Gas Lease Sale Research Articles

Non-target analysis of crude oil photooxidation products at high latitudes and their biological effects

With new oil and gas lease sales in high-latitude regions, there exists a need to better understand the chemical fate of spilled oil and its effects on biological life. To address this need, laboratory simulations of crude oil spills under sub-Arctic conditions were conducted using artificial seawater and exposure to solar irradiation to create Hydrocarbon Oxidation Products (HOPs). HOPs characterization and their biological effects were assessed using ultra high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) with high resolution mass Orbitrap spectrometry and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) chemically activated luciferase gene expression (CALUX) assay. Non-target UHPLC-Orbitrap mass spectrometry analysis identified 251 HOPs that were in greater abundance in light-exposed samples than dark controls. Oxidized polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were also detected, including phenanthrene quinone, anthraquinone, hydroxyanthraquinone, and 9-fluoreneone. The composition of HOPs were consistent with photo-products of alkylated two to four ring PAHs, primarily compounds between 1 and 3 aromatic rings and 1–3 oxygens. The HOP mixture formed during photochemical weathering of Cook Inlet crude oil induced greater AhR activity than parent petroleum products solubilized in dark controls, indicating that HOPs, as a complex mixture, may contribute to petroleum toxicity more than the parent petroleum compounds. These non-targeted approaches provide the most comprehensive analysis of hydrocarbon oxidation products to date, highlighting the diversity of the complex mixture resulting from the photooxidation of crude oil and the limitations of targeted analyses for adequately monitoring HOPs in the environment. Taken together, these data identify a critical “blind spot” in environmental monitoring and spill clean-up strategies as there is a diverse pool of HOPs that may negatively impact human and ecosystem health.

Progress of the Oil Spill Risk Analysis (OSRA) Model and Its Applications

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is responsible for managing the development of US Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) energy and mineral resources. Because oil spills may occur from offshore oil and gas activities, BOEM conducts oil spill risk analysis (OSRA) prior to oil and gas lease sales. Since the 1970s, BOEM has developed and applied the OSRA model to evaluate the risk of potential oil spills to environmental resources. This paper summarizes some of the OSRA model progress and applications in the past decade: (1) calculation of the risk of catastrophic oil spills (with a volume over one million barrels), which concludes that the return period of a catastrophic oil spill in OCS areas is estimated to be 165 years; (2) a more efficient way to estimate the probability of oil spill contact to environmental resources in the Gulf of Mexico; (3) weathering calculations in OSRA, which enhances the accuracy of the OSRA model results; and (4) application of OSRA to the Ixtoc I oil spill as an example of how the OSRA model simulates large oil spills for oil spill preparedness and response.

E&P Notes (December 2017)

E&P Notes BHGE Shares Strategy for Integration of Services, Products, and Digital Platforms Pam Boschee, Senior Editor Marking 100 days as a new company after the merger of Baker Hughes and GE Oil and Gas, Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE), shared its strategies and plans for taking a fullstream approach to global oilfield services, products, and digital capabilities to improve productivity, safety, and project economics. Speaking at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in October, Mathias Schlecht, BHGE vice president of enterprise technology, described the concept as the full integration of services from upstream to midstream to downstream. “We know how to get the molecules and transport and use them. From molecules to megawatts, and deep sea to the cloud.” Accidental Discovery: Bitumen Pellets for Heavy Oil Transport Stephen Whitfield, Senior Staff Writer Researchers at the University of Calgary have developed something that may have a significant impact on the transport of heavy oil, and it is the size of a pill. The discovery is a pellet, self-sealing with a liquid core of either bitumen or heavy oil within a super-viscous, semi-solid, or solid skin that reduces the chance of a damaging spill during transport. The pellets can be designed to be buoyant and safe if they are spilled into the environment by incorporating agents within the pellets, like gas bubbles, catalysts, and solvents. Their outer coating is unreactive, making them much less likely to cause environmental damage than a liquid heavy oil or bitumen spill. Jones Energy CEO Tells of Company’s Transformation Joel Parshall, JPT Features Editor Jones Energy CEO Jonny Jones described his company’s transformation from a small private entity to a publicly traded company in a talk in October at the Leaders in Industry Luncheon, sponsored by the Independent Producers Association of America and the Texas Independent Oil Producers & Royalty Owners, at the Houston Petroleum Club. Jones highlighted the company’s entry into the Merge oil play, a newly defined play at the junction of the SCOOP (South Central Oklahoma Oil Province) and STACK (Sooner Trend, Anadarko and Canadian and Kingfisher [counties]) plays in central Oklahoma. Largest Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale Announced John Donnelly, JPT Editor The US Department of the Interior in October proposed the largest oil and gas lease sale ever held in the United States—almost 77 million acres offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The sale would be held in March 2018 and is attempted to revive interest in a sector that has been reeling since oil prices fell sharply beginning 3 years ago. The sale includes all available unleased areas on the Gulf ’s Outer Continental Shelf. The Trump administration said the auction should make the US energy industry stronger. This proposed sale follows a lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico in August that attracted $121 million in high bids on 90 offshore tracts.

Marine ecosystem synthesis: From physics to whales in the Pacific Arctic

Synthesis of Arctic Research (SOAR) Workshop; Anchorage, Alaska, 14–16 March 2012 The Synthesis of Arctic Research (SOAR) program brings together a multidisciplinary group of Arctic scientists and Alaskan coastal community residents to explore and integrate marine research information in the Pacific Arctic region. The goal of SOAR is to increase scientific understanding of the relationships among oceanographic conditions (physics, chemistry, sea ice), benthic organisms, lower trophic pelagic species (forage fish and zooplankton), and higher trophic species (i.e., seabirds, walrus, whales) in the Pacific Arctic, with particular emphasis on the Chukchi Sea oil and gas lease sale areas.

The environmental impact assessment process for oil and gas extraction projects in the Russian Federation: possibilities for improvement

This paper considers how the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process in Russia (OVOS) could benefit from incorporating some of the process and documentary features of European strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and US Environmental Impact Statements respectively. While the strategic level is addressed in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA, the USA system of Environmental Assessment) and in the European Directive on SEA implemented in 2004, SEA is not currently undertaken in the Russian system in terms of legislation or practice. The first section of the paper describes the present state of the OVOS process, through presentation of the relevant legislation in Russia, taking into account European Union (EIA and SEA Directives) and US (Policy Act EIS/EA) experiences. In the second section, the Irkutsk case study (an OVOS report for the gas exploration and extraction project in the Irkutsk Region of Russia) is compared with the EIA undertaken for the Cook Inlet oil and gas lease sales in Alaska (planned activities under the considered projects are quite similar) to show differences between the two documents. In the third section the current situation with Irkutsk case study is presented and an example of how SEA tools could be integrated in the report is provided.

Use of Synthetic Aperture Radar for Selecting Alaskan Lakes for Winter Water Use1

Abstract: Water resources are limited in many areas of the North Slope, Alaska, particularly during winter. Water is used by the oil industry for ice road construction and maintenance, drilling and facility operations, and potable water supplies. The coastal plain between Teshekpuk Lake, in the National Petroleum Reserve‐Alaska (NPR‐A) and the Colville River has numerous shallow lakes, but further south in the northern foothills of the Brooks Range, and east to the Canning River, lakes are fewer. While many oil and gas lease sales have been conducted, or are proposed, access to the leases may be limited because of the lack of available water for ice road construction. Ice roads are the main means by which exploration is conducted in the Arctic, putting a stress on freshwater bodies that do not freeze to the lakebed in winter. Lakes that do not freeze to the lakebed also serve as overwintering habitat for fish. The purpose of this paper is to report on the potential distribution of water bodies that may provide overwinter water in selected areas from Teshekpuk Lake to the Canning River. The project used synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery to search for the presence of water in lakes in March 2006. In the Kuparuk and Canning SAR images, 52 and 61% of lakes were frozen to their beds by March 2006, accounting for 49 and 57% of the lake area in these study regions. Conversely, only 2% of the lakes in the Teshekpuk region were frozen to the bottom by March 2006. Unfrozen water was more available because of deeper and more numerous lakes in the Teshekpuk Lake region (west) than in the Canning River area (east). While only specific SAR tiles were analyzed herein, the method will be a useful tool for land managers who seek to evaluate the potential for ice road construction across the Arctic.

Areawide leasing on Alaska's North Slope

North Slope oil and gas leasing on State lands was expanded significantly with the implementation of ‘areawide’ (AW) leasing in 1998. This paper examines the oil industry's response to AW leasing. Under AW leasing, all unleased State lands within a broadly-defined geographic sale area are offered instead of lands in specific locations nominated by industry. In addition, AW leasing introduced greater frequency and regularity in State oil and gas lease sales, and simplified the lease sale authorization process. Fifteen North Slope and Beaufort Sea AW sales have been held since 1998 out of a grand total of fifty North Slope and Beaufort Sea sales since 1964. While the overall number of bids received per leased tract diminished, the participation of independent oil companies increased markedly under AW leasing, possibly in response to inplied lower effective entry costs. Empirical results suggest that the composition of bidding groups is an important determinant of bidding behavior.

Analysis of the Gulf of Mexico’s Veracruz-Havana Route of La Flota de la Nueva España

During colonial times, an active maritime trade existed between Spain and the New World, with convoys sailing annually to and from Mexico and returning via Havana, Cuba, after wintering in America. A database constructed from secondary and open sources revealed that Spanish vessels were sailing over open waters along a northern path near Louisiana and a southern path across the central Gulf of Mexico. These routes were traversed in about one month and scheduling for the convoy was based on an understanding of the Americas’ meteorological and oceanographic climate. However, other factors may also have been involved in the directional layout of the routes. Today these ancient routes crisscross planning areas for oil and gas lease sales in the US Exclusive Economic Zone and the information presented in this article may aid in identifying areas where historic shipwrecks may lie. Maps and documents found during this study helped piece together the evolution of our understanding of the Gulf of Mexico surface circulation and how this knowledge influenced sailing during colonial times.

ABSTRACT: An Update on Sale 181

Abstract OCS Sale 181 in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico is the first oil and gas lease sale in this area in thirteen years. The area being considered for inclusion in the sale and potential restrictions and stipulations on industry activities (such as no surface occupancy) will be reviewed as will the status of the sale. End_of_Record - Last_Page 109-------

Development and Use of a Modeling System to Aid a Major Oil Company in Allocating Bidding Capital

Bidding at U.S. offshore oil and gas lease sales is characterized by high stakes, enormous uncertainties, and many interrelated decisions. The Lease Bidding Strategy System combined techniques from decision analysis, statistics, and nonlinear optimization to provide information and insights to management responsible for bidding at Gulf Oil Corporation. It was used prior to every major federal lease sale from September 1980 until Gulf was acquired in 1984, during which time Gulf's bids exceeded $1.5 billion. This paper describes the evolution and use of this system, emphasizing its impact on the organization. It describes efforts that gained acceptance for this system under difficult circumstances, and illustrates the importance of adapting methodology to problem changes over time. To our knowledge, this is the first public documentation of the long-term use by a major oil company of a system for constrained multiblock optimization of its bids and partnership shares at U.S. offshore lease sales.

Competitive Bidding Under Asymmetrical Information: Behavior and Performance in Gulf of Mexico Drainage Lease Sales, 1959-1969

In past Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas lease sales, winners of drainage tracts have tended to realize a higher economic return than winners of wildcat tracts. This paper finds empirical support for the hypothesis that adjacent lessees have an information advantage when bidding for drainage tracts under the cash bonus bidding system. This leads to superior economic returns, and thus explains the difference in returns between wildcat and drainage leases. The paper concludes that this difference and its cause do not pose a policy problem given empirical evidence that the government receives fair market value for the two lease categories combined.

Final environmental impact statement: Proposed federal/state oil and gas lease sale for the beaufort sea

Final environmental impact statement: Proposed federal/state oil and gas lease sale for the beaufort sea

Environmental impact statement proposed continental shelf oil and gas lease sale offshore central California OCS sale no. 73

Environmental impact statement proposed continental shelf oil and gas lease sale offshore central California OCS sale no. 73

Final environmental statement proposed five-year OCS oil and gas lease sale schedule March 1980–February 1985: Final supplement to the final environmental statement proposed Five-Year OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sale Schedule January 1982–December 1986

Many factors threaten European Soils, and currently, all the Member States (MS) are introducing many types of soil protection measures. Erosion, pollution, sealing and decline of the organic matter are just some of the threats that affect one of the primary non-removable resources of the planet. Soils play a vital role in the biodiversity and are the provider of numerous Ecosystem Services that support human life on Earth.Following the withdrawal of the Soil Framework Directive proposal by the European Commission, we investigate how the different MS of the European Union (EU) address sustainable soil management under the pressures of different threats.The methodology used is based on a gap analysis applied to the instruments and/or policies adopted by the MS to contrast the various threats according to their specific level of intensity. The study presents for the first time a systematic review of the current EU policies covering all the regulatory instruments, the economic instruments, the information tools, the monitoring systems, and the research and innovation activities.The comparative analysis of the different approaches adopted by MS reveals the absence of a common EU strategy to address soil protection and the inefficacy of the subsidiary principle in the sustainable management of soil resources especially in the view of addressing the Sustainable Development Goals achieving the targets by 2030.Results show how the lack of a Soil Framework Directive has weakened the possibility to have strong coordination among the MS for soil protection. Each Country is adopting an autonomous legislative framework which reveals a huge dis-homogeneity and un-coherences among approaches.

Proposed 1977 outer continental shelf oil and gas lease sale offshore of North Atlantic states, OCS sale no. 42: (including supplement)

Proposed 1977 outer continental shelf oil and gas lease sale offshore of North Atlantic states, OCS sale no. 42: (including supplement)

Shallow Geology of North Aleutian Shelf Area, Bering Sea, Alaska: ABSTRACT

In 1981, the geological hazards analysis group of the U.S. Geological Survey's Conservation Division collected 4,009 line-km (2,491 line-mi) of high-resolution seismic reflection data in the south-central Bering Sea. The survey area is bounded on the south by the Alaska Peninsula and Unimak Island and on the north, east, and west by lat. 56°30'N., long. 160°45'W., and long. 165°W., respectively. The U.S. Department of the Interior has tentatively selected this area for inclusion in Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sale 92 scheduled to be held in 1985. This study was part of the surface and shallow subsurface geological investigation of the sale area. The seismic systems used in this study include a seismic reflection profiler that comprises an array of four 15-in.3 waterguns with both analog and 12-fold processed formats, an 800-joule minisparker, a 3.5-kHz profiler, a narrow-bean fathometer, and a side-scan sonar. A bathymetric map constructed from these data reveals a prominent, 20-m (33 ft) high, gentle scarp which trends obliquely across the survey area. Two fields of 10-m (33 ft) high, undulating features, which might be either waveforms or relic glacial moraines, were detected. Several linear moraine deposits, and several sag depressions related to the presence of near-surface faults were also found in the area. Holocene sediment consists predominantly of silt and fine to coarse-grained sand. The silt component increases toward the western end of the survey area, and gravel is locally present in the eastern end. A Holocene isopach map reveals that sediment distribution is current-controlled. Contemporary current-related features consist of ripple marks, sediment waves, and scour zones. These features generally occur within 60 km (37 mi) of the shore and in water depths of less than 70 m (230 ft). Although current flow generally parallels the shore, side-scan sonographs indicate that the current direction which produced these features is strongly influenced by small and intermediate scale bathymetric features. Faults are present in the southwestern portion of the survey area where they occur in a 30 km (19 mi) wide, east-west trending zone. This zone is an eastward extension of the St. George graben system. Within it, faults trend approximately east-west and sense of movement is exclusively normal. There are also several examples of growth faults. Acoustic anomalies, which may represent gas, are present throughout much of the survey area and occur at two different relatively shallow depths. No relationship appears to exist between acoustic anomalies and faults. End_of_Article - Last_Page 485------------

Geologic Hazards and Constraints, Federal Oil and Gas Lease Sale 53 Area, Offshore Central and Northern California: ABSTRACT

Studies have been completed to assess potential geologic hazards and constraints which could adversely affect safe petroleum resource development in offshore areas of central and northern California. The study includes 243 tracts tentatively selected for the proposed federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Lease Sale 53. Geologic hazards and constraints are identified in five offshore areas of central and northern California: Santa Maria, Santa Cruz, Bodega, Point Arena, and Eel River. A total of 10,500 line-km of high-resolution data was collected on a 1.0 × 2.0-km grid over the five areas. Geologic hazards are defined for this study as any geologic feature or process that would inhibit the safe development of petroleum resources. Geologic hazards present on the central and northern California continental margins are: (1) mass movement of unconsolidated to semiconsolidated sediments due to earthquakes, overloading, oversteepening, or other End_Page 978------------------------------ causes; (2) steep slopes (> 10°), especially those covered by sediment, and steep-walled submarine channels; (3) faults that intersect or offset the seafloor or Holocene sediments; and (4) areas of high seismic activity. Geologic features considered hazardous in their present state but whose effects can be economically lessened through existing technology and design are referred to as constraints. Constraints identified in offshore central and northern California are: (1) filled or shallow buried channels where load-bearing capacity differs from surrounding sediments; (2) gas seeps, mounds, and craters; (3) zones of unconsolidated to semiconsolidated sediments (3 to 50 m beneath the sea floor) saturated with interstitial gas under normal to near-normal pressures; and (4) possi le pressurized shallow gas identified as bright spots or amplitude anomalies. These geologic hazards and constraints were evaluated for each of the 243 tracts as a basis for recommendation of withdrawal or stipulation prior to the formal announcement of the sale. Further data acquisition and analysis on a more detailed grid will be required of lessees or operators before drilling will be permitted on leases resulting from the sale. End_of_Article - Last_Page 979------------

Bathymetric map of oil and gas lease area available

A bathymetric map of oil and gas lease sale area 55 is available from the U.S. Geological Survey. The map, U.S.G.S. Open File Report 80‐649, ‘Bathymetric Map of the Outer Continental Shelf between Yakutat Bay and Dry Bay, Eastern Gulf of Alaska,’ is by Glenn P. Thrasher and Bruce W. Turner. The 1:250,000‐scale map was constructed from high‐resolution seismic reflection data from a U.S.G.S. contract survey conducted in 1979.

Bering Sea geophysical data

NOAA's National Geophysical and Solar‐Terrestrial Data Center has announced the availability of two sets of data taken from waters off the southwest coast of Alaska.One set consists of geophysical data associated with the areas selected for the outer continental shelf oil and gas lease sale number 70, scheduled for December 1982. The information consists of about 5939 km of nonproprietary high‐resolution seismic reflection data from the St. George Basin in the Bering Sea. Data set reference number is 1980 (SE‐0).

Geologic Setting and Oil and Gas Potential of Eastern United States Continental Margin North of Cape Hatteras: ABSTRACT

Two sedimentary basins, the Georges Bank basin off New England and the Baltimore Canyon Trough off the Middle Atlantic states, have been examined for geologic setting and hydrocarbon potential. Georges Bank basin, a complex-shaped trough, is on a block-faulted basement of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. The deepest part of the basin (deeper than 8 km) and the oldest sediments are restricted to south-central Georges Bank. Toward the northeast and southwest, the sedimentary section thins to less than 2 km over the Yarmouth Arch-LeHave platform and the Long Island platform. The only deep wells in the area are the COST G-1 and G-2; data from these wells will not be released until 60 days after the first oil and gas lease sale. Seismic correlation with the Shell M hawk B-93 well on the Scotian Shelf indicates that most of the sedimentary rocks in the Georges Bank basin are Jurassic and older. Jurassic sandstone and limestone units serve as potential reservoir rocks. Potential hydrocarbon traps may occur on structural highs associated with draping of Jurassic and basal Lower Cretaceous strata over basement blocks. The Baltimore Canyon Trough is an elongated northeast-trending basin that contains at least 14 km of Jurassic and younger marine and nonmarine sedimentary rocks. Lithologic and stratigraphic data from the COST B-2 and B-3 wells indicate that Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic rocks are predominantly nonmarine to shallow-marine sandstone and shale. Analyses of organic carbon and identification of low thermal maturity suggest that gas rather than oil will be produced. Nineteen wildcat wells have been completed; three are significant natural-gas discoveries. The largest discovery is probably associated with a large rollover trap on the downthrown block of a Cretaceous and Jurassic growth fault. Potential hydrocarbon traps in carbonate rocks beneath the present continental slope have not yet b en explored. End_of_Article - Last_Page 746------------