ExxonMobil named 2017 explorer of the year

ExxonMobil was recently named 2017 Explorer of the Year by the World Oil and Gas Council in recognition of excellence and innovation in the global energy industry. During the year, the company announced a number of discoveries, acquisitions and other activities in various countries, including Brazil, Cyprus, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, Mauritania, Papua New Guinea and Suriname. Significant exploration activity took place offshore Guyana, where ExxonMobil announced four discoveries in 2017 at Payara, Liza Deep, Snoek, and Turbot. These four discoveries added to the earlier Liza discovery, made in 2015. Since receipt of the award in December 2017, ExxonMobil has announced a sixth discovery offshore Guyana at the Ranger-1 exploration well.

Other notable ExxonMobil exploration highlights throughout the year include:

Brazil
In September and October, the company added 14 blocks comprising more than 1.25mn net acres offshore Brazil through bid rounds and farm-in agreements, bringing its total acreage in the country to more than 1.4mn net acres. These included an agreement to purchase half of Statoil’s interest in an offshore block containing the Carcara field, estimated to contain a recoverable resource of 2bn barrels of oil.

In December, ExxonMobil signed a memorandum of understanding with Petrobras to jointly identify and evaluate potential business opportunities.

Cyprus
In April, the company signed an exploration and production sharing contract for offshore block 10.

Equatorial Guinea
In June, ExxonMobil signed a production sharing contract with the government of Equatorial Guinea for deepwater block EG-11.

Malaysia
In November, ExxonMobil signed production sharing contracts for acreage offshore Sabah, Malaysia.

Mauritania
In December, the company signed production sharing contracts for three offshore blocks: C22, C17 and C14.

Papua New Guinea
In June, ExxonMobil announced positive production well tests results from the Muruk-1 sidetrack 3 well. It also drilled the P’nyang South-2 well, which successfully confirmed an extension to the earlier P’nyang discovery. Across Papua New Guinea, ExxonMobil acquired an additional 5.7mn net acres of prospective acreage, onshore and offshore.

Suriname
In July, ExxonMobil signed a production sharing contract for block 59 offshore Suriname in the Guyana-Suriname Basin.

US – Gulf of Mexico
In March and August, the company was awarded 25 blocks in the US Gulf of Mexico lease sales.