Deepwater Gulf of Mexico: how are explorers commercialising discoveries? Report

Insight 05 September 2017

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Report summary

Since 2015 and the collapse of oil prices, exploration in deepwater Gulf of Mexico has been forced to re-invent itself. Infrastructure-led exploration has moved front-and-centre through the downturn, while operators have struggled to commercialise larger finds. Operators that treat exploration and appraisal more like an extension of development than a separate initiative have sanctioned the most projects, but fall behind in terms of sanctioned reserves. Why have larger fields taken a back seat and how can operators move these high-impact projects forward? We review the fields that have been commercialised over the past two years and the fields that have stalled. We benchmark the region's top five drillers and outline what we expect in the next two years.

Executive Summary
Private players show resilience through low prices
Why is high-impact exploration not working?
- Extensive appraisal swells costs
- Appraise while developing, phase development
- Brownfield exploration is in the money
Infrastructure-led exploration saves the day
- Current classification of top explorers' discoveries made in the past 10 years
- Top explorers' transition to infrastructure-led exploration
Conclusion
Appendix
- Definitions

Tables and charts

This report includes the following images and tables:

Top five explorers average lead time
Discovered volumes by peer group
Full-cycle vs. development-cycle breakevens

Capex/boe by project type
Deepwater Gulf of Mexico: how are explorers commercialising discoveries?: Image 5
Deepwater Gulf of Mexico: how are explorers commercialising discoveries?: Image 6
2017-2018 Selected deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration wells
Sanctioned projects and probable projects