Oil companies operating in the North Sea could face an estimated $13 billion (Euros 10 billion) bill in light of the Elgin gas spill which could also seriously affect their credit ratings, according to rating agency Fitch. Total’s Elgin platform in the North Sea has been leaking gas since last month with some estimates that … Read More
Offshore
“No Idea How to Fix” North Sea Gas Leak
If you read any literature from the oil and gas industry it always argues that it is one of the best regulated industries in terms of safety and preparedness. This is an industry that understands the dangerous risks of drilling, prepares for it and mitigates to make sure accidents do not happen. If an accident … Read More
Africa’s New Scramble for Gas
Some twenty five years ago when Amoco were exploring for oil offshore Somalia, the company was convinced that the waters of East Africa contained vast reserves of oil and gas. But its exploration was unsuccessful, Somalia was ripped apart by civil war and the waters of East Africa, once the tranquil domain of dhows and … Read More
Falklands: “Conflict is Over Oil”
Are we slowly edging towards another war over oil? Thirty years after Britain and Argentina last went to war over the Falklands, the diplomatic stakes are rising rapidly. This could just be a great game of diplomatic brinkmanship where neither side really wants a repeat of the conflict from decades ago. However this time at … Read More
Arctic “should remain off-limits to drilling”
For a long time now many environmental organisations and front-line communities have warned about the dangers of drilling in the Arctic. Even before the Exxon Valdez scarred Alaska in 1989 people warned that drilling in the high north can have terrible consequences. And there was one major lesson from the Exxon Valdez: oil is much … Read More
Chevron Faces Possible Brazil Drilling Ban
Eighteen months after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, we have another country threatening to ban an oil company after a deep water spill. Yesterday it was Brazil’s turn to say it might ban Chevron from drilling in its deep water oilfields as punishment for the 3,000 barrel oil spill from the company’s Frade project. Chevron has … Read More
Oil Spill off Rio Sets Chevron at the Center of Scandal
Chevron is at the center of a scandal over the oil spill in the offshore Campos Basin Frade field about 230 miles from the coast of northeast Rio de Janeiro. Originally the company said that the spill was natural seepage from the field. Well, no, it appears it was not. The scandal began to unravel on … Read More
BP: Reprieved from Death Row
It’s been a good few days for BP. The company’s share price surged 5.1 per cent this morning after it was announced that Anadarko Petroleum will pay $4 billion to settle all claims for last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The US-based Anadarko Petroleum was a part-leaseholder of ill-fated Macondo well. As part of … Read More
Cairn Suffers Another Greenland Setback
In the rush for the Arctic, Cairn Energy is currently the environmental villain of the moment. Despite the disastrous risks of a spill and a clearly inadequate spill response plan, the company is leading the way in drilling off Greenland. As I blogged last week, a spill in the region could be catastrophic, and Cairn … Read More
The Oil Boom is Back
A new report by the energy consultancy, PFC Energy, is arguing that the center of the global energy industry is slowly shifting away from the oil majors. Publicly traded companies in Russia, China and Brazil are taking more of the top spots in its influential global ranking of the world’s energy giants. In part to … Read More