Lease sale shows shallow waters in Gulf of Mexico are back: BOEM
chief
New York (Platts)--24Jun2012/914 am EDT/1314 GMT
The director of the US federal agency in charge of offshore oil and
gas leasing said Sunday that what struck him most about the recent
Central Gulf of Mexico lease sale was the interest in drilling on the
continental shelf, as opposed to just interest in the deepwater Gulf.
Tommy Beaudreau, the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management,
noted that "there's been that belief that the shallow water was dead."
But instead, "we got bids on nearly 200 lease blocks," he told the
television program Platts Energy Week.
Shallow waters in less than 200 meters depth received 193 bids this
year, compared to 151 tracts in the most recent Central Gulf of Mexico
auction two years ago.
Beaudreau cited the bids of Apache and Chevron in particular. Chevron
bid on a total of five blocks in the Grand Isle and West Delta areas,
and Apache returned to the shelf after a five-year absence by submitting
several bids. Although Beaudreau didn't cite it by name, ConocoPhillips
sought acreage in the Viosca Knoll in seven bids.
The sale took in total apparent high bids of $1.7 billion, with BOEM
describing it as the fourth most successful sale in history. This was
the first Central Gulf of Mexico lease sale since the one that occurred
about a month before the Macondo blowout, and Macondo is in the Central
Gulf.
In this sale, BP, the operator at Macondo, submitted total bids of $3.5
million. Beaudreau answered "yes" to the question of whether BP can
drill safely.
"We put a lot of scrutiny on BP following the spill," he said." "We
raised our standards, and BP must comply with them. BP also has
undertaken a number of voluntary measures, like requiring outside
verification of their cementing procedures."
DELAY IN LEASE LAUNCH DEFENDED
Improper cementing has been identified as a key reason for the Macondo
blowout. "I have a genuine belief that BP is sincere about operating
safely," Beaudreau added.
The BOEM director defended the amount of time it took to get this lease
sale off the ground. The Department of the Interior did conduct a lease
sale for the Western Gulf of Mexico in late 2011, but it is the Central
Gulf of Mexico that always draws the most interest. For example, the
sale in December didn't even attract total bids of $750 million,
compared to total bids in the Central sale in excess of $2 billion.
The criticism in the pace of sale also has come from environmental
groups, who in some cases sought a further delayed sale.
"We delayed the sale, and the reason was to take the time necessary to
implement these heightened standards and evaluate information from the
spill," Beaudreau said.
But the results of the sale were seen by Beaudreau as vindicating that
approach. "I think with what we've seen with the pickup of activity in
the Gulf that the industry has stepped up and they can comply with our
standards," he said.
He also defended the amount of time needed to secure permits. "We've
refined our processes and our overall plan review, and permitting times
have come down because of operator compliance and efficiency in our
processes," Beaudreau said. "But compliance is the key."
"Platts Energy Week" airs Sundays in Washington at 8 am on WUSA and in
Houston at 4 pm (both local times) on the PBS channel KUHT. The show is
also available online at www.plattsenergyweektv.com.
--John Kingston,
john_kingston@platts.com
--Edited by Robert DiNardo,
robert_dinardo@platts.com
Creative
Commons License
To subscribe or visit go to:
http://www.platts.com |