SPE-GCS Blog

April 1st, 2021

APRIL 2006

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered people and structures in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Gulf Coast, leaving many large-scale renovation projects and rising rig rates in their wakes. Many rigs were damaged, not surprising, given that design guidelines for offshore platforms set by the American Petroleum Institute require that a structure only need withstand a “100-year storm,” equivalent to a Category 2 or 3 hurricane, with sustained winds at 110 mph. API guidelines also require that a platform be able to withstand waves up to about 70 ft high. But waves during the last few big hurricanes reached well beyond this height. The Naval Research Lab recorded a 91-ft wave more than 100 miles from the eye of Ivan last year.

Driven by concerns over stability, China is stepping up cooperation with its neighbors, aiming to secure supplies …

March 1st, 2021

What’s Happening in the Section?

This month marks almost a year since the world changed due to the pandemic. I want to encourage all our members to hang in there, because with each passing day, we are closer to the end than we are to the beginning. Our section members are ready to return to normal, even if it’s just a “new normal.” I would normally write about our upcoming flagship one-day conferences and events scheduled for the spring, but nothing is normal. I will share how our study group and committee leaders have been managing events and venue contracts for the larger conferences with all the uncertainty, and highlight recent and upcoming events.

Most of our major in-person one-day conferences in 2020 were postponed as much as one year later, and the venues were very accommodating and understanding. Now, a year …

March 1st, 2021

MARCH 2001

Last year, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) sent a team out to the Permian Basin of West Texas to film our oil industry, and the film was included as part of a 30-minute documentary on the oil industry.

This documentary showed several experts testifying that world oil production will peak in the next 10 to 20 years before the world eventually runs short on oil. The King Hubbert Institute at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden also predicts world oil production will peak in the next 10 to 12 years. They cite statistics like 80% of the oil produced today flows from fields that were found before 1973, and the discovery of oil in the world peaked in 1962 at 40 billion bbl of oil. By 1991, it was already down to 7 billion bbl of oil.

Chevron …

February 1st, 2021

How to Volunteer with SPE?

It is the second month of the year, and while we are all hoping for positive changes in our personal lives, around the industry and around the world, we will need to continue to be patient and resilient for a little longer. On the positive side, some COVID-19 vaccines have been approved and are being administered to front-line workers and a prioritized list of individuals. This gives us hope that one day soon, the pandemic will end or at least be under control, but we should all continue to be safe. I also know that many companies in our industry had to make difficult personnel decisions last year to survive, and therefore some of our affected members are actively looking for new opportunities. For those members in transition, I want to remind you that the section has a Members …

February 1st, 2021

FEBRUARY 2008

The oil and gas industry generally has accepted a policy of sustainable energy that makes use of all available energy resources. However, John Westwood, managing director of UK consultancy Douglas-Westwood Ltd, said the oil and gas industry already is competing with the wind industry for materials and personnel for offshore operations, primarily overseas. Some $16 billion is expected to be spent on installation of 4.5 GW of new wind-power capacity in Europe over the next five years, up from 1.1 GW today. The UK will be the biggest market, with 2.4 GW of new capacity forecast in 2012. “Serious amounts of steel are heading offshore,” said Westwood. “Offshore wind and oil and gas are competing for the same resources and with onshore wind power.”

Efforts to bring some humanity into Russia’s treatment of former OAO Yukos officials may …

January 1st, 2021

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

It is the beginning of a new year and I want to wish all our SPE-GCS members and affiliates a Happy New Year 2021! I hope everyone had safe and joyful holidays. Like many people, I hope this year brings the end of the pandemic, full recovery for the energy industry and the return to normal life. This month also symbolizes the halfway mark of the Gulf Coast Section’s fiscal term. I will share a progress update on a few of the initiatives planned for the fiscal year, including the Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) initiative and the Mobile App proposal.

The SPE International Diversity and Inclusion Committee launched during ATCE in 2020 with the vision of advancing the society’s commitment to diversity and inclusion within the oil and gas community through advocacy, collaboration and education. SPEI transitioned the …

January 1st, 2021

JANUARY 2000

You’ve got to love this South La. well and formation name: “Union Pacific Resources Group Inc. (UPR), Fort Worth, and partner Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., Houston, have made a gas discovery on the Etouffee prospect with their Continental Land & Fur Co. Inc. 1 well, about 15 miles southeast of Morgan City in Terrebonne Parish, La.”

The good news from Russia for the oil and gas industry is that the Communist Party no longer controls legislation in the Duma, or lower house of parliament. The rest remains a muddle. It's worth cheering that 60% of the Russian electorate voted in December's parliamentary election, but that welcome exercise of democracy is yesterday's news. It also makes the meaning of the outcome no less puzzling. Oil companies, though, should be wary. They increasingly get called to account when governments …

December 1st, 2020

¡Adios 2020! and Scholarship

Endowment Fund Update

When we rang in the new year and the beginning of a decade back in January, no one anticipated that 2020 would turn out to be the year it has been. It is typical around the world for people to hope for a new year full of blessings, good health, prosperity and happiness. There is no question that 2020 has been a challenging year because of the pandemic and industry downturn. I could write this entire article about the year’s challenges, but as we enter the holiday season, I will focus on the positive side of 2020 and provide an update on our SPE-GCS Scholarship Endowment Fund (SEF) efforts.

Here are some of the unexpected benefits that 2020 brought: Since around March, some companies in our industry have allowed employees to work full time and remotely …

December 1st, 2020

DECEMBER 2000

Woodside Petroleum Ltd.'s independent directors late last month rejected as "inadequate" a sweetened offer by an Australian unit of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group to gain a 56 percent controlling interest in that company, up from the 34.3 percent it now holds. The bid for Woodside, which operates Australia's massive Northwest Shelf LNG export venture, marks Shell's continuing expansion into the Asia-Pacific natural gas market. The going was easier for Shell in New Zealand, where the New Zealand Commerce Commission approved the sale of gas-focused Fletcher Challenge Energy Ltd. to units of Shell and Apache Corp.

Rhetoric at the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change betrayed troubling political motives. French Pres. Jacques Chirac urged representatives from the US to "cast aside their doubts and hesitations" about the need for drastic response to climate change, asserting, …

November 1st, 2020

SPE MEMBERSHIP AND BENEFITS

It's hard to believe we are one month away from the end of 2020. I suspect a lot of people in the United States and around the world would like this year to be over soon. There is hope that next year will bring a fresh start, the end of the pandemic and the beginning or continuation of a global economic recovery for many industries, including energy. This month, I will talk about SPE membership, its benefits and the GCS enhanced on-demand content library.

If you are an SPE member, you should have received your share of SPE membership renewal reminders for 2021. I encourage all SPE members to renew their membership and continue to enjoy membership benefits. If you are not an SPE member, I encourage you to join at spe.org/join.

I have been an …