Offshore staff
LONDON – Westwood Global Energy Group has reviewed more than 500 wells drilled since 2008 with direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHIs) in a new study.
The report compared the success rates for wells in this category with global exploration benchmarks for all wells.
According to Andrew Jackson, analyst, Global Exploration & Appraisal at Westwood, evidence from the 2008-14 period shows that DHIs overall delivered lower success rates than the global benchmark.
But the situation has changed since 2014, with the success rates for prospects with DHIs increasing widely.
In the five years after 2014, the commercial success rate (CSR) for all types of exploration wells rose by 5%, while DHI supported well successes grew by 11% (both now stand at 34%.)
Last year the CSR for DHI-supported wells exceeded the global benchmark by 8% points, Jackson added.
As for factors driving the improvement, Westwood’s statistics reveal growing interest in stratigraphic exploration with over one-quarter of all prospects drilled last year being stratigraphic vs 12% in 2008.
DHIs are critical to these types of wells. CSRs for DHI-supported stratigraphic trap wells improved to over 50% in 2018 and 2019, outperforming the all well benchmark.
This suggests that explorers are becoming more confident in their ability to search for subtle traps, and that combining consistent seismic data with sound geological models is the key to applying DHIs effectively, Jackson concluded.
