KeyFacts Energy provides a review of global oil and gas discoveries covering the first four months of 2021.

U.S. Gulf of Mexico
12/05/2021: Shell Offshore announced a significant discovery at the Leopard prospect in the deep-water U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The Leopard well encountered more than 600 feet (183 meters) net oil pay at multiple levels. Evaluation is ongoing to further define development options.

Leopard is operated by Shell (50%) and co-owned by Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (50%).

Norway
21/04/2021: Equinor and partners Total E&P Norge AS and Vår Energi AS struck oil and gas in a new segment belonging to the Tyrihans field in the Norwegian Sea. Recoverable resources are so far estimated at between 3.0 and 4.2 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent, corresponding to 19 – 26 million barrels of oil equivalent.

U.S. Gulf of Mexico
14/04/2021: BP announced an oil discovery at the Puma West prospect in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

The well, on Green Canyon Block 821, was drilled by bp on behalf of co-owners Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and Talos Energy. It is located west of the bp-operated Mad Dog field and is approximately 131 miles off the coast of Louisiana in 4,108 feet of water.

Angola
06/04/2021: Eni reported a new light oil discovery in Block 15/06, in Angola’s deep offshore. The well was drilled on the Cuica exploration prospect located inside the Cabaça Development Area and resulted in an oil discovery with a size estimated between 200 and 250 million barrels of oil in place.

Egypt
06/04/2021: United Oil & Gas announced that preliminary results suggest the ASD-1X exploration well, located 12km to the north-east of the producing Al Jahraa Field, encountered a total of at least 22m net oil pay interpreted across a number of reservoirs, including the Abu Roash C, Abu Roash E, Lower Bahariya and Kharita Formations.

Malaysia
30/03/2021: PTTEP) announced a successful oil and gas discovery from the first exploration well, Sirung-1, in Block SK405B, off the coast of Sarawak. The Sirung-1 exploration well marks PTTEP’s third discovery offshore Malaysia following SK410B’s Lang Lebah and SK417’s Dokong.

Norway
29/03/2021: Chrysaor Norge AS, operator of production licence 973, completed the drilling of wildcat well 15/12-25. The well encountered a 40-metre gas/condensate column in the Ty Formation, of which about 30 meters in sandstone were of good reservoir quality. 

Preliminary calculations indicate the estimated size of the discovery is between 1 and 2 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of oil equivalent in place.

The licensees' assessment is that it is not possible to develop the gas discovery.

Australia
23/03/2021: Beach Energy announced a gas discovery at the Artisan 1 location in licence VIC/P43 (Beach 60% and operator, O.G. Energy 40% interest), offshore Victorian Otway Basin.

Norway - Barents Sea
10/03/2021: Equinor and partners Vår Energi and Petoro struck oil in exploration well 7220/7-4 in production licence 532 in the Barents Sea. Recoverable resources are so far estimated at between 5 and 8 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil, corresponding to 31 – 50 million barrels of recoverable oil.

Malaysia
24/02/2021: PTTEP) announced a successful gas discovery from the first exploration well, Dokong-1 in Block SK417, off the coast of Sarawak, offshore Malaysia.

China
22/02/2021: CNOOC Limited made a large-sized oil and gas discovery Bozhong 13-2 in Bohai Bay.

The discovery well BZ13-2-2 was drilled and completed at a depth of 5,223 meters, and encountered oil pay zones with a total thickness of approximately 346 meters. The well was tested to produce an average of approximately 1,980 barrels of crude oil and 5.25 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Malaysia
10/02/2021: PTTEP, successfully completed the Lang Lebah-2 appraisal well in the Sarawak SK 410B Project. The drilling result registers a new record for PTTEP’s largest gas discovery.

PTTEP HKO is the operator with 42.5 percent participating interest while KUFPEC Malaysia and PETRONAS hold 42.5 percent and 15 percent participating interests respectively.

Norway
05/02/2021: Equinor and partners DNO Norge, Petoro and Wellesley Petroleum have struck gas and oil in production licence 923. Recoverable resources are estimated at between 7 and 11 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalent, corresponding to 44 – 69 million barrels of oil equivalent.

India
02/02/2021: Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) as operator (95%) and Government Holdings (Pvt) Limited (5%) discovered gas & condensate from its exploratory well Sial-1, which is located in district Hyderabad, Sindh Province.

Brazil
29/01/2021: Petrobras identified the presence of hydrocarbon in a pioneer well in the CM-411 block, located in the Campos Basin pre-salt, in the State of Rio de Janeiro. Well 1-BRSA-1377-RJS, informally called Urissanê, is located approximately 200 km from the coast, in a water depth of 2,950 meters, which found the presence of oil in reservoirs in the pre-salt section.

Petrobras is the operator of the block and holds a 50% interest, in partnership with ExxonMobil Exploração Brasil Ltda. (50%).

U.S. Gulf of Mexico
19/01/2021: Kosmos Energy announced an oil discovery in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico at the Winterfell infrastructure-led exploration (“ILX”) well (Kosmos working interest 17.5%).

Egypt
18/01/2021: Apex International Energy announced a new oil discovery in Southeast Meleiha Concession (SEM), located in the Western Desert of Egypt.

The discovery was achieved at the SEMZ-11X well located 10 kilometers west of Zarif field, the nearest producing field. The well was drilled to a total depth of 5,700 feet and encountered 65 feet of oil pay in the Cretaceous sandstones of the Bahariya and Abu Roash G formations. Testing of the Bahariya resulted in a peak rate of 2,100 barrels of oil per day with no water. 

Suriname
15/01/2021: Total and Apache Corporation have made a new significant oil and gas discovery at the Keskesi East-1 well, in Block 58 off the coast of Suriname. This follows previous discoveries at Maka Central, Sapakara West and Kwaskwasi.

The well was drilled by a water depth of about 725 meters and encountered a total of 63 meters net pay of hydrocarbons, comprised of 58 meters net black oil, volatile oil, and gas  pay in good quality Campano-Maastrichtian reservoirs, along with 5 meters of net volatile oil pay in Santonian reservoirs.

Egypt
23/12/2020: Eni announced a new oil discovery, in Meleiha Concession, in the Western Desert of Egypt. The discovery was achieved through the Arcadia 9 well, drilled on the Arcadia South structure, which is located 1.5 km south of the main Arcadia field already in production. The well encountered 85 feet of oil column in the Cretaceous sandstones of the Alam El Bueib 3G formation. The well has been drilled close to existing production facilities and is already tied-in to production, with a stabilized rate of 5,500 barrels of oil per day.

Norway
22/12/2020: ConocoPhillips today announced a new oil discovery in production license 891 on the Slagugle prospect located 14 miles north-northeast of the Heidrun Field in the Norwegian Sea. ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS is operator of the license with 80 percent working interest. Pandion Energy AS is license partner with 20 percent working interest.

Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 75 million and 200 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.

KeyFacts Energy: Discovery news