Wood Mackenzie has announced that TotalEnergies was named the most admired explorer in the upstream industry and received the Discovery of the Year award in the 15th annual Wood Mackenzie Exploration Survey.
The survey gathers views from across the exploration industry and asks respondents to identify which explorer, other than their own company, they most admire, Wood Mackenzie noted in a statement sent to Rigzone. TotalEnergies received the Discovery of the Year award for Venus in Namibia, in partnership with QatarEnergy, Impact Oil & Gas and NAMCOR, Wood Mackenzie noted in the statement.
“For the third time in our industry-leading survey, TotalEnergies has received the illustrious recognition of being named the Most Admired Explorer,” Andrew Latham, senior vice president of Energy Research at Wood Mackenzie, said in a statement of the company
“I would like to congratulate the company’s long-time head of exploration, Kevin McLachlan, and his team on a well-deserved win,” he added.
“The industry continues to admire operators who can not only open new frontiers, but also find large volumes of advantageous resources. TotalEnergies’ recent efforts and discoveries have been excellent examples of both trends,” continued Latham.
In the statement, Latham noted that the discovery of Venus “is truly a first game that has the entire industry very excited.”
“If this project is able to move forward, it will establish a significant new industry for Namibia,” Latham said in the statement.
In February last year, TotalEnergies announced that it had made a “significant” discovery of light oil with associated gas at the Venus prospect, located in Block 2913B in the Orange Basin, southern Namibia.
The Venus 1-X well encountered approximately 84 meters of net oil pay in a good-quality Lower Cretaceous reservoir, TotalEnergies said in a company statement at the time.
“This discovery offshore Namibia and the very promising initial results demonstrate the potential of this play in the Orange Basin, in which TotalEnergies has a significant position in both Namibia and South Africa,” said Kevin McLachlan , senior vice president of exploration at TotalEnergies. statement of the company announcing the discovery.
“A full cutting and logging program has been completed. This will enable the preparation of appraisal operations designed to assess the commerciality of this discovery,” he added.
Rigzone reached out to TotalEnergies to comment on being named the Upstream Industry’s Most Admired Explorer and receiving the Discovery of the Year award. As of this writing, the company has yet to respond to Rigzone.
E&P Explorers of the Year, NOC
In the statement sent to Rigzone, Wood Mackenzie revealed that Hess Corporation was recognized as E&P Explorer of the Year and Petrobras was recognized as NOC Explorer of the Year.
This is the second year in a row that Hess has been recognized as E&P Explorer of the Year, Wood Mackenzie said in the statement, adding that the company “has transformed itself with a tremendous string of giant successes in Guyana since 2015.”
Wood Mackenzie also noted in the statement that Petrobras has resumed high-impact deepwater exploration in Brazil, noting that recent results include the “giant Aram discovery found in 2022.” Appraisal drilling at Aram could confirm about two billion barrels in Brazil’s Santos Basin, Wood Mackenzie said in the statement.
“The exploration industry continues to see an excellent series of high-impact finds in many parts of the world,” Latham said in a Wood Mackenzie statement.
“The industry remains very dynamic and these recognized companies, as well as many others, continue to offer resource advantages that can displace less sustainable supply,” he added.
“Its development will reduce oil and gas emissions and provide cash flow to fund investment in low-carbon alternatives through the energy transition,” continued Latham.
When contacted for comment on the E&P Explorer of the Year recognition, a Hess spokesperson told Rigzone, “Hess is honored to be recognized as the E&P Explorer of the Year for the second consecutive time by industry leaders Wood Mackenzie.”
“A success that could not have happened without the incredible partnership we share in Guyana with ExxonMobil, CNOOC and the Guyanese people,” the spokesperson added.
“To date, this partnership has discovered more than 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent with one billion barrels of exploration potential remaining,” the spokesperson continued.
Rigzone has also reached out to Petrobras for comment on being recognized as the NOC Explorer of the Year. At the time of writing, Petrobras has not yet responded to Rigzone.
The most admired explorer of 2022
In June last year, Wood Mackenzie announced that Eni had been named the most admired explorer in the upstream industry. The company highlighted at the time that this was the fourth time in seven years that Eni had won the recognition.
Wood Mackenzie revealed last year that Eni’s Baleine oil discovery off the coast of Ivory Coast was recognized as Discovery of the Year and that QatarEnergy was recognized as NOC Explorer of the Year .
In a statement published on its website in June 2022, Wood Mackenzie noted that Tullow Oil was the inaugural winner of the Most Admired Upstream Explorer Award in 2009. The company held the title until 2013 before that Anadarko took the prize in 2014 and 2015. Wood Mackenzie noted, adding that “since then, the majors have dominated the event.” Eni’s previous wins were in 2016-2018, ExxonMobil won in 2019 and TotalEnergies won in 2020-21, Wood Mackenzie noted in the statement.
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