exploration

Total just strengthened its presence in United States deepwater plays through an acquisition from Samson that gives the French company a 12.5% interest in blocks covering the Anchor discovery, one of the most significant recent finds in the Gulf of Mexico.

ExxonMobil continues to make major oil discoveries offshore Guyana, a country that today produces no oil. The just-announced Turbot-1 well is the company’s fifth discovery in Guyana’s waters in a little more than 2 years.

As oil companies struggle with the collapse in crude prices and industry upheaval, assessing the future of exploration and production (E&P) in specific countries requires a longer term vision of a market in which prices will have stabilized and rebounded to a level yet undetermined.

The global industry is feeling the pain of the oil price plunge, but the UK feels it more acutely. Exploration drilling is at rock bottom levels, the offshore UK Continental Shelf is one of the world’s most expensive from which to produce a barrel of oil, and investment spending is expected to fall.