Westwood research shows that NOCs have participated in 270 high-impact exploration wells outside of their home country since 2008. The nine most active NOCs have spent a combined $7 billion and discovered a net commercial volume of ~6 Bboe. Equinor was the most active international NOC explorer, drilling 92 exploration wells in 16 countries outside of Norway. In terms of success rates and finding CNOOC’s 54% commercial success rate and $0.3/boe finding costs have been driven by its 25% equity stake in the ExxonMobil-operated frontier Stabroek block offshore Guyana.
– Vikesh Mistry, Senior Analyst, Westwood
