Offshore staff
LONDON – Wood Mackenzie expects a pickup in offshore exploration this year across Southeast Asia and Australasia.
Research director Andrew Harwood identified three potential stand-out wells:
• Offshore Pakistan, ExxonMobil and Eni should soon spud the ultra-deepwater Kekra-1 well, targeting gas in a carbonate play.
• Repsol will drill the Rencong-1X well offshore North Sumatra, Indonesia during 3Q.
• Total’s Mialu-1 well will test a giant oil prospect in more than 2,000 m (6,562 ft) of water off Papua New Guinea; a success could open a new ultra-deep offshore play in the Papuan basin.
Various countries are set to open new licensing rounds this year. Among these are India and Indonesia, which introduced recent fiscal revisions.
Harwood, however, expected other 2019 licensing opportunities in the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Myanmar to attract greater industry interest.
Spending on mergers and acquisitions across the region last year rose by more than 60% to $8.7 billion.
This year Wood Mackenzie anticipates potential deals totalling around $8 billion, including divestments inSoutheast Asia by primarily US-focused companies such as Hess, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, seeking lower-cost, higher-return opportunities elsewhere.
New project sanctions inAsia/Pacific will likely be limited, headed by PetroVietnam’s offshore Block B gas development and ConocoPhillips’s Barossa in the Timor Sea, although an investment decision in both cases could be deferred until 2020.
Offshore Australia the focus of the LNG sector will probably be on backfilling the existing Pluto and North West Shelf infrastructure.
Collaboration among operators is becoming more of an option, Harwood said, with Woodside’sScarborough and Browse fields the most likely mid-term candidates to provide new feed gas.
Chevron’s Clio-Acme development could also go forward if the company can secure commercial arrangements for third-party access to LNG infrastructure.
Wood Mackenzie expects China to be more constructive on its claims to territory in the South China Sea, agreeing joint development solutions with countries such as the Philippines and Brunei in disputed waters.
If a more formal and binding agreement is signed, this could set a precedent for other neighbouring countries to follow.
01/14/2019
