China’s state-owned offshore giant China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has evacuated more than 10,000 workers from offshore production platforms, floating production and storage vessels in anticipation of Typhoon Saola.
Media quoted a CNOOC official in charge of exploration and production in the South China Sea’s Pearl River Mouth basin as saying that over 7700 crew in this region had been evacuated in a major operation as a precaution. Additionally, more than 2800 were evacuated from over a dozen drilling rigs and construction vessels operating by COSL, CNOOC’s drilling contractor, Upstream reports.
Super typhoon Saola forced mass evacuations in Yunfu City, China, in the southwest region of Guangdong province on Sunday.
Super typhoon Haikui is also wreaking havoc on the region, making landfall in Taiwan on Sunday and now heading for the Chinese mainland, on the southeastern coast, where all areas are now on high alert.
Last month, CNOOC and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the government-owned parent company of PetroChina, kicked off ultra-deepwater exploratory drilling for oil and gas as the country looks to wean itself off of foreign oil.
Climate change is increasingly taking a toll on the oil and gas sector.
Last month, the volume of natural gas flowing to LNG giant Cheniere Energy's (NYSE:LNG) Corpus Christi export plant in Texas declined nearly 30% after Tropical Storm Harold hit South Texas.
According to Refinitiv data, gas volumes flowing to Corpus dropped to about 1.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) from 2.1 bcfd previously. At full capacity, the three liquefaction trains at the Corpus Christi LNG export plant are capable of chilling 2.4 bcfd of natural gas into LNG, enough to supply 12 million U.S. homes.
Earlier in the year, the Canadian energy sector was forced to shut off at least 145,000 of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the oil-rich province of Alberta due to wildfires. The unprecedented fires forced tens of thousands of Albertans to evacuate their homes.
More than half a dozen Canadian oil and gas companies including Paramount Resources (OTCPK:PRMRF), Crescent Point Energy Corp. (NYSE:CPG), Vermilion Energy Inc. (NYSE:VET), Pipestone Energy Corp. (OTCPK:BKBEF), Kiwetinohk Energy Corp. (TSX:KEC:CA),Tourmaline Oil Corp. (OTCPK:TRMLF) and Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE) were impacted by the nearly 80 fires that ran amok in the province.
Climate change is making it costlier for oil and gas companies to operate. Indeed, climate-related?supply threats have already begun to manifest in the oil and gas industry, with more than 600 billion barrels equivalent of the world’s commercially recoverable oil and gas reserves, or 40% of total reserves, facing high or extreme risks.
According to UK-based global risk and strategic consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft, the risk of?climate related events disrupting?the flow?of oil?to global markets?is highest in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Nigeria.
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By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
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