BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 10
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
Global oil and gas discoveries have reached the highest volume since 2015 with 12.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in 2019, Trend reports citing the estimates from Rystad Energy, the independent energy research and consulting firm headquartered in Norway.
In 2019 alone, the number of oil and gas discoveries stood 26, with over 100 million boe, said the company.
Palzor Shenga, a senior analyst on Rystad Energy’s upstream team, noted that the US-based ExxonMobil can be declared explorer of the year for a second year in a row thanks to its ongoing efforts and results in Guyana.
“The company discovered around 1.07 billion boe in additional net resources last year. Rystad Energy estimates the value creation from these volumes to be around $2.7 billion, largely driven by the continued success in Guyana,” said the company.
Off the coast of Mauritania, BP’s Orca gas field was not only the largest single discovery, but also the deepest-water find of 2019, estimated by Rystad Energy to hold about 1.3 billion boe of recoverable resources. Recent gas discoveries in the region now support plans to build an additional LNG hub in the Bir Allah area in Mauritania.
In Russia, Gazprom announced two discoveries in the Kara Sea, Dinkov in the Rusanovsky block and Nyarmeyskoye in the Nyarmeysky block. Rystad Energy estimates Gazprom’s 2019 discoveries to hold combined recoverable resources of around 1.5 billion boe, with Dinkov ranked as the second-largest find in 2019 world-wide.
Other key offshore discoveries in 2019 include Total’s Brulpadda in South Africa, ExxonMobil’s Glaucus in Cyprus, CNOOC’s Glengorm in the United Kingdom and Equinor’s Sputnik in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea.
In 2020, Rystad Energy expects the global discovered volumes to continue the rising trend of recent years, with the list of upcoming wildcats including several high-impact wells along with some promising probes delayed from 2019.
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