Global oil and gas discoveries in 2021 will hit the lowest full-year level in 75 years if no major finds are uncovered in the remainder of December, Rystad Energy said.
By the end of November 2021, the industry had discovered volumes of 4.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in the year, if no major finds are announced this month, the oil and gas industry will report its worst discoveries record since 1946, Rystad said.
In 2020, 12.5 billion boe was discovered, leaving 2021’s discoveries as a significant drop.
Liquids have dominated total finds, representing 66 percent of the total. The monthly average of discovered volumes as of November stands at 424 million boe.
“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. Therefore, the cumulative discovered volume for 2021 is on course to be its lowest in decades,” Palzor Shenga, vice president of upstream research at Rystad Energy said in a statement.
The largest discovery in November 2021 was off the coast of Mexico at Yoti West, with an estimated holdings of around 75 million boe of recoverable resources by Russia’s Lukoil. While this discovery will strengthen Lukoil’s cumulative discovered volumes in Mexico, Rystad said that 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.”
