Guyana, Russia And US Lead The Way In Oil And Gas Discoveries

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(Chron.com, Jordan Blum, 17.Dec.2018) — The small South American nation Guyana led the way in 2018 for new oil and gas discoveries followed by Russia and the United States as energy exploration rose for the first time in three years.

West Texas’ booming Permian Basin still drove new oil and gas production this year and that will continue into 2019 and likely beyond, according to new reports Monday from the research firms Rystad and Wood Mackenzie. Pipeline shortages will slow the Permian next year, but the growth will continue.

“Permian mega-deals defined 2018, and we expect more in 2019,” said Angus Rodger, Wood Mackenzie’s upstream research director. “After spending nearly $35 billion on (shale) acquisitions in 2018, the super majors and bigger independents are serious about ensuring long-term success.”

Big Oil majors like Exxon Mobil and Chevron are helping lead the way in turning the Permian into manufacturing mode as they add acreage and scale, he said. “Big will be beautiful in the new Permian landscape.”

But much of the future of the industry is dependent on big new discoveries and the are still mostly coming offshore. As oil prices crashed, exploration spending dipped dramatically from 2015 through 2017. However, new discoveries finally began to tick back up this year, according to Rystad. Offshore discoveries accounted for more than 80 percent of the new discoverable resources this year.

Exxon Mobil’s push with New York-based Hess Corp. in tiny Guyana led the way, said Palzor Shenga, senior upstream analyst for Rystad.

“Global exploration activity and discoveries have halted their year-after-year decline and look set to rise in the next year,” Shenga said. “This as an exciting recovery which runs contrary to a decline in global exploration spending from 2014 to 2017.”

Exxon and Hess announced more than 2 billion barrels in new discoveries offshore of Guyana this year, spiking their overall recoverable resources in the region to about 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Elsewhere, Russia’s Novatek discovered nearly 1 billion barrels in the shallow Ob Bay.

And, much closer to home, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico sprung back to life with new discoveries led by Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell that combine for nearly 750 million barrels of discoverable oil equivalent.

Chevron and Paris-based Total announced the so-called Ballymore prospect about 75 miles from the Louisiana coast in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf.

Likewise, Shell touted the Dover discovery near its new multibillion-dollar Appomattox platform that was completed and launched into the Gulf early this year. The Dover prospect is about 13 miles from the Appomattox.

Other regions of the world set to see new growth include liquified natural gas in Qatar, offshore oil in Brazil, as well as a slew of other discoveries ranging from Cyprus to South Africa to Australia to Norway, Wood Mackenzie and Rystad said.

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