Panorama 2015 - New conventional oil and gas discoveries

Exploration expenditure rose sharply in 2013, as in the previous year. The overall results for 2014 are likely to show more modest growth at around 5%. In ten years, exploration budgets have increased fivefold, which has led to some major discoveries; but since 2010, the volumes discovered have fallen every year despite the continuing increase in spending. In 2013, 17 billion barrels of oil equivalent (Gboe) were discovered. This is less than both the amount for the previous year and the ten-year average. The initial estimates for 2014 suggest a stabilization of volumes discovered at the same level as 2013. The continuing decline in offshore discoveries in Brazil and East Africa, where operators have cut back on their exploration programmes, appears to have been partly offset by the increase in border areas, such as the pre-salt reservoirs in West Africa and the Russian Arctic. (authors)