Petroleum Africa
Find us on: 
Friday, March 5, 2021
The success rate of global conventional oil and gas exploration has declined in recent years, but the most painful blow has been to onshore wildcat wells, a Rystad Energy analysis reveals. In 2020, the success rate of these drilled wildcats plummeted to an all-time-low of 10.6%, marking an annual decline for a fourth year in a row, another dubious record for oil and gas exploration.
During the first half of the last decade, the operators enjoyed high success rates in their wildcat drilling campaigns, of between 40-60% for onshore and 30-40% for offshore. Both onshore and offshore wells have seen a decline in success rates in recent years but for onshore the drop since 2016 – when explorers recorded nearly 60% success with their wildcats – has been particularly alarming.
For offshore wildcat wells it’s been more of a hit and miss. The offshore success rate has seen mild fluctuations during this decade and the 2020 score ended at 24.8%, down from 28.6% in 2019 but slightly higher than the 24.1% score recorded in 2018.
“The lack of availability of easily exploitable prospects, combined with dying exploration activity in once rich onshore areas such as the Middle East, have led to the decline in the onshore success ratio. Most of the easily mappable structural prospects with shallow reservoirs have already been thoroughly explored, leaving wildcatters to struggle primarily with technically challenging prospects,” says Palzor Shenga, vice president at Rystad Energy’s upstream team.
Rystad Energy does not foresee a significant improvement in the onshore success ratio soon and much more activity will be focused on offshore areas, where prospects are associated with higher unrisked resources. Deep and ultra-deepwater areas have delivered decent success over the past couple of years.
For the full release with graphics, visit Rystad here.
" alt="First LNG Realized at the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim Project">
" alt="United Energy Acquires Western Desert Producer APEX">
" alt="Baker Hughes Announces Major Gas Technology Orders for Venture Global LNG">
" alt="ReconAfrica: Naingopo Results Demonstrate a Working Petroleum System">
" alt="Tullow Highlights 2025 Operational Plans in Ghana">
" alt="TotalEnergies to Supply 1.5 TWh to STMicroelectronics in France Over 15 years">
" alt="Rockhopper Reaches Final Settlement with United on Egypt’s Abu Sennan Concession">
" alt="Oil & Gas Crucial for African Growth: AEC Calls for Industry Support to Defend African Market">
