BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 8. In 2023, the discovered volumes of gas and liquids are expected to decrease by 6 percent driven by the relatively high discovered volumes in the base year 2022 accompanied by a minor share of the exploration capex, Trend reports with reference to the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).
The GECF report reveals that the total discovered volumes (liquids and gas) in 2022 stood at 9.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) according to Rystad Energy, which compares to discoveries of 7.35 billion boe in 2021 with more than a 25 percent increase in the discovered volumes y-o-y.
GECF analysts note that 39 percent of the newly discovered volumes represent gas (610 bcm), while the rest is oil. Offshore discoveries continue to dominate the new explorations’ success in terms of newly discovered volumes, representing about 90 percent of the new volumes, with ultradeep offshore acquiring the major stake with about 40 percent.
“In spite of the downward trend in the upstream investment since 2014, with the bottom reached in the pandemic year of 2020 with only $390 billion, 2022 can be considered a “standout year for exploration“ with significant volumes discovered, even though exploration well numbers were less than half the numbers during pre-pandemic years. In 2022, upstream oil and gas investment was estimated at $501 billion, with exploration capex accounting for only around 10 percent,” the report says.
GECF notes that the global gas reserves were estimated at 202 tcm as of 2022, according to Enerdata and Cedigaz, with unconventional gas reserves, including shale gas and CBM, accounting for 6 percent of the total gas reserves. Shale gas reserves are the largest source of unconventional gas reserves in all regions and basins, with their share reaching 86 percent.
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