levels of growth by the oil and gas
industry.
The World Market
for Ultrasonic Flowmeters, 7th Edition, conducted by Flow Research, showed that the worldwide
ultrasonic market totaled $900 million in forecast a 6.9% compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) to $1.26 billion by 2027.
“Ultrasonic
flowmeters will play a pivotal role in flow measurement as the world
transitions away from fossil fuels,” according to Jesse Yoder, president of
Flow Research.
The oil and gas
industry is by far the largest consumer of ultrasonic flowmeters, the research
showed, accounting for as much as 60% of the meter’s growth rate. Upstream
applications make up a significant portion of these revenues, although
midstream and downstream applications are also significant, Yoder added. P&GJ