Kuwait leads offshore drilling successes in 2024

Since 2015, the exploration industry has roughly halved the number of high-impact exploration wells being drilled and is finding less than half of the volumes, according to Westwood Global Energy Group.

By Jeremy Beckman, Editor-Europe

Seventy-five high-impact exploration wells were completed globally last year, according to Westwood Global Energy Group, with 19 of the wells delivering potentially commercial discoveries.

Reserves added totalled 5.2 Bboe.

Speaking at the company’s recent State of Exploration 2025 webinar, Andrew Jackson, senior analyst at Westwood, said the largest offshore find was Kuwait Oil’s Al-Nokhata, east of the island of Failaka, containing an estimated 1.5 Bboe.

Kuwait Oil made a further offshore oil discovery in the Al-Julaiah prospect.

Other standout discoveries last year included Petronas’ Fuseaia in the Upper Cretaceous offshore Suriname. Petronas is looking to drill more wells in the area later this year to prove up further reserves for a development.

TotalEnergies opened a new exploration play at Dalia Deep on the Dalia Field offshore Angola, Jackson added, while Eni and Repsol found 300 MMboe to 400 MMboe drilling the Yopaat prospect in a mature Miocene play in the Sureste Basin offshore Mexico.

Elsewhere, CNOOC had multiple successes around the Huizhou area of the eastern China Sea, a run which continued this March with the Huizhou 19-6 oilfield discovery in the deeper Paleogene Enoing and Wenchang formations. In the Andaman Sea off Indonesia, Mubadala drilled the Tangkulo discovery in the emerging Oligocene play.

Offshore northwest Europe, results were more modest, with the largest find in 2024 being DNV’s 40-MMbbl Palaeocene Falstaff.

There were disappointments with the remaining 56 high-impact wells drilled, notably in the deepwater outboard offshore Guyana and Brazil, Jackson said.

The offshore Suriname-Guyana basin appears to be running out of steam, with only 400 MMbbl additional reserves proven last year. This is partly down due to reduced exploration drilling in the Upper Cretaceous offshore Guyana, a play which may have reached maturity.

----The news is quoted from OFFSHORE (www.offshore-mag.com)

Note: If you found anything violating your copyright, please contact us, we would remove them as soon as possible.