Global Oil & Gas Discoveries Surge in First Quarter

Global discoveries of conventional oil and gas resources could be set for a good year following a strong first quarter, Rystad Energy said in a report released April 8.

Overall discoveries totalled a “robust” 3.2mn mboe in January-March, the energy research company revealed. It did not offer a year on year comparison with 2018, but noted that with 2.2bn mboe discovered February offered the best monthly tally on record since August 2015.

Discovery volumes have been significantly lower since a 2013 recent peak of 1.45bn mboe. Last year, total global discoveries were just 761mn mboe. Rystad forecasts that newly discovered resources could rise to 1.04bn mboe in 2019.

“If the rest of 2019 continues at a similar pace, this year will be on track to exceed last year’s discovered resources by 30%,” said upstream analyst Taiyab Zain Shariff.

The report notes that majors raised their share of discoveries in the first quarter of the year. ExxonMobil was the most successful, with three significant offshore discoveries accounting for 38% of total discovered volumes.

Offshore wells in South Africa, the UK, Angola and Egypt saw Total and Eni performing well. The Repsol operated Kali Berau Dalam gas find in Indonesia was the largest onshore discovery of the quarter.

Looking forwards, another 35 high impact exploration wells are expected to be drilled this year, both onshore and offshore, Rystad continued. Those projects include the Shell-operated Peroba well off Brazil, Eni’s Kekra in Pakistani waters, and the Total-operated Etzil well off Mexico.