Ocean

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said Monday a team of scientists has embarked on a three-week expedition to study marine life in the Hanna Shoal area of the Chukchi Sea, a prerequisite to opening areas in offshore Alaska to oil and natural gas leasing.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is seeking stakeholder comments on eight planned oil and natural gas lease sales scheduled in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) over the next five years. The call for information does not include Lease Sale 229 in the Western GOM and Lease Sale 227 in the Central GOM because calls for comments and information on those two sales have already been completed.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has completed a final environmental review that will serve to support decision-making with respect to oil and natural gas lease sales scheduled in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) over the next five years.

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP said it will expand the natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionator complex at its Sweeny Plant in Old Ocean, TX. Construction is to begin in April for completion in February. The expansion will increase capacity by about 22,000 b/d, or 19%. “One of the main drivers for the project is the rapid development of natural gas, crude oil and NGLs from the shale formations in the region,” said Martin Dale, feedstock procurement manager for Chevron Phillips Chemical. “This expansion positions Chevron Phillips Chemical to take additional raw NGL product from the Eagle Ford and Permian basins and ultimately convert the NGLs into products for consumer and commercial use.” The fractionation unit at Sweeny was built in the 1960s and is composed of two trains with current capacity of 116,000 b/d.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Monday announced that it will open a comment period and hold a series of public scoping meetings to collect information to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for two proposed oil and natural gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico’s (GOM) Eastern Planning Area.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has completed a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for a series of five oil and gas lease sales tentatively scheduled for 2012-2017 in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico (GOM) planning areas.

The current La Nina event — the cooling of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures off the coast of South America — remains unchanged and is expected to continue through the Northern Hemisphere’s winter season, influencing weather patterns across the United States for the next several months, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The current La Nina event — the cooling of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures off the coast of South America — remains unchanged and is expected to continue through the Northern Hemisphere’s winter season, influencing weather patterns across the United States for the next several months, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will conduct the first oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) since the Macondo well blowout in April 2010.