A review of the international exploration scorecard shows that we are struggling to replace reserves via the bit. Companies are consistently relying more on field growth and mergers and acquisitions to keep up their reserve replacement ratios. Much of this is due to the decreasing size of prospects and/or discoveries. Some is also due to the shift by majors away from risk as Wall Street punishes those who miss short-term targets severely. Compounding these two factors is the overall decrease in wildcat drilling, which is led by an almost 80% decrease in drilling by majors. Other above ground risk factors such as access are complicating the situation further.Despite this pessimistic outlook, explorationists are more successful than ever, with a NFW success rate of 40% internationally, and locally as high as 80% in some plays offshore and in new areas. Thorough mid-year 2007, drilling resulted in the discovery of 2 supergiants (> 500mmboe) and 20 fields over 100 mmboe. Many of these were operated by NOCs, leading to the changing of the guard in exploration.This talk will focus on technical issues and review the major successes and trends of 2007 and highlight potential future international trends/ plays and opportunities, offshore and onshore.
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