_

The Gulf of Mexico is the oil and gas hub for the Western Hemisphere, with several thousand platforms standing at any given time. As with any industry, safety is of utmost concern. When a platform is built in the Gulf, there are safety concerns for human life, aquatic life, the environment and the Gulf of Mexico itself, to name but a few. However, certain legislation is being proposed in the U.S. Congress that would be detrimental to the oil and gas industry and have a stifling financial impact on Gulf of Mexico drilling activity — Section 608 of the U.S. Coast Guard Reauthorization Bill, also known as H.R. 2838.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, recently amended the bill in the House before passing it on to the Senate. Landry’s House amendment includes Section 608, which is language regarding the use of stand-by vessels. The language requires stand-by vessels to be located within three miles of every manned oil and gas platform facility in the Gulf of Mexico, including mobile offshore drilling units. This requirement would increase cost to oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico by hundreds of millions of dollars.

The alleged intention of Landry’s amendment of this bill is to improve the safety of offshore workers by adding these so-called stand-by vessels. However, the oil and gas industry does not agree with this notion. A recent report by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) stated that from the period of 1996 to 2009, there were only three fatalities that were related to hypothermia in the Gulf of Mexico. During this same timeframe, the industry voluntarily reported 1.04 billion man-hours equating to a workforce with an annual average of more than 35,000 personnel.

The industry is projecting that an additional 150 to 200 vessels would be needed to meet the stand-by language requirements. Also, additional personnel would be required to operate the additional vessels. All in the name of safety, adding these stand-by vessels and personnel would not increase safety, but exponentially increase cost to the oil and gas industry by several hundred million dollars.

Regulations already exist using the most efficient technology that is designed specifically to protect offshore workers, and the regulations have been deemed adequate by the regulating bodies. Reports like the BSEE document and historical incident data do not show a need for such an onerous requirement like the Stand-By language pursues.

The Senate has now voted on the bill, passing it out without language regarding stand-by vessels. However, this issue is far from dead. The bill can potentially go before a conference committee where the final language would be decided, but this will most likely not happen until after the November elections. If this stand-by language were to be added in the conference committee and passed within the reauthorization bill, the outcome would be stifling for the oil and gas industry and its future production and success.

As the country is already trying to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression, it is vitally important that the U.S. Congress not create barriers that prevent energy and economic development within the Gulf of Mexico region.

Don Briggs is president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association. His column is published every other Thursday.

original article

_

The Obama administration announced plans Monday to auction 38 million acres of offshore oil and natural gas leases in the central Gulf of Mexico next year, the second lease sale in a year in the same area where BP’s Macondo well erupted in April 2010.

The lease sale will include about 7,250 federally owned oil and gas drilling tracts between three to 230 miles off the coasts of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The areas are located in water depths of nine to more than 11,115 feet, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which regulates offshore drilling and reviews each winning bid, said Monday.

Estimates indicate that the proposed sale could lead to nearly a trillion barrels of oil and almost 4 trillion feet of gas resources, according to federal regulators.

The sale, slated to be held March 20, 2013 in New Orleans, will be the second under the Obama administration’s five-year, Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, and the first of five annual central Gulf lease sales.

In June, the first oil and gas lease sale in the same area since the Deepwater Horizon exploded there two years ago, attracted more than $1.7 billion in high bids from energy companies. It put about 39 million acres — or 7,434 tracts — up for bid, from as close as three miles to as far as 230 miles off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Some of the money will make its way back to Louisiana, where it is now constitutionally required to go to coastal protection and restoration projects.

Last December, ConocoPhillips emerged as the biggest winner among energy companies trying to ramp up domestic deepwater exploration and production, placing high bids on more than a third of the available tracts off the coast of Texas in the first oil and natural gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico since the 2010 BP oil spill.

The lease sale attracted $337.7 million from 20 companies that submitted winning bids for 191 federally owned oil and natural gas drilling tracts across more than 21 million acres in the western Gulf.

original article

_

Operators were returning to Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms and rigs to restore operations following Hurricane Isaac, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement reported.

As of information received from industry by 11:30 a.m. CDT on Sept. 5, BSEE said 680,749 b/d, or 49.33%, of the gulf’s crude oil production and 1.15 bcfd, or 25.71%, of its gas production remained shut in. The shut-in production figures are estimates based on historic production reports.

Offshore operator reports showed personnel were evacuated from 18 production platforms, or 3.02% of the manned platforms in the gulf, and 1 rig, or 1.32% of the rigs working there.

Previously, industry had shut in most gulf offshore crude production before Hurricane Isaac made its first landfall in Plaquemines Parish, La., Aug. 28 as a slow-moving Category 1 hurricane.

Louisiana received the brunt of Isaac’s 70 mph winds and heavy rain as it veered west of New Orleans 7 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding devastated New Orleans (OGJ Online, Aug. 29, 2012).

In early September, BSEE said that inspectors were flying offshore to the platforms and rigs. The agency said it received reports of mainly minor damage from some operators and would continue to issue daily updates.

About 100,000 b/d of production was restored from Sept. 2 to Sept. 3, according to the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association. Some 1.3 million b/d of production was off-line at the storm’s height.

LOGA cited a DOE report that nine refineries in Isaac’s path are restarting or operating at reduced rates and most employees have returned to work.

Phillips 66 Co.’s Alliance refinery at Belle Chasse, La., remained shut down as of Sept. 5 because its power has not been restored, the association said.

US President Barack Obama, as he visited St. John the Baptist Parish on Sept. 3, commended work by federal and local governments and volunteers in recovering from the storm.

Citing Louisianans and Missippians’ resilience in responding to disasters, he said: “When disasters like this happen, we set aside whatever petty disagreements we may have. Nobody is a Democrat or a Republican—we’re all just Americans looking out for one another.”

Meanwhile, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney visited Louisiana Aug. 31 to survey the storm’s damage and local recovery efforts a day after the party’s convention ended in Tampa, Fla.

original article

_

Lessons learned from past tropical storms and hurricanes helped reduce the amount of pollution released during Hurricane Isaac’s sweep through Louisiana, officials at the state Department of Environmental Quality said this week.

However, environmental groups countered there is still too much pollution released from industrial sources during hurricanes. They said better preparations are needed in advance of a storm’s arrival.

“Every year, we get better and better at our response,” said Peter Ricca, emergency response manager with DEQ.

At 72 hours before landfall, he said, DEQ staff and other agency staff start calling industries reminding them about shutdown procedures and getting prepared. It appears to be working, he said, considering that the state saw fewer containers floating away from businesses after Hurricane Isaac when compared to the floating debris during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Still, some spills and releases were reported during Hurricane Isaac because of flooding, rainfall and wind.

The incidents ranged from the spill of .003 gallon of crude oil into a private canal in Galliano to a barge sinking that released 2,178 tons of petroleum coke to the Mississippi River, according to information reported to the National Response Center. The National Response Center is where oil and other spills and releases are required to be reported.

There were problems reported during shut downs and start up of some industries in Hurricane Isaac’s path. For example, ConocoPhillips in Belle Chasse reported the release of an unknown amount of sulfur dioxide into air during the final stages of the planned shutdown of the refinery on Aug. 27.

In another shutdown the same day, Chalmette Refining LLC in Chalmette reported the release of 200 pounds of hydrogen sulfide and 46 tons of sulfur dioxide from a flare.

Ed Ballow, DEQ Incident Commander for Hurricane Isaac, said pollutants are sometimes released during shutdown operations, but it’s much more important for them to go through that process rather than not shut down their operations for a storm.

Ballow said that all the reports DEQ has received say no one has had any serious problems in the startup process.

“We couldn’t get to all of the facilities to monitor, but the few we did didn’t show any problems,” Ballow said.

Environmental groups, though, say more needs to be done to protect the environment.

During a news conference Thursday, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Gulf Restoration Network and the Sierra Club called for industry to improve their hurricane preparedness activities and for regulatory agencies to make companies pay fines for hurricane-related accidents.

“Some of them (releases) were small and some of those reports are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, of incidents reported to the federal National Response Center.

Rolfes said storms are known to occur in Louisiana and industry should be prepared to deal with them.

Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, said oil and gas production has been operating in the state and in the Gulf of Mexico for decades and that the industry doesn’t prepare properly for storms are unfounded.

Briggs said more than 4,000 facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and thousands of pieces of equipment need to be secured, all of which would be subject to damage in a storm environment. If the Louisiana Bucket Brigade has counted 93 incidents from Hurricane Isaac, he said, that shows industry is doing a good job of being prepared.

“In reality, when you have storms like that, it’s not just the oil industry that gets impacted,” Briggs said.

One item that received numerous reports to the National Response Center was of the release of oil from electrical transformers around the hurricane-affected area. The use of PCBs in the oil was discontinued some years ago, but some transformers still contain the material so it is also reported to the National Response Center, Ricca said.

“We take those seriously when they spill,” Ricca said.

After a storm has passed, DEQ staff work with State Police to do quick assessments of affected areas Ricca said.

“We make sure they’re on the grid and that they had no leaks or discharges,” Ricca said, referring to facilities and operations that are a part of this first response. After that, a parish is cleared to allow assessment teams to do a more detailed look at the facilities and operations in an area along with flights over affected areas, he said.

One spill area that DEQ is monitoring occurred in the Myrtle Grove area in Plaquemines Parish.

“A storage tank got damaged from flooding and wave action,” Ballow said. There is no estimate yet about how much material from the oil production facility was released, he said.

original article

_

Offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico continue to restore production following Tropical Storm Isaac. 

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Hurricane Response Team is activated and monitoring the operators’ activities. The team will continue to work with offshore operators and other state and federal agencies until operations return to normal.

Oil and gas operators continue to assess their facilities and are submitting damage reports to BSEE as required. Reports continue to indicate mainly minor damage.

Evacuations update

Based on data from offshore operator reports submitted as of 11:30 a.m. CDT September 5, personnel remain evacuated on a total of 18 production platforms, equivalent to 3.02 percent of the 596 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Personnel remain evacuated from one rig, equivalent to 1.32 percent of the 76 rigs currently operating in the Gulf.

Shut-in procedure activated

As part of the evacuation process, personnel activate the applicable shut-in procedure, which can frequently be accomplished from a remote location. This involves closing the sub-surface safety valves located below the surface of the ocean floor to prevent the release of oil or gas.

During previous hurricane seasons, the shut-in valves functioned 100 percent of the time, efficiently shutting in production from wells on the Outer Continental Shelf and protecting the marine and coastal environments. Shutting-in oil and gas production is a standard procedure conducted by industry for safety and environmental reasons.

From operator reports, it is estimated that approximately 49.33 percent of the current daily oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut-in. It is also estimated that approximately 25.71 percent of the current daily natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut-in. 

Shut-in production information included in these reports is based on the amount of oil and gas the operator expected to produce that day. The shut-in production figures therefore are estimates, which BSEE compares to historical production reports to ensure the estimates follow a logical pattern. The remaining shut-in oil and gas production has been slow to return due to damage at onshore processing facilities.

Facilities under inspection

Offshore oil and gas facilities are currently being inspected. Once all standard checks have been completed, production from undamaged facilities will be brought back on line immediately. Facilities sustaining damage may take longer to bring back on line.

original article

_

Hurricane Isaac is on its way west along the Gulf Coast, where much of the nation’s gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil are produced. With many refineries shut down, it could increase the price of gas.

According to a survey by motorist group AAA, the national price for a gallon of regular gas crept up 0.6 cents to $3.76 Tuesday. According to the same survey, sharper prices were recorded in states along Isaac’s path, with gas jumping 2.5 cents to $3.64 a gallon in Louisiana, a little more than 2 cents to $3.56 in Mississippi and 1.3 cents to $3.58 in Alabama.

Don Briggs, president of Louisiana’s Oil and Gas Association, spoke to Eyewitness News about Isaac’s potential effect on gas prices.

He said they’ll spike for a short period of time but that will be the extent of it. But with Hurricane Isaac’s new path west, encompassing the entire gulf region from Florida to Texas, there’s fear both Louisiana and Texas refineries could shut down at the same time, which could be catastrophic for drivers.

“That would probably run it up some. I would hate to venture what it would be,” Briggs said.

In Charlotte, gas prices jumped two cents overnight. Eyewitness News spoke to people filling up, fearing it could happen again.

“I thought ahead and that’s why I’m here. Even though it is $67, I thought ahead,” Paul Incalcatera said.

The United States consumes about 19 million barrels of oil per day.

Gulf oil rigs produce more than a quarter of the nation’s crude oil. While refineries account for more than 60 percent of the nation’s oil and gas production.

With rigs and refineries shut down close to two billion barrel of oil are not being produced per day.

President Barack Obama has already talked about dipping into the nation’s strategic oil reserve, but if Isaac moves out of the Gulf region by the weekend, oil executives said that won’t be necessary.

original article

_

Tropical Storm Isaac gathered strength early Tuesday and was on the verge of becoming a Category 1 hurricane as it rumbled toward the Gulf Coast, though precisely where it will make landfall remains guesswork, forecasters said Tuesday.

Isaac is projected to land somewhere along the Mississippi or Southeast Louisiana coast on Tuesday evening, possibly as an even stronger Category 2 hurricane, according to the National Weather Service.

Even before then, a wide swath of coastal area – and extending inland from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle – is likely to buffeted by strong winds, rain of as much as 15 inchesand flooding. The threat of tornadoes will also increase as the storm approaches.

Isaac has been fickle and confounded predictions all along.

The most serious danger may not be from the 100-mile-per-hour winds, but by the enormous amount of water that the storm will be bringing with it and pushing in front of it. Officials encouraged those in low-lying areas to leave, warning of 12-foot storm surges along a broad swath of the coast and days of nonstop rainfall, in some places possibly adding up to 20 inches of water.

“A slow-moving, large system poses a lot of problems,” Rick Knapp, the director of the National Hurricane Center, said in a conference call with reporters, describing the risks as “life-threatening, potentially.”

Any discussion among Louisiana residents about whether to stay or go was running out of time. Tropical-storm-force winds were expected to arrive overnight, rendering a last-minute escape more dangerous than sticking around. Gov. Bobby Jindal urged people in low-lying areas and places outside of levee protection to leave for safer ground, but in any case to make up their minds quickly.

“Today is the day, for those that want to leave, today is the day they should move,” Mr. Jindal said at a news briefing, surrounded by the presidents of several coastal parishes.

A mandatory evacuation of New Orleans is triggered by a Category 3 hurricane, a status Isaac is unlikely to reach. But the time frame for a safe and effective citywide evacuation expired on Monday anyway.

So those who remain here, as most have, will be marking the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Wednesday not with ribbon cuttings and modest ceremonies as planned, but by hunkering down under heavy rains and winds.

All storms have their own personalities, and Isaac promises a very different experience from Katrina. While it could possibly hit New Orleans directly — unlike Katrina, which landed in Mississippi but sent surge waters against the city’s faulty levees and flood walls — Isaac will have to contend with a $14.5 billion flood protection system that has been all but completed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

This system, along with its profile and a rapport between parish, state and federal authorities that is far stronger than the dysfunctional relationship that characterized the response effort to Hurricane Katrina, bolstered the confident statements made by city officials on New Orleans’s ability to bear up.

“We know now, based on the latest information, which is always subject to change, that we are going to have a hurricane that is going to hit New Orleans,” Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu said at a news briefing on Monday. But, he added, “there’s nothing this storm will bring us that we are not capable of handling.”

After a tremor of anxiety on Saturday night and Sunday, when it became clear that Isaac had turned its gaze to Louisiana, the sort of autopilot pragmatism that comes from living in hurricane country kicked in. By Sunday night, New Orleans residents had stripped bare the shelves of some grocery stores and sucked some gas stations dry.

The decision to stay for most people was perhaps in part due to reports on Monday morning that Isaac had yet to — in the disparaging phrase of several meteorologists — “get its act together,” and was projected to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane or possibly even a strong tropical storm. But that forecast turned worse by the afternoon, and in any case officials urged residents all along the Gulf Coast not to focus on the projected intensity, or even the location of landfall. A huge, wet and sluggish storm like Isaac could wreak havoc far and wide, regardless of its strength, they said, just as Tropical Storm Lee last year did with flooding as far north as Pennsylvania and New York.

The storm has already forced the evacuation of workers from 346 oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, which are responsible for 17 percent of domestic oil production and 6 percent of natural gas production, though it has so far had little effect on the price of commodities. It has also led to at least one confirmed tornado, in Vero Beach, Fla., and has put officials far beyond the shore on alert for more.

“We’re still recovering, so we are geared up as much as any staff members can be,” said Yasamie August, information manager for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, in a state that was devastated by tornadoes last year.

Mandatory evacuations have been announced in low-lying areas in Alabama and Mississippi, and shelters have opened all along the coast. The evacuations were also announced in several communities outside the levees in south Louisiana, as well as for the entire parish of St. Charles, west of New Orleans.

Renee Simpson, a spokeswoman for the parish, said the evacuation was called for because much of the parish is unprotected by levees from the surging gulf. She pointed out that a mandatory evacuation did not mean people would be arrested or roads closed, but amounted to a warning that, with electrical failures and extensive flooding likely, people who chose to say would essentially be on their own.

This did not seem to bother many St. Charles residents, who seemed mildly amused that people would leave for anything under a Category 3.

“Category 1 or 2, I’m staying; strong 3, 4 or 5, yeah, I’m out,” said Dale Daunie, a teacher in Luling. “We’re just going to grin and bear it for a little bit. You know, barbecue and make the best out of it.”

Anjanette Joseph, a nurse in Destrehan, concurred with that analysis, judging the risks not worth the inconveniences of a hasty exit. “All the hotels were booked up for pets, and we have a dog and a mouse, so we decided to stay,” she said.

This attitude concerned Louisiana officials, who warned that multiple days of rain on top of dangerous storm surges would severely test local drainage systems and that days without power in a Louisiana summer is not something anyone would want. But the gulf mentality dies hard.

“I’m not afraid of the storm,” said Denise Maul, a retired nurse who has an apartment in New Orleans with her husband. Her car was loaded, and she was planning to leave on Monday afternoon, she said. But they are only going to Mobile, where they have a house. It was a matter of comfort, not security. “My dad used to always say, ‘Rainy weather ain’t good for nothing but ducks and lovers,’ ” she said.

original article

_

Tropical Storm Isaac churned toward the northern Gulf Coast early Monday and promised to give the Republican National Convention a good drenching after lashing the Florida Keys and Miami area with wind and rain.

The National Hurricane Center predicted Isaac would grow to a Category 2 hurricane over the warm Gulf of Mexico and possibly hit late Tuesday somewhere along a stretch that starts west of New Orleans and runs to the edge of the Florida Panhandle. That would be one day shy of seven years after Hurricane Katrina struck catastrophically in 2005.

Hurricane warnings were in effect Monday morning from east of Morgan City, La. to Destin, Fla. That stretch includes New Orleans.

A Category 2 hurricane has sustained winds of between 96 and 110 mph and a strong storm surge.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency, and 53,000 residents of St. Charles Parish near New Orleans were ordered to leave ahead of the storm.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu also declared a state of emergency, says CBS affiliate WWL-TV in New Orleans, as did Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley.

Oil companies began evacuating workers and cutting production at Gulf offshore rigs in Isaac’s projected path.

Seven years after Katrina, New Orleans braces for Isaac Tropical Storm Isaac turns northwest after soaking Florida WFOR Miami’s interactive storm tracker

Several area governors have altered their plans for this week’s GOP convention in Tampa. Bentley has canceled his trip, and Jindal said he’s likely to do so unless the threat from the storm subsides. Florida Gov. Rick Scott gave up a chance to speak.

Even though the storm was moving well west of Tampa, tropical storm-force winds and heavy rains were possible in the area because of Isaac’s large size, forecasters said.

A small group of protesters braved rainy weather Sunday and vowed to continue despite the weather, which already forced the Republicans to cancel Monday’s opening session of the convention. Instead, the GOP will briefly gavel the gathering to order Monday afternoon and then recess until Tuesday.

Tampa Mayor Bill Buckhorn, a Democrat, said the weather would be “squirrely” but predicted the storm would not unduly interfere with the convention.

“We’re going to show the world on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday what a great place this is,” he said. “As a state and a city, we’re going to put on a good show and be a great host for the Republican Party.”

As of 5 a.m. EDT Monday, the storm was centered about 180 miles southwest of Fort Meyers, Fla., and 405 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Isaac had top sustained winds of 65 mph and was moving west-northwest at 14 mph.

Florida, historically the state most prone to hurricanes, has been hurricane-free since it was hit four times each in 2004 and 2005. Isaac will likely prove barely a memory for South Florida and Keys residents, who mostly took the storm in stride as its center passed just south of Key West on Sunday.

“This is routine for us,” said Annie Lopez, 47, a lifelong Key West resident. “It’s down to a science.”

Added Jean Claude Philemy of Miami, “Every year, it’s almost the same. We can deal with it.”

The storm did knock out power temporarily for around 16,000 customers throughout South Florida, and 555 flights were canceled at Miami International Airport. That forced some people to shuffle their travel plans and kept many, at least for a day, from enjoying their beach vacations.

“I have friends who tell me to come in January,” said Peter Muller, who was visiting Miami with his family from Germany. They spent part of Sunday at a Miami-area mall. “Maybe they know best.”

In the low-lying Keys, isolated patches of flooding were reported and some roads were littered with downed palm fronds and small branches. But officials said damage appeared to be minimal, and many Keys residents held true to their any-excuse-for-a-party reputation.

“The storm was the most fun thing ever!” exclaimed Sergey Jadzevics, who were taking pictures on famed Duval Street in Key West, a fresh bottle of vodka in hand.

“It’s not really scary,” added Kevin Furcrown, another Key West resident. “It’s more of a hassle than anything.”

The Gulf Coast hasn’t been hit by a hurricane since 2008, when Dolly, Ike and Gustav all struck the region.

Before reaching Florida, Isaac was blamed for eight deaths in Haiti and two more in the Dominican Republic, and downed trees and power lines in Cuba. It bore down on the Keys two days after the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, which caused more than $25 billion in damage and killed 26 people in South Florida.

original article