[bratticus]

500 illegal refineries discovered The Nation / Mar 7, 2011
Commander Jafaru Ibrahim, who led the operation, said the operation would be continuous, adding that it will be targeted at discontinuing the illegal operations.

JTF smashes illegal oil refineries in N’Delta
From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa / The Sun / Mar 7, 2011
The Joint Military Task Force (JTF) has launched a surprise attack on illegal refineries at the Mbiama community in Rivers State. The JTF set ablaze the locally refined products. ... Aside [from] destroying the refined products, the JTF cordoned off the entire area and seized heavy duty diesel generators, heavy duty welding materials, plastic tanks, hoses and pumping machines.

[Ferretlover]

Nice find, Brat.
I wonder how many DIY home refineries we have in the US?

[babystrangeloop]

Shell’s Production Output Declines, First Time in 2 Years
By Ejiofor Alike with agency reports / This Day Live / October 28, 2011

Oil and gas production from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has shown a year-on-year decline for the first time in two years, according to the third-quarter data published yesterday by the company. ...

... Dow Jones Newswires reported that SPDC’s third quarter oil and gas production fell to 281,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boepd), compared with 291,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day a year earlier, the first such decline in two years. ...

... “In one instance, SPDC recorded six separate oil spill incidents on the Okordia – Rumuekpe trunk line at Ikarama in Bayelsa State, between August 2 and 15 this year, all from hacksaw cuts by unknown persons. On August 21, another three hacksaw cuts were reported on the nearby Adibawa delivery line. Some production is shut in while SPDC repairs the line,” said a spokesman of the company. ...

[Rod_Cloutier]

A Nigerian deep water horizon epic is unfolding in Africa:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/20 ... 85922.html

A fire at an American-owned gas rig in the Niger Delta is still burning two weeks after an accident started the blaze.

Locals say the fumes are causing massive environmental damage and health problems. But the oil firm Chevron, which owns the rig, denies the fire is causing any harm

[eXpat]

And on top of that:
Oil Pipeline in Niger Delta Attacked by Militants

Reports from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria say an oil pipeline has been attacked and left ruptured and burning.

The Nigerian militant group that goes by the acronym MEND said it carried out Saturday's attack on the Italian-owned pipeline. In an e-mail message to journalists, it promised more attacks on foreign-owned interests in the country.

The pipeline's owner, Italian firm Eni, has yet to comment on the attack. It occurred in Bayelsa state, home to Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan and where a gubernatorial election is scheduled for next Saturday.

In its e-mail message, MEND labeled the attack “relatively insignificant,” but “a sign of things to come.” It singled out South African businesses for future attacks.

MEND has accused South African President Jacob Zuma of interference in what it called the “legitimate fight for justice in the Niger Delta.” South African businesses, including the MTN telecommunications firm, have operations throughout Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/02/05/oil-pipeline-in-niger-delta-attacked-by-militants/

[babystrangeloop]

Nigeria crude theft threatens 140,000 b/d of crude exports: Shell
Platts / February 7, 2012

"Within the next few weeks, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta will carry out a few major attacks on oil installations to demonstrate to the world the helplessness of oil companies and the Nigerian military," MEND said, challenging the military to stop them.

[Serial_Worrier]

It's ok, I'm sure oily will show up to tell us it's all fine and cornucopia.

[Tanada]

US energy giant Chevron has lost thousands of barrels worth of oil production capacity since militants blew up an offshore platform in Nigeria in renewed violence that could hit exports from Africa's largest oil producer, the company said.

"Approximately 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Chevron's net crude oil production in Nigeria are impacted," company spokesperson Isabel Ordonez said in a statement late Friday.

Militants on Wednesday night used explosives to blow up the Okan platform, a collection facility for offshore oil and gas that feeds the Escravos terminal in southern Nigeria.

The impact of the attack was significant in a country where Chevron's net daily production in 2014 averaged 240,000 barrels of crude oil, 236 million cubic feet of natural gas and 6,000 barrels of liquefied petroleum gas, according to the company's website.

Nigerian navy spokesperson Chris Ezekobe sadi that a previously unknown group called the Niger Delta Avengers claimed responsibility for the assault.

The involvement of former Niger Delta militant leaders including Tompolo, who is wanted on fraud charges, has not been ruled out, Ezekobe said.

Tompolo, who wreaked havoc in the creeks and rivers of the delta in the 2000s, is accused of defrauding the government of more than $175 million (161 million euros).

The Niger Delta Avengers group is thought to involve supporters of Tompolo -- whose real name is Government Ekpemupolo -- unhappy about charges against him and the winding down of a government amnesty programme that ended the unrest in 2009.

But Tompolo has previously said he is not part of the group.

Chevron has confirmed that "unknown persons" attacked its Okan Valve Platform offshore facility near oil city Warri late Wednesday. There were no known casualties.

"All persons have been accounted for and no injuries have been reported," the company said.

Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) operates the joint venture with Nigeria's giant state-run oil firm, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The upsurge of attacks risks hitting crude supplies at a time when Nigeria's oil-dependent economy is facing a slump because of the fall in global prices.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2016 budget in Abuja Friday, dependent on $38 per barrel.

Nigeria derives more than 90 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from oil.

http://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/843 ... xplosives/

[GoghGoner]

Another reason low prices cannot last long -- the weak oil producing countries implode.

NIGERIA NO LONGER AFRICA’S TOP OIL PRODUCER, AS MILITANTS CUT PRODUCTION

A presidential amnesty program was introduced in 2009, which offered subsidies to militants who gave up arms and earmarked lucrative security contracts for former militant leaders, reduced violence in the region. But Buhari has cut funding for the program by 70 percent in his 2016 budget and has spoken of phasing it out completely in the next few years.

[Subjectivist]

Did they get this platform fixed yet?

[onlooker]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41010993

Nigeria's Boko Haram conflict: Huge rise in child 'human bombs'

[onlooker]

Good point P. It some ways it hearkens back to Rome, who also overextended itself to keep its huge Empire orderly, to collect taxes, to maintain maintain military presence, roads, communication etc. Well yes we are surely overextended and more and more the logic and sense of trying to get to and utilize that black oil is becoming suspect.
So no matter what Subjectivist says EROEI is a factor and in fact the main one. Once the US and the world truly "feel" how counterproductive Oil is it will be abandoned on a mass scale. Black market and marginal production will probably still exist.

[onlooker]

Good point P. It some ways it hearkens back to Rome, who also overextended itself to keep its huge Empire orderly, to collect taxes, to maintain maintain military presence, roads, communication etc. Well yes we are surely overextended and more and more the logic and sense of trying to get to and utilize that black oil is becoming suspect.
So no matter what Subjectivist says EROEI is a factor and in fact the main one. Once the US and the world truly "feel" how counterproductive Oil is it will be abandoned on a mass scale. Black market and marginal production will probably still exist.

It's kind of creepy living during this slow crash, but it makes you appreciate what you have every happy day

Having said that . . .

[rockdoc123]

http://gcaptain.com/worlds-largest-fpso-departs-samsung-heavy-industries/

This article is a good one which illustrates how companies must make plans long term in the industry and try to wade through the periods of both low and high prices. Total made their offshore Nigeria discovery at Egina in 2003 and made the decision to commercialize in 2009 and FEED was completed in 2010. Construction of the FPSO mentioned in this article began in 2013 and has just recently been commissioned. It is a decent size ultra-deep water oil field which just makes the Halbouty classification of Giant field at 550 MMB of light oil. Maximum production from the field through the FPSO will be 200,000 bopd. There are many fields of this nature (offshore West Africa, Brazil etc) that currently sit in the realm of Yet to be Developed and delays in commercialization and eventual commissioning contribute to the complexity of the Peak Oil roller coaster and the difficulty in assessing future global production capacity.

About a decade ago I posted on the projections made by IHS Energy with respect to future production. They take into account all fields producing or discovered and incorporate the plans that various companies have to bring new discoveries online and those timelines are the basis of the projections. But since that time we have had a global recession, spiking higher prices and a prolonged period of low prices meaning that delays in those timelines have occurred and the projections forward for world production altered accordingly. I no longer have access to IHS information but it would be interesting to see what their view is now.

[Subjectivist]

Is it true that deep water oil is lacking investment because the Fracking end of the indstry is soaking up so much of the available cash?

[rockdoc123]

Is it true that deep water oil is lacking investment because the Fracking end of the indstry is soaking up so much of the available cash?

I think the answer is "yes to some extent with provisions". If you are a large company and publicly traded you need to show quarterly achievements which is best done with projects that have quick turn around time. Shale has one of the quickest turn around times out there, basically the well can be tied in immediately after the frack and put on production in very short order whereas offshore there is a whole bunch of work that needs to be done. Also companies will try to move their budget capex around to where they see the best returns and at this price level it favors shales. That being said some big companies have longer term commitments that really don't make economic sense to shelve for any length of time if you believe in supply/demand fundamentals driving prices. But you can certainly get more bang for your buck offshore in deep water if successful, reserves are bigger and IP rates higher. But the big companies who have onshore acreage are also driven by drilling commitments that they have made with landholders.

[coffeeguyzz]

Doc
Although the shift towards more floaters is being considered for oil development, the so called FSRUs (regassifiers) is starting to have an impact on LNG adoption and spread throughout smaller, more remote markets.
Taking older units and refurbbing them with the newer tanks that can combine repressurization as well as chilling cuts the capex way down.
The semi mobility of these floaters is synergistically combining with the latest micro grid hardware (now called Combined Heating and Power - CHP) encouraging build out considerations that heretofore made no economic sense.