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Rigs report: oil and gas discoveries at lowest levels in 75 years

Rigs report: oil and gas discoveries at lowest levels in 75 years

 

According to the Norwegian energy analysts, total global discovered volumes as of end of November were 4.7Bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe) – 72% less than the 12.5Bn boe registered in 2020. If no major finds are announced in December, this would be the worst year for new discoveries since 1946.

Liquids continue to dominate the hydrocarbon mix, making up 66% of total finds. Seven new discoveries were announced in November 2021, unearthing around 219M boe of new volumes. The monthly average of discovered volumes this year now stands at 424M boe. A reduction in cumulative volume highlights the absence of large individual finds, as has been the case in previous years.

“Although some of the highly ranked prospects are scheduled to be drilled before the end of the year, even a substantial discovery may not be able to contribute towards 2021 discovered volumes as these wells may not be completed in this calendar year,” said Rystad Energy upstream vice president research Palzor Shenga.

Lukoil uncovers oil offshore Mexico

The largest discovery in November 2021 was Lukoil’s Yoti West off the coast of Mexico, which is estimated to hold around 75M boe of recoverable resources. Preliminary estimates by Lukoil said 250M barrels of oil were in place.

The Yoti West-1 EXP well was drilled 60 km offshore from the semi-submersible Valaris 8505. Rystad Energy said the discovery strengthens Lukoil’s cumulative discovered volumes in the North American nation. However, these volumes are still insufficient for commercial development and would require further discoveries of a comparable scale before a development concept could be drawn up. These discoveries do, however, give hope that Mexico can halt or slow down its production decline. Several wells are scheduled to be drilled in blocks offered in various bid rounds, many by leading international oil companies.

Offshore Malaysia, Nangka-1 became the second successive exploration well drilled within Block SK 417. The wildcat was drilled by Thai state operator PTTEP to a depth of 3,758 m and discovered sweet gas.

Norway continues to unearth small-to-medium finds, providing an opportunity to materialise these discoveries with available infrastructure.

Jack-up activity up, floater activity down

Maersk Drilling will be Aker BP’s rig partner in Norway for another five years, following a recently signed heads of agreement. The revised set-up will allow Aker BP to assign the rigs Maersk Invincible and Maersk Integrator to multiple operations with multi-purpose use of the rigs during the frame agreement period. Warm stacked near Stavanger, Maersk Integrator is a hybrid, low-emissions jack-up. Maersk Invincible will be upgraded in a similar fashion. Both are CJ70 XLE jack-up rigs.

The upgrades combine the use of hybrid power with NOx conversion units, adding energy efficiency software to further monitor and reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. During its first month of operations with the equivalent full set of upgrades installed, Maersk Drilling’s Maersk Intrepid produced an initial data point of reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by approximately 25% compared with the baseline average for the rig. In addition, NOx emissions were reduced by approximately 95%.

Overall, Westwood Global Energy’s RigLogix reported increased global jack-up drilling rig contracting in week 51 of the year, with positive gains in southeast Asia and the North Sea offsetting softness in the Middle East market. Overall, 349 jack-ups were contracted, an increase of one week-on-week.

Meanwhile, the global floater market fell three units week-on-week, dropping to 108 active units. The North Sea, South America and West Africa all recorded lower contracting activity.

Borr Drilling reported its jack-up rig Norve was chartered by BW Energy for work in Gabon. The contract is expected to commence in H2 2022 after the completion of the rig’s current contract. The work will cover four firm wells with an anticipated duration of 240 days plus options.

Additionally, Borr Drilling secured a binding letter of award for jack-up rig Thor from an undisclosed operator in southeast Asia, with an anticipated start of June 2022 for a duration of one year plus options.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE

Published: 21-12-2021

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