South China Sea tensions deter oil exploration

Pagasa (Hope) Island is part of the disputed Spratly group of islands in the South China Sea. (Reuters)

An energy analyst said exploring for oil and gas near disputed islands in the South China Sea is too much of a gamble for international energy companies because of the tensions in the region and unconfirmed estimates of the size of the oil and gas deposits.

China has been reclaiming land and building port and military facilities on disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea, which stretches from Singapore to Taiwan.

Last year, there were skirmishes between China and Vietnam after a Chinese oil rig started drilling in waters claimed by both countries.

The South China Sea is claimed by countries including China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines.

The seabed beneath the disputed islands and reefs is often described as rich in oil and gas.

However, Christopher Len from the Energy Studies Institute at the National University of Singapore said studies forecasting the size of the resources were not accurate.

"What we have are essentially what I would describe as guesstimates," he said in an interview with the ABC in Singapore.

"The problem is that no party can conduct proper exploration of the region because of the ongoing tensions.

"It's not worth the gamble in my opinion."

Several international energy companies, including US giant Exxon Mobil, have exploration rights in disputed areas of the South China Sea.

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By national resources reporter Sue Lannin

Railroads, Emergency Responders Prepared in Event of Oil Spill in Texas

All-hazard training prepares first responders for the worst-case scenario.

(TNS) - Each day, freight trains slice through the center of the city at a swift 70 miles an hour, carrying industry goods eastward and westward. With the explosion of heavy train traffic stemming from the Permian Basin oil boom, the threat of rail-related accidents looms larger.

Earlier this summer, a freight train slipped off its tracks in Odessa. Ten rail cars carrying hydraulic fracturing sand derailed and fell sideways along the track. About a week ago, Midland County Fire Marshal Dale Little saw the derailed cars still belly-up, causing him to ask the critical question: “What if that had been oil or a chemical?”

Throughout the past 10 years, 109 hazmat-carrying train cars have been involved in accidents, according to data rail lines report to the Federal Railroad Administration. In that same period, five instances of derailments have been reported inside Ector County. To the east, in Howard County, 54 cars carrying hazardous materials have been involved in accidents with six instances of derailments in the last decade, according to federal data.

But in Midland County, not a single derailment episode has been reported.

“With all the hazard disaster training, we teach that you always have to plan on the worst-case scenario,” Little said. “Anything can happen. When you deal with disaster work, every day you go without a disaster is one day closer to one.”

By that logic, if Midland’s vehicle traffic continues to thicken, causing an uptick in vehicle-train related accidents that are known to cause derailments, that day might be fast approaching. In the last five years, the stretch of railway between Sweetwater and Pecos led the nation in vehicle-train collisions in 2013, according to Union Pacific.

Last spring, a string of derailed trains carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale caused explosions and prompted national scrutiny over whether safety regulations are adequate as rail continues to be a more popular vehicle for oil.

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Brandon Mulder, Midland Reporter-Telegram

Montana Oil Spill - railway car derailment - July 2015

BNSF Oil-Train crash sparks fire, evacuation in North Dakota - May 2015

Derailed CSX train in West Virginia hauled newer-model tank cars - Feb 2015

Expanding the knowledge library for offshore oil and gas

T.D. Williamson shares its Emergency Shutdown Valve Replacement Case Study, with a goal of improving platform safety.

We've all been taught that sharing is good.
In the offshore oil and gas pipeline industry, sharing knowledge is more than good practice. It's essential.

Not only does the exchange of ideas strengthen the industry as a whole, having the appropriate information at hand can mean the difference between success and failure, process safety and incidents, money saved and money squandered.

Through conference presentations, white papers, and case studies, operators and service providers are bringing to light highly specialized solutions to some of the industry's most pressing needs. For offshore pipeline operators, that includes intense pressure from regulatory bodies to prove and meticulously maintain the structural integrity of their networks. As a result, improving the efficiency of platform valve replacements has become a top priority.

The case study, authored by T.D. Williamson (TDW), describes how a recent double block and monitor isolation achieved multiple goals for the operator, including:

• Enabling the safe replacement of three valves on a key section of the platform's gas export pipeline without having to bleed down the entire line.
• Allowing continuous flow through multiple downstream connections.
• Reducing production loss to an absolute minimum.
• Minimizing downtime.

Rolf Gunnar Lie, an offshore oil and gas operations specialist for TDW, sees resources like the ESDV replacement case study, which is part of the company's #OperationOffshore initiative, as a way for the industry to share experiences, build a more comprehensive knowledge base, and educate the next generation of oil and gas professionals.

"Today, solutions to operational issues are highly specialized, and it's not always easy to know what will be the best fit," Lie says. "The industry should always find ways to share new technology and methods to carry out repairs without compromising safety. We must also ensure that this information is collected, cataloged, and made accessible to all who can benefit."

Source

Esso locking out maintenance workers at Victorian oil, gas plants amid EBA stoush

Esso has started locking out maintenance workers from its oil and gas plants in Victoria and its offshore platforms in Bass Strait in the latest move in an enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) dispute.

Unions imposed bans on overtime and call-outs to stop a raft of changes to pay and conditions Esso proposed.

The lockouts affect the Longford gas plant, Long Island Point and Esso's oil and gas plants in Bass Strait. The maintenance workers will be locked out for two hours a day.

Peter Mooney from the Electrical Trades Union said the lockouts would delay important maintenance work and could raise safety issues.

He said workers had voted overwhelmingly in secret ballots against Esso's proposed changes.

"We've had no meetings where there's been any opportunity to progress with the unions and the company," he said.

"The company is taking the position that it will continue to press with its claims which are untenable to our members."

In June Ben Davis from the Australian Workers Union said, "We think that cutting employee numbers onshore presents all sorts of safety hazards both at Long Island Point and at Longford and offshore." 

"It's the age old debate about seven on, seven off versus 14 and 14 rosters.

"Now employees offshore, members offshore, have told Esso they're not interested in the 14 and 14 roster."

News source

In July 2001, Esso was fined a record $2 million in the Supreme Court after being found guilty of 11 charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Esso Longford gas plant explosion 1998

In 1998 the Esso Longford gas explosion was a catastrophic industrial accident which occurred at the Esso natural gas plant at Longford in the Australian state of Victoria's Gippsland region. On 25 September 1998, an explosion took place at the plant, killing two workers and injuring eight. Gas supplies to the state of Victoria were severely affected for two weeks.

Professor Andrew Hopkins examines  the eleven key contributory elements in the safety chain, and flags these in a generic way so that participants in the safety training DVD workshop can apply the same approach to their own organisations. 

Preventing Disaster: Learning from Longford DVD workshop.

Lessons from Longford: The Esso Gas Plant Explosion book by Professor Andrew Hopkins.

Consumers Energy Pipeline inspections part of Robust program designed to enhance safety and reliability

Gas pipeline safety

Consumers Energy operates more than 29,000 miles of transmission and distribution pipelines throughout Michigan's Lower Peninsula, serving more than 1.7 million natural gas customers, making it one of the largest gas distribution companies in the U.S.

Consumers Energy is inspecting nearly 300 miles of natural gas pipeline this year to proactively seek and repair imperfections that could compromise the integrity of those lines and potentially affect their operation.

"Providing reliable, safe energy for our customers is our top priority," said Mary Palkovich, Consumers Energy's vice president of energy delivery. "Pipeline inspections are a key component of our comprehensive natural gas integrity program designed to keep customers and the general public safe."    

Federal requirements dictate that natural gas transmission lines located in high population areas be inspected every seven years. Consumers Energy's program exceeds this requirement by inspecting additional pipeline miles that are not required by federal guidelines. The company is also audited by the Michigan Public Service Commission regarding its integrity plan and other related efforts.

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5 years since Enbridge oil spill on Kalamazoo River

This weekend marks the 5-year anniversary of the Enbridge pipeline rupture in Marshall; one of the largest inland oil spills ever in the country.

More than 800,000 gallons of oil spilled into almost 40 miles of the Kalamazoo River.
Five years later, Newschannel 3 took a look at the timeline of the cleanup effort.
At this point, there are few visible signs left of what was called at the time an environmental disaster.
The first sign something was wrong on July 25, 2010, was the overpowering smell for people who lived near the Talmadge Creek in Marshall.
Calls started coming in to 9-1-1 from people reporting an odor of gas.
Enbridge would eventually discover a six foot gash in its Pipeline 6B had spilled more than 800,000 gallons of crude tar sands oil before it was shut off.
"This is really, really sad, this is not, this is nasty," said Dana Allen, who lives on the river.
On July 29th, dozens of people in the area were evacuated from their homes in Marshall. Oil had traveled all the way to the Morrow Dam in Comstock.
By July 11, 2011--nearly a year later--the EPA says more than 90 percent of the spilled oil has been removed from the Kalamazoo River, but says there are some areas that need more attention where oil has sunk to the bottom of the river.
In June of 2012, almost all of the Kalamazoo River was re-opened to the public.

"The lessons we learned on the Kalamazoo River have made us a better, safer company. We will not forget the Marshall incident. In fact, within our company, we have memorialized it – to guide our decisions, and strengthen our resolve to make certain that such an event never happens again."
Enbrige Spokesman Jason Manshum

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MARSHALL, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) -

Alberta pipelines: 6 major oil spills in recent history

Five million litres of a bitumen-water-sand emulsion were found to have leaked Wednesday from a Nexen Energy pipeline south of Fort McMurray, Alta. — one of the biggest oil spills in the province's history.

It adds further fuel to the debate over pipeline safety that continues to rage on, most recently emerging as a point of contention among premiers meeting in St. John's this week.

Nexen pipeline leak in Alberta spills 5 million litres

Interactive pipeline map: Incidents near you?

Pipeline safety incident rate doubled

It's not the first time crews have been dispatched to clean up a leak.

Here are six other pipeline spills in Alberta: Read more

Policy delay slows oil and gas exploration

A HUSH has fallen over South Africa’s oil and gas exploration sector as a plummeting oil price has coincided with lack of progress in creating attractive legislation for the oil and gas sector.

But industry insiders say there has been no large-scale exit by the oil majors from SA onshore and offshore. Explorers are continuing with desktop studies while legislation is being prepared.

Brent crude oil for September settlement was at $57.14 a barrel on Friday, compared with $106 per barrel a year ago.

For the past six months, proposed amendments to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act have been on hold. The amendments included provisions on oil and gas, such as a 20% state free carry and no cap on the state’s ability to buy a greater stake at an agreed price.

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$1 trillion solar, wind finance to outstrip oil and gas industry

Listed finance vehicles for large-scale wind and solar projects are likely to rapidly overtake the oil and gas industry in the US, but may bypass Australia altogether if the Abbott government continues to send the wrong signals to investors.

Three of the biggest US renewable energy companies have already created YieldCos to underpin their large-scale project development. SunEdison has emerged as the largest renewable energy developer in the world with the creation of Terraform and its purchase of First Wind, and is now offering this to private investors, while SunPower and First Solar have combined to create another YieldCo vehicle known as 8point3 (the amount of time it take for the sunlight to reach the Earth).

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Full steam ahead for biofuel plan in UK

Biofuel from coffee waste in UK stations

The UK’s biggest railway stations have signed up to a new project turning coffee waste into fuel.

Euston, King’s Cross, Liverpool Street, Paddington, Victoria and Waterloo, all in London, generate nearly 700 tonnes of coffee waste each year between them.

Rather than sending it to landfill, where it would release more than 5,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, this waste will now go to a factory run by the bio-bean firm to become carbon-neutral biofuels for heating homes, offices and factories.

Each tonne of waste coffee grounds creates over 5,700 kilowatt hours of energy, with the 700 tonnes enough to power 1,000 homes for a year.

David Biggs, managing director of property at Network Rail, said: “Millions of cups of coffee are bought in our stations every year and that number is growing as passenger numbers continue to rise.

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BG ramps up Australia LNG production

BG Group has launched its second Australian LNG train after hitting a 1.5 million tonnes milestone.

BG confirmed it has started to load its first LNG onto a second production train at the Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) facility in Australia.

The site, which has 32,000 tonnes of steel, 139,000 cubic metres of concrete, 1950 kilometres of electrical cable and 200 kilometres of piping, is on track to produce enough LNG to load 10 vessels per month combined, exporting around eight million tonnes per year.

To date the facility has shipped 27 separate cargoes.

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China Offers Private Companies Rights to Explore Six Oil-and-Gas Blocks

BEIJING—China’s government is offering private companies the rights to explore six oil-and-gas blocks in a small step toward opening the nation’s energy resources to private investment.

The Ministry of Land and Resources said Tuesday that the pilot program would offer access to onshore blocks in China’s far northwest Xinjiang region, which has ample reserves but where commercial extraction is difficult due to its remote location and complex geology.

The announcement marks a step forward for promised reforms of China’s state-dominated oil-and-gas sector. Those reforms have been slow-moving; so far they have included opening up the Sinopec unit that operates gas-station convenience stores to private investors. Questions remain about how far the government is willing to go in letting private companies into the sector and in challenging the dominance of China’s behemoth national oil companies.

In its Tuesday statement, the resources ministry said participating companies must have at least 1 billion yuan in net assets ($161 million). That, in effect, excludes many small companies from bidding. The trial program could potentially be attractive to China’s independent refiners and other larger companies involved in the sector. The blocks are located in several areas of Xinjiang, including two in the Tarim Basin, a major production zone for CNPC.

Last year, China was the world’s fourth biggest oil producer behind Russia, Saudi Arabia and the U.S., producing more than 4 million barrels a day.

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Shell Arctic oil drilling to commence within weeks

Oil and gas giant Shell is expected to begin drilling for oil in the Arctic within the next two weeks.

Oil and gas giant Shell is expected to begin drilling for oil in the Arctic within the next two weeks.

Experts believe that more than 20% of the world's undiscovered oil and gas resources can be found in the Arctic.

The US Department of the Interior gave the green light to Shell to commence Arctic oil exploration in May this year, and the Anglo-Dutch group clearly believes it will get the remaining necessary permits in the next week or two.
Thirty ships left Dutch Harbor in Alaska on Thursday July 2, for the Arctic, to support two initial exploratory wells.

The initial two wells will be in relatively shallow water of about 40 to 50m deep, off the coast of Alaska, and they will use conventional drilling techniques. The company should know whether these wells find sufficient quantities of oil to justify further exploration by the end of 2016.

By this time, it will have spent another $1.4bn on the project. The company has already committed about $7bn (£4.5bn) to the controversial project, and is confident it will find huge quantities of oil in the region.
Read more… 

Oil and gas set to be Australia’s boom industry

Oil&Gas Australia

A new IBISWorld report has listed the oil and gas industry as the country’s highest growth sector for next year.

Despite the overall falling oil price, the survey reveals continued expansion in the energy sector.

IBISWorld has forecast revenues of $40.271 billion for this financial year, and expects a growth rate of 12.8 per cent year on year, with revenues expected to jump to $45.409 billion for the 2015/16 financial year.

This is a huge increase from the average compound 5.8 per cent growth rate recorded between 2010 and 2015.

“There has been unprecedented capital investment in oil and gas extraction over the past decade, the benefits of which are anticipated in 2015-16,” IBISWorld senior industry analyst Ryan Lin added.

The demand for these will come predominantly from Asia, in particular Japan, as the nation’s energy suppliers move to gas fired plants in the wake of the 2011 nuclear disaster.

“Strong demand from Japan for natural gas will be met by increasing LNG production across Australia. Investment in export facilities will also make the Japanese market more accessible to Australian producers,” Lin said.

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Process Safety training at your finger tips with Safety Talks featuring Professor Andrew Hopkins.

Wildfire threatens the Wildboy Gas Plant

An evacuation alert has been issued by the Northern Rockies Municipal Council .

Penn West Petroleum's Wildboy gas plant is within the area under evacuation alert due to the Petiot River fire burning northeast of Fort Nelson, B.C. (Penn West Petroleum)
The fire was started by lightning on Wednesday, about 100 kilometres northeast of Fort Nelson.
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Evacuation Alert Area

How to Best Manage the Challenge of Process Safety

Managing Process Safety is one of the most challenging aspects of achieving safe and reliable operations for any company working in Oil&Gas, Chemical high hazard industries, Mining and Energy.

Process safety incidents costs money, disrupts reliable operations but can also result in massive damage, loss of life and threaten the very existence of an organization and its environmental footprint and reputation. There is no evidence that the frequency of serious process safety incidents are reducing.

The Process Safety suite of DVD workshops featuring the esteemed Professor Andrew Hopkins, an internationally acclaimed process safety specialist, will provide comprehensive coverage of process safety including underpinning theory, practical tools and processes, how to measure process safety and techniques to help you positively influencing colleagues within your company.

By training using the DVD workshops and accompanying support material, you are protecting yourself and protecting your company against reputation damage. Furthermore the DVDs will capitalise on your knowledge to gain maximum value.

The DVD workshops help to run operations in a reliable and safe way and thus saving money for the company. This helps maintain a healthy company reputation and save lives.  For example the Gulf of Mexico cost BP $20 billion dollars, and still counting.  By training using the DVD workshops and accompanying support material, you are protecting yourself and your company against reputation damage.  Furthermore the DVDs will capitalise on your knowledge to gain maximum value on these vital issues:
 
REVIEW the latest thinking on managing process safety

DEVELOP process safety indicators which are relevant to your company and operation

GAIN INSIGHTS from learning the inside story of how and why famous process safety incidents occurred as well as the learning from a series of less well known but equally important incidents

BENCHMARK your organization’s process safety maturity using a tool to assess organizational and human factors

ENHANCE your own skills and knowledge on change management so you can be even more effective in your organization in promoting process safety

EXAMINE how process safety is becoming a key corporate governance issue for the leadership teams of companies
 
The training suite provides:  

• A clear explanation of how the causation of process safety incidents differ from occupational health and safety accidents  
• Managerial strategies to successfully manage process safety; including how focusing on risk controls can improve performance
• An explanation of the cognitive biases which affect supervisors and managers and which may inhibit effective management of process safety  
• Practical tips for implementing human factors
• Improvements to make it more likely critical procedures are followed by front line personnel
• Effective auditing of process safety including human and organizational factors
• Change management techniques that safety and reliability specialists can deploy to improve the uptake of the above approaches to reduce the likelihood of process safety incidents and  improve reliability  
• Effective Leadership for process safety
• Process safety and enterprise risk management: What 'good' looks like in Corporate Governance.

The DVD workshops use case studies of actual process safety incidents to illustrate the key concepts and participants will be encouraged to share their knowledge of incidents for the benefit of the course including near misses.  The books by Professor Andrew Hopkins and the suite of process safety DVD workshops are essential tools for all organizations operating in high hazard, low frequency with high risk for accident, industries.

Complete the information below to contact us with your inquiries:

Or contact us by telephoning +61 2 9279 4499

America’s Shale Oil Boom Grinds to a Halt

The shale oil boom that turned the U.S. into the world’s largest fuel exporter and brought $3 gasoline back to America’s pumps is grinding to a halt.

With the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) maintaining its own oil production, U.S. shale is coming under pressure to rebalance a global supply glut. EOG Resources Inc., the country’s biggest shale-oil producer, hedge fund manager Andrew J. Hall and banks including Standard Chartered Plc have forecast declines in U.S. output following last year’s plunge in crude prices. The nation was still pumping the most in four decades in March.

“Production has to come down because rigs drilling for oil are down 57 percent this year,” James Williams, president of energy consultancy WTRG Economics, said by phone Monday from London, Arkansas. “Countering that is the fact that the rigs we’re still using are more efficient and drilling in areas where you get higher production. So that has delayed the decline.”

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