According to an analysis recently conducted by Rystad Energy, Guyana now ranks second in the world for conventional discoveries. Taking first place is Russia.
Rystad, an energy research company which has its head office in Norway, noted that ExxonMobil has discovered almost six billion barrels of oil offshore Guyana since 2015. It noted too that the highly anticipated oil boom is expected to significantly transform the economy of Guyana.
Noting that the Tilapia, Yellowtail and Haimara fields could collectively hold almost 800 million barrels of recoverable reserves, Rystad said that ExxonMobil’s success rate in the 15 wells drilled so far on the Stabroek block, stands at an impressive 86% as first oil is expected in 2020.
Rohit Patel, Senior Analyst at Rystad Energy, was quoted as saying, “Offshore discoveries in Russia, Guyana, Cyprus, South Africa and Malaysia are propelling what is already a very successful year for international exploration and production companies.”
With deepwater finds contributing half of the discovered volumes, Patel said it can be inferred that high-risk frontier plays in the deepwater are back on the map for explorers.
Furthermore, the Norwegian energy analysts stated that global discoveries of conventional oil and gas continue to show promising growth, with new finds totaling 6.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in the first half of 2019. This they said, is based on their mid-year assessment of upstream data.
In addition to this, Rystad said that the 1,123 million boe discovered year-to-date reflect an approximate 35% uplift compared to the 827 million boe seen in 2018. So far, the Norwegian company said that 2019 has also been a year of gas discoveries, which hold a majority (63%) share compared to liquids, a phenomenon not seen since 2016.
