Page 51: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Dec/Jan 2015)

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Year in Review

The drillship. Saipem 10,000

Photo from Saipem. contain 700 MMbbl reserves.

According to Matthew Jurecky from

GolbalData, Liza’s commercial success could rede? ne the Equatorial basin as a global deepwater production player.

Lira

Missing from our top 10 list is the recent reported 30 Bcm or 1 Tcf of gas found in the Lira discovery in the Black Sea, offshore Romania, in October. It is the second announced discovery from the deepwater Black Sea from only three exploration wells. Cumulative resources of the two discoveries is expected to be 3-4 Tcf, Wood Mackenzie says. There are a further four exploration wells which have been drilled and com- pleted by ExxonMobil, which have yet to have their results released.

Lira was drilled in 700m water depth

Atwood Achiever. Photo from Atwood Oceanics.

using the semisubmersible drilling rig

Zohr

Transocean Development Driller II. The

Zohr, discovered by Eni, using the well was temporarily abandoned for fur-

Saipem 10,000 drillship, contains ther evaluation. Lukoil plans to drill an some 3960 MMboe, according to Wood exploration well in 2016 and reprocess

Mackenzie, or 30 Tcf/5.5 Billion boe the seismic data. potential reserves, according to IHS. It is a massive ? nd and opens a new play, the

Miocene reef play. It has the same petro- 2015 month-on-month rig counts 800

Ahmeyim leum system as Israel’s giant Leviathan, but a new reservoir, the Miocene reef, Ahmeyim is another frontier play, how- 700

Latham says. ever, it is not as close to markets as Zohr. 600 “Not only is Zohr very large, assuming Ahmeyim was discovered by Kosmos 500 it is appraised well, it is clearly com- Energy, using the Atwood Achiever drill- 400 mercial and that commerciality of new ship, and labelled the largest Atlantic 300 resources has been an issue in recent Margin discovery of 2015. It could have years,” he says. “If it does pan out to be been an oil or has ? nd, Latham says. 200

Month-on-month rig count commercial, we will have a higher aver- Like Zohr, it also opened a new petro- 100 age proportion of commercial reserves leum system, the outboard, large-scale 0 15 Nov15 Dec 15 Jan 15 Feb15 Mar 15 Apr 15 May15 Jun 15 Jul 15 Aug 15 Sep15 Oct than resources booked this year,” Latham Cretaceous petroleum system across 2014 2014 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 notes, adding that this is something that Mauritania-Senegal, and could hold some

Data from In? eld Systems has been lacking in recent years. 15 Tcf, according to Kosmos. Exploration

Oil price averages vs. volatility

It is also a signi? cant ? nd in terms and appraisal is set to continue into 2016 120 350 of gas markets, particularly for Egypt. on Ahmeyim, Kosmos says. 300 “All bets are now off in the Eastern 100

Liza

Mediterranean in terms of the gas mar- 250 ket,” Latham says. Liza might not be top of the rankings, 80

For some time, Egypt, which has LNG however, it is a signi? cant ? nd for 200 60 export facilities, has been reversing Guyana. It is the ? rst oil discovery in 150 pipelines to bring gas into the country, Guyana and is also another play opener

Brent Price Volitility

Brent Price 40 because demand has outstripped local and ExxonMobil is reported to be fast- 100 supply. Zohr could change the game, tracking a project to unlock its reserves. 20 50 which had seen Egypt eying importing Liza could also be bigger than the gas from Cyprus and Egypt. ? gures so far released, Latham says. “I 0 0 1 Dec 1 Nov 1 Jan 1 Feb 1 Mar 1 Apr 1 May 1 Jun 1 Jul 1 Aug 1 Sep 1 Oct “And then the open question is ‘how wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be 2014 2014 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 many more Zohr-like prospects are signi? cantly bigger than 250 MMboe,” he

Brent Price (monthly average) Brent Price Volitility (RHS) there either in Egypt, Israel or Cyprus,” adds. Guyana’s minister of governance

Data from In? eld Systems

Latham adds. has in fact suggested the ? eld could oedigital.com December 2015 | OE 53 052_OE1215_Geofocus_Review_New.indd 53 11/20/15 5:36 PM