OIL
BSEE: 84.3% of current Gulf of Mexico oil production shut-in ahead of Hurricane Laura
OGJ Editors, Oil & Gas Journal, August 25, 2020
Offshore oil and gas operators in the US Gulf of Mexico continue to evacuate platforms and rigs ahead of Hurricane Laura and post Tropical Cyclone Marco. Hurricane Laura is currently expected to make landfall along the Texas-Louisiana border as a Category 3 storm late Aug. 26 or early Aug. 27.
[P]ersonnel have been evacuated from 299 production platforms, 46.5% of the 643 manned platforms in the US gulf. BSEE estimates that 84.3% of current gulf crude oil production, or 1,558,883 b/d, and 60.94% of natural gas production, or 1,651.5 MMcfd, have been shut in.
GAS
UPDATE 2-Oil Search slashes costs to position itself for growth from 2025
Sonali Paul & Pranav A K, Reuters, August 24, 2020
Oil Search Ltd aims to start producing oil in Alaska in 2025 and expand Papua New Guinea (PNG) gas exports from 2027, after slashing costs to weather weaker oil prices in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, its chief executive said on Tuesday.
Oil Search aims to make a final investment decision on the Alaska project in 2021, aiming to start producing in 2025.
Wulff said he was confident the $13 billion twinned PNG LNG expansion and Papua LNG project, led by partners Exxon Mobil Corp and Total SA, will go ahead in time to meet a window of demand for new LNG forecast from 2027.
MINING
Pebble Mine death grossly exaggerated
Shane Lasley, North of 60 Mining News, August 24, 2020
Much like Mark Twain, who quipped, “The report of my death was an exaggeration,” when informed of his obituary in an American newspaper, Politico’s report of the untimely demise of the Pebble Mine project in Southwest Alaska was grossly overstated.
While Politico’s sources were correct that Army Corps was planning an update on Pebble, it was not a proclamation aimed at blocking the development of a mine at the world-class copper-gold-silver-molybdenum-rhenium project. Instead, the agency heading the federal permitting for the project sent a letter to the Pebble Partnership outlining expectations for mitigation of the mine project’s wetlands impacts.
“The White House had nothing to do with the letter nor is it the show-stopper described by several in the news media over the weekend,” said Collier.
POLITICS
Absentee ballots flip some results in Alaska’s legislative primary, but more votes remain uncounted
James Brooks, ADN, August 26, 2020
Nine of the Alaska Legislature’s Republican incumbents trailed after election day, but Sens. Gary Stevens of Kodiak, John Coghill of North Pole and Natasha von Imhof of Anchorage all rebounded on Tuesday, either taking a lead or erasing most of their deficit as the Alaska Division of Elections counted thousands of absentee, questioned and early ballots. Senate President Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, continues to trail by a wide margin.
Thousands more ballots are slated to be counted later this week, and the final results will decide who will make the ballot in the Nov. 3 general election.