The global oil industry saw approximately 120 oil and gas discoveries in 2024, the overwhelming majority of which were small incremental reserve additions, Oilprice said.
Exploration activity in this period reflects a mix of significant finds in established regions and emerging areas, driven by advancements in technology and sustained global energy demand.
In 2024, global oil and gas discoveries showed a resurgence despite a longer-term trend of declining exploration volumes. The year saw an estimated 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent discovered worldwide, a figure lower than historical averages but marking an uptick in activity compared to recent years. Oil majors like Chevron, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies are leading the charge in new and existing frontier basins. High-impact drilling is expected in Suriname (Korikori), Cyprus (Elektra), Libya (Area C), and South Africa (DWOB).
ExxonMobil, alongside partners Hess and CNOOC, continued to expand its resource base in Guyana’s prolific Stabroek Block. Updates in 2024 confirmed additional finds, with the total recoverable resources now estimated at around 11 billion BOE. The Bluefin discovery, announced earlier in the year, added to this tally, reinforcing Guyana’s status as an emerging oil powerhouse with production potential driving economic growth.
US oil major Chevron will be looking forward to a series of high-impact decisions this year. The Chevron-Exxon arbitration regarding Hess’ Guyanese assets will foreshadow its expansion into South America’s new frontiers, whilst its Korikori-1 exploration well could boost that portfolio with a new entry point, Suriname.
Suriname’s shallow water remains a terra incognita for oil drillers as the first reflex of oil companies was to appraise the blocks immediately bordering Guyana’s Stabroek license. Following a set of discoveries and even a final investment decision on the 200,000 b/d Gran Morgu project (combining the Sapakara and Krabdagu finds), the time has come for oil firms to look towards shallow water plays. Chevron is set to drill Korikori in Q4 2025, suggesting we will only hear about its commercial qualities by early next year.
Chevron’s much-awaited approval for the $4 billion Aphrodite gas field in offshore Cyprus happens at the right time for other drillers in the Eastern Mediterranean. Suddenly, the option of exporting natural gas to Egypt is a workable scenario that avoids the pitfalls of building costly floating liquefaction terminals. Against this background, ExxonMobil is preparing to drill its Elektra exploration well, potentially the biggest natural gas find of this year with the US major setting estimated pre-drill volumes at 1.7-1.8 bboe.
Electra is in the immediate vicinity of Egypt’s Zohr, meaning ample hydrocarbon plays are almost guaranteed, even if their subsequent recoverability might be limited by water influx and reservoir pressure issues. The increasing sophistication of subsea infrastructure would also allow ExxonMobil to tie in any potential Elektra gas production into the existing evacuation system. The Valaris DS-9 drillship started drilling in late January, with results expected towards the end of Q1 2025, Oilprice reports.
TotalEnergies’ Venus discovery became the largest oil and gas discovery of 2022 and kickstarted a Namibian oil rush in 2023-2024 as everyone wanted to make sure they don’t miss out on the latest exploration frontier. Despite Shell writing down some Namibian discoveries as sub-commercial, the drilling frenzy in Namibian waters is far from over. The same TotalEnergies is now aiming to develop South Africa’s Deep Water Orange Basin (DWOB) block that abuts its Namibian projects across the Orange Basin, hoping that the prolific oil resources of Venus extend southwards. DWOB is relatively far away from the shore, some 200 km or 125 miles, in water depths that mostly range between 1,500 m and 3,000 m. Namibia’s offshore discoveries contained a lot of natural gas – one of the main reasons why Venus will not see commissioning until at least 2029 is the difficulty of marketing the gas – and DWOB would most probably have the same problem. That said, some estimates put the total recoverable resource at 1 boe, which would be a welcome boost to Total’s African portfolio. With the spudding expected to start only in late 2025, we would not see the results of DWOB drilling before 2026.
The Mopane field emerged as a standout, with Galp Energia and partners NAMCOR and Custos reporting significant light oil and gas-condensate columns. The Mopane-3X well, drilled in early 2025 but building on 2024 efforts, confirmed the basin’s potential. Estimates suggest production could reach 211,000 BOE per day by 2037, highlighting Namibia as a new frontier in African energy.
/Oilprice.com, X/