Page 24: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2019)

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FEATURE Deepwater Drilling

Drilling Down

Paci? c Drilling’s Sharav drillship

Source: Chevron eepwater exploration is starting to get serious, total $380 billion of total project capital expenditure (capex) again. If fact, French oil major Total is lined up to deferred (real terms), from the 68 projects. drill what will be a new deepwater drilling record Now, following a year of relatively steady oil prices in

Dlater this year, offshore Angola. At about 3,600 me- 2017, and strides made in project economics made since 2014, ters water depth, it will break a previous record set by total at spending is once again expected to increase. In November, the Raya-1 well in Uruguay in 2016, at 3,400 meters. Wood Mackenzie said total annual deepwater capex is expect-

The stakes are big but so are the prizes, and that’s what’s ed to rise from around $50 billion currently to nearly $60 bil- driving renewed interest. It’s a turnaround compared with lion by 2022, driven by big projects developing already made 2015, when analysts Wood Mackenzie said that, since late discoveries in Guyana, Brazil and Mozambique.

2014, 68 major projects and 27 billion barrels of oil equiva- Wood Mackenzie says the cost of developing new deepwa- lent (BOE) of commercial reserves have been deferred, due to ter barrels has fallen by more than 50% since 2013, due to the oil price crash. In the last ? ve months of 2015, deepwater project downsizing, focus on subsea tiebacks and brown? eld projects had been hit hardest, accounting for over half of the developments, project lead time and well count reduction, 24 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM 18-31 OE 2019.indd 24 4/15/2019 11:37:17 AM