An oil spill unleashed by Hurricane Ida is highlighting longstanding concerns about the more than 18,000 miles of decommissioned pipelines that still snake through the Gulf of Mexico, even though they no longer transport crude and natural gas.
Oil and natural gas explorers in the US Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana refineries have shut production as Hurricane Ida crashed ashore.
Iran has warned it will protect its waters after the UK set out plans to put together a European maritime force to defend shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Jeremy Hunt is to launch a fresh diplomatic bid to prevent the Iran nuclear deal unravelling and to ease tensions in the Gulf.
The Strait of Hormuz has become a key battleground in the stand-off between the United States and Iran, with claims and counter-claims on either side of an argument ostensibly about oil.
Solar power is getting so cheap that even Gulf Arab states awash in crude oil are embracing the renewable resource. Their motive is as much to keep selling fossil fuels as it is to rein in their carbon emissions.
Energy-rich Gulf Arab nations have scrambled to adjust to the slump in oil prices since 2014. Three years on, their economies are mired in weak growth and largely just as dependent on crude as they ever were.
The US is to open up 75.9 million acres offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for oil and gas exploration and development.
Tropical Storm Cindy, which has already curbed energy production in the Gulf of Mexico, disrupted shipping and forced workers off oil and gas platforms, is now dumping rain on the Gulf Coast.
Theresa May is pushing a £30 billion trade deal agenda as she visits the Gulf.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. agreed to buy Gulf of Mexico oil assets from Freeport-McMoRan Inc. for $2 billion and said it will use revenue generated by the offshore wells to develop its U.S. oilfields on land.
McDermott International said it has been awarded a $454million contract from Pemex for engineering, construction and installation of the Abkatun-A2 platform.
Gulf Arab monarchies are gearing up for a prolonged period of low oil prices and pushing through reforms that are more ambitious than the last time crude slumped in the 1980s, according to investment bank Renaissance Capital.
BP Plc won’t have to face lawsuits by energy and oilfield service companies over losses they blamed on the U.S. offshore drilling ban imposed after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
With oil prices at historic lows, the impact on Gulf economies will be significant. Karim Nassif, Associate Director at Standard & Poor’s, argues that financing will have to adapt to meet the demand for infrastructure – and that renewable energy stands to benefit.
A deflated oil price has left the Gulf sovereigns with a $270billion funding gap, according to Standard and Poor’s latest report.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. was ordered to pay almost $160 million for its role as part-owner of the doomed Gulf of Mexico well that in 2010 caused the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
A former BP Plc engineer pleaded guilty to deleting text messages in what the US said was an attempt to hide spill rate estimates during the biggest offshore oil disaster in US history. Kurt Mix faced as long as 20 years in prison if convicted at trial. Instead, he was sentenced to probation and community service Friday as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors. Mix was the first of four men charged with crimes tied to the 2010 catastrophe and its aftermath.
A former BP engineer is having a change-of-plea hearing in New Orleans, where he has been fighting a charge that he obstructed an investigation into the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Kurt Mix was indicted in early 2012 on two criminal counts arising from allegations that he deleted text messages about the amount of oil that spewed into the Gulf after the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig explosion that killed 11 workers. He has been in an up-and-down legal battle ever since. He was acquitted on one criminal charge in a 2013 trial and convicted on an obstruction of justice charge at the same hearing.
ConocoPhillips said the company will stop searching for oil and gas in deepwater fields by 2017 as well as selling offshore leases it doesn’t intend to drill. The company said the move will help free up $800million in capital, the same amount which has been estimated for exploration next year. Earlier this week Conoco revealed its capital budget for the year would be cut to $10.2billion, in response to continued low oil prices.
Oil major Chevron said it has made a “significant discovery” after the appraisal of the Anchor discovery in the Gulf of Mexico. The original discovery well, which is located 140 miles off the coast of Louisiana, was drilled in late last year to a depth of 33,750feet and encountered 690feet of net oil pay. The appraisal drilling began in June this year and Chevron said complete appraisal of the field will require further delineation wells and technical studies.
Oil giant BP reported a 40% drop in quarterly earnings after it was impacted by low crude prices, but still came in ahead of analysts’ forecasts. The firm’s underlying replacement cost profit for the third quarter was 1.819 billion US dollars (£1.185 billion), compared with 3.037 billion US dollars (£1.979 million) a year ago. However, the FTSE 100 Index was down 17.4 points to 6400.1, led lower by miners and uncertain prospects for global trade.
Transocean has reached an agreement with the state of Alabama for a $20million settlement following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The decision was announced earlier this month by Governor Robert Bentley who said the region had suffered “tremendous” losses since the spill five years ago. He said the agreement with Transocean was a “positive” step forward as the state continued to recover.
Anadarko has lifted the topsides onto the hull of its Heidelberg spar in the deep-water US Gulf of Mexico. The platform is expected to achieve first oil by 2016.
Gulf Arab stocks were poised for the longest winning streak since April following a surge in Asian equities and oil’s biggest gain this month. The Bloomberg GCC200 Index, a gauge of 200 of the region’s biggest and most-liquid shares, rose 1.9 percent as of 1:20 p.m. in Riyadh. That put it on track for a fifth-day gaining and the highest close in almost three weeks. The measure climbed above its 20-day moving average for the first time since July 27.