Page 10 - NorthAmOil Week 42 2021
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NorthAmOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES NorthAmOil
ConocoPhillips, Biden administration
miss deadline for Willow appeal
ALASKA CONOCOPHILLIPS and the administration by Gleason directly with the agencies involved.
of US President Joe Biden have both missed a “We, and many important stakeholders,
deadline for appealing against a court ruling remain committed to Willow as the next sig-
that threatens to stall the US company’s devel- nificant North Slope project,” a ConocoPhil-
opment of the Willow project in Alaska for lips spokeswoman, Rebecca Boys, told the
several years. newspaper.
In August, US District Judge Sharon Gleason ConocoPhillips had previously been target-
ruled that the administration of former US Pres- ing the winter of 2025-26 for first oil production
ident Donald Trump had not adequately con- from Willow, but this will now be pushed back,
sidered greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or the potentially by several years depending on how
impact on polar bears when it approved Willow. long the issues raised in the court ruling take
When Biden succeeded Trump earlier this to resolve. The US Bureau of Land Manage-
year, he did not initially appear opposed to Wil- ment’s (BLM) initial environmental review and
low’s development, opting not to intervene to approval for the project took over two years, and
oppose the project when court briefs against it it is currently unclear whether a supplemen-
were filed. But the fact that his administration tal review or an entirely new review would be
is now not appealing against Gleason’s ruling needed.
comes as a blow to ConocoPhillips. The project is estimated to require $6bn to
The company, for its part, told Anchorage reach first oil, and $8bn to develop fully. It is antic-
Daily News this week that it had also opted not to ipated to produce 160,000 barrels per day (bpd),
appeal against the ruling because it had decided while its recoverable reserves are estimated at
that it was best to resolve the issues highlighted 400-750mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
ENERGY TRANSITION
Talos, TechnipFMC partner on Gulf Coast CCS
US GULF COAST OFFSHORE producer Talos Energy and oilfield Arthur, taking on the site along with partner
services firm TechnipFMC announced this week Carbonvert. The company’s bid was selected as
that they were partnering to develop carbon cap- the only successful proposal among 12 submis-
ture and storage (CCS) capacity on the US Gulf sions. The offshore storage site is fully covered by
Coast. Talos’ seismic database and is located in a region
“The alliance combines Talos’s offshore oper- known for having a large number of industrial
ational strength and sub-surface expertise with emitters.
TechnipFMC’s extended history in subsea engi- Based on Talos’ preliminary understanding
neering, system integration and automation and of the rock and fluid properties of the reser-
control,” the companies stated. voirs at the project site, the company expects to
The partnership will be pursue development sequester roughly 225-275mn tonnes of carbon
of CCS projects through their full lifecycle from dioxide (CO2) from industrial sources in the
storage site characterisation to front-end engi- area.
neering and design (FEED), first injection and These are not the only recent moves Talos has
subsequent operations. The companies noted made in relation to CCS. In June, the company
that Talos had recently been selected as the oper- also partnered with Storegga Geotechnologies to
ator of the only major offshore carbon seques- jointly explore and develop CCS projects on the
tration hub in the US, and said their partnership Gulf Coast and in the Gulf.
will now build on that award to advance their Talos’ growing focus on CCS comes as the
leadership on CCS. technology is increasingly being touted as being
Talos was selected in August by the Texas a key component of decarbonisation. To date the
General Land Office (GLO) to become operator use of CCS to address emissions from oil and gas
of a planned carbon storage site offshore Texas’ projects has been limited, However, pursuit of
Jefferson County, near Beaumont and Port such projects is being stepped up.
P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 42 21•October•2021
