Finding a decline in global high impact well count to just 64 wells in 2023, Westwood Global Energy Group has observed that it is the lowest number the research body has ever recorded
It was a sharp drop from 82 wells in 2022. This, despite an oil price of more than US$100/bbl in 2022, which would normally have fed through into higher exploration spending the following year. The energy group is looking at this trend as a result of more companies planning their exploration ambitions on the basis of energy transition developments. It says that the conventional link between oil prices and drilling might have been finally disrupted.
Africa, however, is the sole region that witnessed a continued rise in high impact drilling in 2023, with the completion of 13 high impact wells. Much of this high activity can be attributed to Namibia following the frontier successes in 2022, besides drilling in seven other countries in the continent.
Westwood predicts that Africa should see drilling of around 20 high impact wells, with Orange Basin leading. Galp recently announced an oil discovery at its Mopane-1X, the first well by a company other than TotalEnergies or Shell to test the new Cretaceous plays. Deepwater wells in the South African sector of the Orange Basin, chasing equivalent plays could also be drilled in the latter half of 2024. Further north, ExxonMobil is expected to drill the first exploration well in the Angolan Namibe basin and hopes to drill a well in Egypt’s Herodotus basin.
