Comments in reply to request of the United States Geological Survey on the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Summary Report Regulations

Geophysics ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-273
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Technical Information ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Geological Survey ◽  
Summary Report ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Proprietary Information ◽  
Data Summaries ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Reserve Estimates

We, the Executive Committee of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, wish to reply to the proposed Summary Report Regulations of the U.S. Geological Survy as published in the Federal Register, Vol. 43, no. 165, August 24, 1978, page 37771. Our reply is directed specifically to topic (3) Geological and Geophysical data summaries. (Summarized technical information used to derive resource and reserve estimates. Included where appropriate, and in aggregated form such as to protect confidential and proprietary information and data, Page 10–15.)

Letter from President Northwood to the Office of the Director of the U.S.G.S. regarding the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Information Program (30 CFR Part 252). Pertinent parts of this letter were also sent to the Acting Chief of the U.S.G.S. Conservation Division and to the Director of the Bureau of Land Management concerning 43 CFR Part 3300.

Geophysics ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 638-638
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Professional Organization ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Bureau Of Land Management ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Information Program ◽  
New Energy ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Made In

The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) is the primary international professional organization for 11,000 geophysicists from over one hundred countries. About 7,300 members reside in the United States. Members of SEG carry out worldwide $1.1 billion of geophysical exploration annually in the search for petroleum, other minerals and other energy resources. About 50% of this expenditure is made in the U.S. and about 60% of the data acquired in the U.S. is offshore. Our members are one of this nation's primary sources of manpower and technology so vital in the critical search for new energy sources.

American and Canadian Civil Actions Alleging Human Rights Violations Abroad by Oil and Gas Companies

2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Horlick ◽  
Joe Cyr ◽  
Scott Reynolds ◽  
Andrew Behrman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
Forum Non Conveniens ◽  
The Government ◽  
Oil And Gas Companies ◽  
Political Question ◽  
The U.S

Under the United States Alien Tort Statute, which permits non-U.S. citizens to bring lawsuits in U.S. courts for human rights violations that are violations of the law of nations, plaintiffs have filed claims against multinational oil and gas corporations for the direct or complicit commission of such violations carried out by the government of the country in which the corporation operated. In addition to exercising jurisdiction over U.S. corporations, U.S. courts have exercised jurisdiction in cases involving non-U.S. defendants for alleged wrongful conduct against non-U.S. plaintiffs committed outside the U.S.The exercise of jurisdiction by U.S. courts over non-U.S. defendants for alleged wrongful conduct against non-U.S. plaintiffs committed outside of the U.S. raises serious questions as to the jurisdictional foundation on which the power of U.S. courts to adjudicate them rests. Defences that foreign defendants can raise against the exercise of jurisdiction by the U.S. courts are an objection to the extraterritorial assertion of jurisdiction, the act of state doctrine, the political question doctrine, forum non conveniens, and the principle of comity. These defences are bolstered by the support of the defendant’s home government and other governments.

Significant Differences in Proved Reserves Estimates Using SPE/WPC Definitions Compared to United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Definitions

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (06) ◽  
pp. 520-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.R. Harrell ◽  
Thomas L. Gardner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Direct Function ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Publicly Owned ◽  
Hydrocarbon Reserves ◽  
The U.S

Summary A casual reading of the SPE/WPC (World Petroleum Congresses) Petroleum Reserves Definitions (1997) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) definitions (1978) would suggest very little, if any, difference in the quantities of proved hydrocarbon reserves estimated under those two classification systems. The differences in many circumstances for both volumetric and performance-based estimates may be small. In 1999, the SEC began to increase its review process, seeking greater understanding and compliance with its oil and gas reserves reporting requirements. The agency's definitions had been promulgated in 1978 in connection with the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 and at a time when most publicly owned oil and gas companies and their reserves were located in the United States. Oil and gas prices were relatively stable, and virtually all natural gas was marketed through long-term contracts at fixed or determinable prices. Development drilling was subject to well-spacing regulations as established through field rules set by state agencies. Reservoir-evaluation technology has advanced far beyond that used in 1978;production-sharing contracts were uncommon then, and probabilistic reserves assessment was not widely recognized or appreciated in the U.S. These changes in industry practice plus many other considerations have created problems in adapting the 1978 vintage definitions to the technical and commercial realities of the 21st century. This paper presents several real-world examples of how the SEC engineering staff has updated its approach to reserves assessment as well as numerous remaining unresolved areas of concern. These remaining issues are important, can lead to significant differences in reported quantities and values, and may result in questions about the "full disclosure" obligations to the SEC. Introduction For virtually all oil and gas producers, their company assets are the hydrocarbon reserves that they own through various forms of mineral interests, licensing agreements, or other contracts and that produce revenues from production and sale. Reserves are almost always reported as static quantities as of a specific date and classified into one or more categories to describe the uncertainty and production status associated with each category. The economic value of these reserves is a direct function of how the quantities are to be produced and sold over the physical or contract lives of the properties. Reserves owned by private and publicly owned companies are always assumed to be those quantities of oil and gas that can be produced and sold at a profit under assumed future prices and costs. Reserves under the control of state-owned or national oil companies may reflect quantities that exceed those deemed profitable under the commercial terms typically imposed on private or publicly owned companies.

scholarly journals An Improved Method to Estimate the Probability of Oil Spill Contact to Environmental Resources in the Gulf of Mexico

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Li ◽  
Walter Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Environmental Resources ◽  
Ocean Energy ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Socioeconomic Resources ◽  
The U.S

The oil spill risk analysis (OSRA) model is a tool used by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to evaluate oil spill risks to biological, physical, and socioeconomic resources that could be exposed to oil spill contact from oil and gas leasing, exploration, or development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Using long-term hindcast winds and ocean currents, the OSRA model generates hundreds of thousands of trajectories from hypothetical oil spill locations and derives the probability of contact to these environmental resources in the U.S. OCS. This study generates probability of oil spill contact maps by initiating trajectories from hypothetical oil spill points over the entire planning areas in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM) OCS and tabulating the contacts over the entire waters in the GOM. Therefore, a probability of oil spill contact database that stores information of the spill points and contacts can be created for a given set of wind and current data such that the probability of oil spill contact to any environmental resources from future leasing areas can be estimated without a rerun of the OSRA model. The method can be applied to other OCS regions and help improve BOEM’s decision-making process.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTINGENCY MEASURES IN DETERMINING OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENT

1981 ◽  
Vol 1981 (1) ◽  
pp. 571-575
Author(s):  
Raymond R. Emerson
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Environmental Risk ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Contingency Planning ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Production Potential ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT Oil spills are one of the major concerns associated with oil and gas development along the outer continental shelf. The U.S. Department of the Interior is presently planning lease sales at the rate of seven per year. Many of these leases are being proposed in areas where the risks associated with oil spills are difficult to assess. The major objective of the decisionmakers in this process is to select a leasing plan from the list of proposed blocks that will offer the maximum production potential within an acceptable level of environmental risk. This objective can be obtained with proper contingency planning which should include site-specific designs. A proposed leasing plan could be limited in its production potential by the habitats more vunerable to a potential oil spill. These areas are identified using a model system developed by the U.S. Geological Survey. In this model, the local meteorology and physical oceanography are coupled to produce trajectories of hypothetical oil spills. These trajectories, along with oil resource estimates, are used to establish overall probabilities of an oil spill contacting specific coastal areas and habitats. Using linear programming techniques, the blocks that can yield the maximum resource recovery within specified limits of environmental risk are identified. Site-specific contingency measures (such as stockpiles of cleanup equipment) concentrated at the more vulnerable habitats will allow the decisionmaker to accept a higher level of environmental risk and significantly increase the number of blocks that are suitable for leasing. A proposed lease sale area for the northeast Gulf of Alaska is used to demonstrate the importance of contingency planning in determining various levels of offshore oil and gas resource development.

scholarly journals The debate over Hubbert’s Peak: a review

GeoArabia ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moujahed Al-Husseini
Keyword(s):  
Production Rate ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Geological Survey ◽  
Recoverable Reserves ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Crude Oil Production ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Oil And Gas Companies

ABSTRACT The application of various quantitative techniques and assumptions by different authors to forecast the world’s conventional crude oil production in the 21st Century results in highly inconsistent predictions. The forecasts attempt to pinpoint the peak world oil production year (Hubbert’s Peak), peak production rate, and post-peak decline rate, based on estimates of the ultimate recoverable reserves (EURR). These techniques, pioneered by M.K. Hubbert in the mid-1950s, generally consider economic factors, such as the price of oil, as irrelevant in the long run. Some authors support a Low EURR World Scenario (about 2.0 trillion barrels, of which half has already been produced) and forecast Hubbert’s Peak in this decade. Other authors estimate the EURR at about 3.0 trillion barrels (Median EURR World Scenario), and this estimate is the mean EURR assessment of the United States Geological Survey and similar to assessments by several major oil and gas companies. An EURR of 3.0 trillion barrels implies Hubbert’s Peak will occur in 2020, or so, at a production rate of about 90–100 million barrels/day (compared to 85 million barrels/day in late 2005). A few authors support a High EURR World Scenario (4.0 trillion barrels or more) with Hubbert’s Peak in 2030 at a rate of 120 million barrels/day. Sensitivity analysis for Hubbert’s Curve suggest that Hubbert’s Peak moves by three years for every 200 billion barrels of error in the EURR.

scholarly journals A Spatially Detailed and Economically Complete Blue Water Footprint of the United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard R. Rushforth ◽  
Benjamin L. Ruddell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
The United States ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Energy Information Administration ◽  
United States Geological Survey ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
The U.S

Abstract. This paper quantifies and maps a spatially detailed and economically complete blue water footprint for the United States, utilizing the National Water Economy Database version 1.1 (NWED). NWED utilizes multiple mesoscale federal data resources from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE), and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to quantify water use, economic trade, and commodity flows to construct this water footprint. Results corroborate previous studies in both the magnitude of the U.S. water footprint (F) and in the observed pattern of virtual water flows. The median water footprint (FCUMed) of the U.S. is 181 966 Mm3 (FWithdrawal: 400 844 Mm3; FCUMax: 222 144 Mm3; FCUMin: 61 117 Mm3) and the median per capita water footprint (F'CUMed) of the U.S. is 589 m3 capita−1 (F'Withdrawal: 1298 m3 capita−1; F'CUMax: 720 m3 capita−1; F'CUMin: 198 m3 capita−1). The U.S. hydro-economic network is centered on cities and is dominated by the local and regional scales. Approximately (58 %) of U.S. water consumption is for the direct and indirect use by cities. Further, the water footprint of agriculture and livestock is 93 % of the total U.S. water footprint, and is dominated by irrigated agriculture in the Western U.S. The water footprint of the industrial, domestic, and power economic sectors is centered on population centers, while the water footprint of the mining sector is highly dependent on the location of mineral resources. Owing to uncertainty in consumptive use coefficients alone, the mesoscale blue water footprint uncertainty ranges from 63 % to over 99 % depending on location. Harmonized region-specific, economic sector-specific consumption coefficients are necessary to reduce water footprint uncertainties and to better understand the human economy's water use impact on the hydrosphere.

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