BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 19. High-impact oil and gas drilling this year is expected to recover from a disappointing 2021, when success rates fell to record lows, Trend reports via Rystad Energy, independent energy research and business intelligence company from Norway.
“Drilling of high-impact oil and gas prospects is set to rebound this year after a disappointing 2021 when success rates plunged towards record lows. These critical wells have found hydrocarbons 47 percent of the time so far this year, up from a measly 28 percent for 2021. With more than four months still to go in 2022, discovered volumes from high-impact wells have nearly quadrupled to over 1.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) – a positive sign for global hydrocarbon supply,” the research said.
According to Rystad Energy, a total of 33 high-impact wells are projected to be drilled in 2022 - the largest annual number since Rystad Energy started tracking the sector in 2015. This is only slightly more than last year’s 29 high-impact probes, which only yielded 450 million boe because of the low success rate.
Contrary to recent trends, the discovery of liquid hydrocarbons this year accounted for 1.2 billion boe, or almost 70 percent of the total volume, while the total discovered gas amounted to about 550 boe. Over the previous years, the number of gases detected far exceeded the volume of liquid hydrocarbons. The change this year is mainly due to two significant discoveries of oil on the Namibian shelf by Total Energies Venus and Shell Graff.
“2022 is on track to make up for that slump. If the success rate seen in the first half of 2022 holds for the full year, we could be in for one of the most productive annual volumes total on record,” Rystad analysts said.
Thus, the company forecasts 14 high-yield wells to be completed or drilled by the end of the current year - six of them by large companies.
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