Catalog of recent oil discoveries

Oil-Finder · Last edited by Oil-Finder on Wed Jan 02, 2008 4:42 am; edited 1 time in total

For 2 years I've been collecting news stories about oil discoveries around the world. So I've decided to start a little project here to show that, contrary to peak oiler propaganda, there really are substantial oil discoveries being made - especially in the past year. I will put my archive in this thread - I hope the moderators don't mind. I believe a project like this would be a good way for either peak oilers to show us non-peak-oilers that few notable oil discoveries are being made . . . or vice-versa.

The first two posts will feature my collection from 2006 and 2007. Apologies for the long posts. Beginning this year I will simply collect them piece-by-piece and add them one at a time to this thread, tallying up a subtotal as I go.

It's often difficult to determine what exactly is an "oil discovery." Sometimes existing oil fields are found to have new reserves based on new drilling and seismic readings. I will count that as an oil discovery. Sometimes I encounter oil companies making estimates of reserves based only on seismic data as a prelude to drilling, but without yet having drilled anything. I will put those on the list, but not include them in the total tally for "oil discoveries" for a given year.

I will not include things such as the geologists who have made calculations of reserves in large-scale areas such as the Bakken, or potential reserves in Libya based only on preliminary data, or estimates of 100 billion additional barrels in Iraq based on map calculations. I will only count it when an oil company drills some test wells and makes some seismic readings to determine a certain amount of oil in a given area.

My methods for finding these are not particularly systematic, so it is almost certain I have missed many. Additionally, there are MANY oil discoveries made where the oil companies do not announce resource sizes (yet). Some of the announcements of discoveries in my links are actually wells which were drilled 1 or 2 or even 3 years ago. But sometimes it just takes a while to assess the size of the resource. So the method is imperfect, but better than nothing.

I also realize that some of the #-of-barrel figures include oil-equivalent amounts of natural gas. Since there is no way to tell how much is oil, and how much is gas, I am forced to use whatever figure I'm presented with. On occasion they do separate out estimates of oil-in-place from gas-in-place, but that's the exception, not the rule. In the occasional case when they do that, I will only use the oil figure.

Finally, the #-of-barrels figures I will use are oil-in-place. Not all of these announcements tell how much of the resource might be recoverable (in fact, most don't). So to be consistent I will cite OIP.

If anyone finds news of any discoveries themselves, feel free to link it in this thread.

Here goes . . .

Oil-Finder · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 4:31 am Post subject: 2006

2006 - with some 2005

This first one was very late in 2005, but I'll count it as 2006 anyway. Wink

Size of discovery: 700 million - 1 billion barrels
Date: December 28, 2005
Company(s): Petrobras
Name: Papa-Terra field, in the Campos Basin
Location: Offshore Brazil, in 1200 meters water
API: 14-17 (heavy)
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK
LINK

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Size of discovery: 600 million barrels
Date: January 26, 2006
Company(s): Lukoil
Name: Filanovsky
Location: Russian Caspian Sea
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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This is a series of discoveries in adjacent blocks in Libya whose test drilling began in 2003 but whose total size was only determined around the time of this article.

Size of discovery: 500 million barrels
Date: January 26, 2006
Company(s): Repsol YPF and Hydro
Names: K1, I1, J1, Block NC186
Location: Libya
API: unknown, article says "light crude"
Flow rate of test well(s): 2300, 2,060 and 4,650 barrels/day
LINK

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This one isn't a single find but rather a series of 18 discoveries. There appears to be some dispute over the size of these discoveries so I'll include a wide range.

Size of discoveries: 1.4-3.5 billion barrels
Date: March-April 2006
Company(s): Cairn Energy
Names: Guda, Raageshwari gas, Raageshwari oil, Kameshwari oil, Saraswati oil, GS-V-1, N-R-4, Vandana, Vijaya, N-E-1, Aishwariya, Mangala, Bhagyam South-I, NC West Oil and gas, N-I, Shakti and Bhagyam
Location: Offhsore Rajasthan, India
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK
LINK (expired)
LINK

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This is an overview of recent discoveries in the UK North Sea. I assume it's multiple oil companies in multiple locations.

Size of discoveries: 730 million barrels
Date: Discoveries in 2004-2006, article dated April 30, 2006
Company(s): Multiple
Name: Multiple
Location: UK North Sea
API: Unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 100 million barrels
Date: June 12, 2006
Company(s): DNO
Name: Tawke 1
Location: Kurdish northern Iraq
API: uknown
Flow rate of test well(s): 1160 barrels/day
LINK
LINK

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This was a preliminary estimate whose size got upped in 2007. I'll subtract this amount from my 2007 total. This area is a promising lead and we should expect futher annoucements.

Size of discovery: 300-600 million barrels
Date: June 18, 2007
Company(s): Tullow Oil
Name: Mahogany
Location: Offshore Ghana
API: unknown, article says it is "light oil"
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 40-90 million barrels
Date: June 21, 2006
Company(s): Husky Energy
Name: White Rose
Location: Newfoundland coast, Canada
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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This article is about 2 companies teaming up to develop an oil/gas field. It says a discovery was recently made, without specifying the date of the discovery. It sounds recent to the date of the article so I'll include it in 2006.

Size of discovery: 60-70 million barrels
Date: August 8, 2006
Company(s): Apache and Woodside
Name: Theo-1 well in Vincent field
Location: Offshore Western Australia
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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There appears to be some dispute about the size of this discovery so I'll include a wide range of values.

Size of discovery: 85-170 million barrels
Date: August 9, 2006
Company(s): Santos Ltd.
Name: Jeruk
Location: Offshore Indonesia
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 1.83 billion barrels
Date: August 21, 2006
Company(s): PetroChina
Name: 4 new blocks in Daqing Field
Location: Northeastern China
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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The much-publicized Jack 2 well by Chevron and Devon.

Size of discovery: 3-15 billion barrels
Date: September 6, 2006
Company(s): Chevron, Devon
Name: Jack 2
Location: Offshore Texas, Gulf of Mexico, 7,000 feet of water, 20,000 feet beneath sea floor
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): 6,000 barrels/day
LINK

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Can't tell if this was test drilled or just an estimate based on seismic or other readings. It seems a bit fishy so we'll put it in an "other" category.

Size of discovery: 100-250 million barrels
Date: November 22, 2006
Company(s): Centurion and Escopeta
Name: North Alexander and East Kitchen prospects
Location: Alaska
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 121-700 million barrels
Date: November 14, 2006
Company(s): Chevron
Name: unknown
Location: Offshore Cambodia, Gulf of Thailand
API: uknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Can't tell how recently this was discovered. The article says, "Tranquillon Ridge is the biggest California oil find in 30 years," but it doesn't say when that discovery took place. I'll assume it's fairly recent. The article is about plans to develop the oil/gas field.

Size of discovery: 170-200 million barrels
Date: Article dated November 10, 2006. Date of actual discovery unknown.
Company(s): PXP and some other unnamed company
Name: Tranquillon Ridge
Location: Offshore California
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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The size of this one gets upped in 2007, I'll subtract this 2006 estimate from the 2007 figure

Size of discovery: 100-300 million barrels
Date: October 8, 2006
Company(s): Hardman Resources Ltd.
Name: Weraga 1, Weraga 2 and Mputa
Location: Uganda
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 370-515 million barrels
Date: September 2006
Company(s): Russian state oil company Zarubezhneft (50%), Vietnam's Petrovietnam (35%) and Japanese refiner Idemitsu Kosan (15%)
Name: unknown
Location: Offshore Vietnam
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Total 2006: 10.65 - 25.9 billion barrels in my unscientific accounting.

This gives us a mean value of 18.27 billion barrels.

Plus 100-250 million barrels in a "fishy" category.

Oil-Finder · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 4:32 am Post subject: 2007

2007

Size of discovery: 2 billion barrels
Date: January 21, 2007
Company(s): National Iranian Southern Oil Fields Co.
Name: Bangestan layer of the Ab-Teymour oil field
Location: Iran
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 83 million barrels
Date: February 12, 2007
Company(s): Maurel & Prom
Name: San Jacinto/Rio Paez
Location: Colombia
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 474 million barrels
Date: February 27, 2007
Company(s): Respol and National Oil Co. of Libya
Name: Murzuq basin
Location: Libya
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 300-500 million barrels
Date: Feb. 28, 2007
Company(s): Norsk Hydro
Name: Nucula
Location: Barents Sea, Norway
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 1.2 billion barrels
Date: April 20, 2007
Company(s): Repsol Oil
Name: Block 200 in the Murzuq Basin
Location: Libya
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): 334-589
LINK

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Size of discovery: 7.5 billion barrels
Date: May 8, 2007
Company(s): PetroChina
Name: (part of) Bohai Bay
Location: Bohai Bay, China
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

According to this article here, Bohai Bay could contain as much as 146 billion barrels. So we'll have to keep an eye on this one.

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Due to its remote location this is not currently considered commercial. So I'll put it in an "other" category.

Size of discovery: 400 million barrels
Date: May 10, 2007
Company(s): Talisman and Petro-Canada
Name: 100 kilometers southeast of Barrow
Location: Alaska
API: unknow
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 450 million barrels
Date: May 11, 2007
Company(s): Nido Petroleum
Name: Service Contract 54
Location: Offshore Palawan Island, Phillipines
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 1.47 billion barrels
Date: May 30, 2007
Company(s): China Petroleum & Chemical Corp
Name: Block 12 at Tahe
Location: Xinjiang, (western) China
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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No info about drilling results, etc. Hard to tell if this is just a seismic assesment, or what? But I'll put it here anyway. Sounds like there's been a fair amount of exploration work, due to the increased size estimate.

Size of discovery: 10 billion barrels - previous assessment was 4 billion barrels, so I'll count this as a 6 billion barrel discovery.
Date: June 1, 2007
Company(s): Rosneft and Korea National Oil Corporation
Name: unknown
Location: Offshore Russia
API: unknow
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 1.1 billion barrels
Date: June 5, 2007
Company(s): Gippsland Offshore Petroleum and Pancontinental Oil & Gas
Name: L6
Location: Kenya
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 1.5 billion barrels
Date: June 23rd, 2007
Company(s): DNO, ENI and Statoil
Name: Goliath
Location: Offshore Norway
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 2.4 billion barrels - 2006 announcement said 300 million, so I'll count this as a 2.1 billion barrel discovery for 2007.
Date: June 24, 2007
Company(s): Heritage Oil and Tullow Oil
Name: Kingfisher well on block 3A in Bunyoro, Hoima district
Location: Uganda
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): 14,000 barrels/day
LINK

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Size of discovery: 800 million barrels - announcement last year said there was 600 million, so I'll count this as a 200 million barrel discovery for 2007.
Date: June 18, 2007
Company(s): Tullow Oil
Name: Mahogany
Location: Offshore Ghana
API: uknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

According to this link here there could be 2 billion barrels. This is looking like a promising play.

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Size of discovery: 170 million barrels
Date: August 31, 2007
Company(s): ROC
Name: Massambala
Location: Offshore Angola
API: unknown, article says it is heavy oil
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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The Brazilian discoveries are starting to pile up.

Size of discovery: 1.4 billion barrels
Date: September 11, 2007
Company(s): Petrobras. Who else?
Name: Xerelete
Location: Offshore Brazil deepwater
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): 2500 barrels/day
LINK

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Size of discovery: 1.2 billion barrels
Date: September 24, 2007
Company(s): Petrolinvest
Name: Zhubantam license
Location: Kazakhstan
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 120 million barrels
Date: October 1, 2007
Company(s): Innamincka Petroleum Ltd.
Name: Flax and Juniper discoveries in Cooper Basin
Location: Inland Australia (southwest Queensland)
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Like the one near Barrow, Alaska above, this is not considered commerically viable at the moment due to remote location. So I'll put it in an "other" category.

Size of discovery: 240 million barrels
Date: October 18, 2007
Company(s): Devon Energy
Name: Paktoa C-60 well
Location: Beaufort Sea, Canada
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Size of discovery: 60-180 million barrels
Date: October 25, 2007
Company(s): Lundin Norway AS
Name: Exploration well 16/1
Location: Norwegian North Sea
API: unknown, article says it is "light oil"
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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Tupi, the big news of the year along with Bohai Bay.

Size of discovery: 5-8 billion barrels recoverable, 12-30 billion barrels total OIP
Date: November 8, 2007
Company(s): Petrobras and BG Group
Name: Tupi
Location: Deepwater Brazil
API: unknown, article says it is "light grade"
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

EDIT: Per this announcement here, I've adjusted upward the total size of Tupi, though the estimated recoverable barrels remains the same.

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Size of discovery: 107 million barrels
Date: November 21, 2007
Company(s): DNO
Name: Storskrymten prospect
Location: Norwegian North Sea
API:
Flow rate of test well(s):
LINK

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This one's hard to tell if it's a "discovery" or not. It might be a "re-discovery." So far they have only taken seismic readings to identify drilling targets, so I'll put this in the "other" category for my tally at the bottom.

Size of discovery: 100 million barrels
Date: December 17, 2007
Company(s): Running Foxes Exploration
Name: Jolly Ranch
Location: Coloradao
API: N/A
Flow rate of test well(s): N/A
LINK

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Size of discovery: 1 billion barrels
Date: December 18, 2007
Company(s): Frontera
Name: "C" Prospect within the upper Kura Basin
Location: Georgia, in the Caucasus
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): unknown
LINK

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This is yet another one I'll put in the "other" category since it's just seismic readings to target drilling spots.

Size of discovery: 213 million barrels
Date: December 19, 2007
Company(s): Fox Petroleum
Name: Anglesey Prospect
Location: UK North Sea
API: N/A
Flow rate of test well(s): N/A
LINK

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And yet again, I'll put this in the "other" category since it's just seismic readings so far.

Size of discovery: 744 million barrels
Date: December 20, 2007
Company(s): Tethys
Name: Akkulka and Kul-Bas areas
Location: Kazakhstan
API: N/A
Flow rate of test well(s): N/A
LINK

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Total 2007: 32.22 billion - 36.75 billion in my unscientific accounting.

This gives us a mean value of 34.48 billion barrels.

Plus 1.7 billion barrels worth of seismic reading "discoveries" and discoveries in presently non-commercial remote locations.

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EDIT: Subtracted Tonga West GoM discovery and its 100 million barrels.

EDIT: Adjusted upward the size of Tupi, though the recoverable amount remains the same.

Oil-Finder

Now, often peak oilers will display the following chart (or similar ones) as supposed proof of the decline in oil discoveries:

However, given the information I have just presented above, here is what the chart should really look like, using the mean value of the volume of discoveries at the bottom of each of the 2 above posts.

We await news in 2008, 2009 and subsequent years. Smile

mgtser · Tar Sands Joined: Jul 25, 2007 Posts: 20

wow thats a lot of oil
i hope 3-5 or more ghawar size oilfield are discovered

i hope we are able to burn it to the last drop
maybe then we'll know for sure whether climate change is caused us

i'll bet our grand grand children will curse and spit at our graves....

but hey its not our problem....

like_the_dinosaurs

Well problem solved. For a brief period we actually found enough new oil to make up for all the crap we have burnt in the same time. No worries. Of course these fields are close to the top and easy to extract. It will buy them time at best!

mkwin · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jun 01, 2007 Posts: 596

Thanks Oilfinder. Very interesting project. Perhaps you could add a wikipedia page and link it to the Oil Megaprojects project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_megaprojects

The increase in price is of course going to spur further exploration and discovery but it is good to see it quantified. Also, Ignore the doom cult followers they are not interested in facts.

Concerned · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Sep 23, 2004 Posts: 1536

Concerned · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Sep 23, 2004 Posts: 1536

Discoveries and actual flow rates 2007. Flow rates are looking like nothing for the most part, this with oil at record highs? You would think they would be falling over themselves to get it to market.

I guess the easy oil must be gone or am I missing someting.

2,000 million bbl Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
83 million bbl Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
474 million bbl Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
300-500 million bbl Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
1200 million barrels Flow Rate (334k-589k) daily
7500 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
400 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
450 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
1470 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
10000 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
1100 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
1500 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
2400 million barrels Flow Rate (14k) daily
800 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
170 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
1400 million barrels Flow Rate (2.5k) daily
1200 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
120 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
240 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
60-180 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
5000-8000 billion barrels Flow Rate (unknown / 0)
107 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown /0)
100 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown /0)
100 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown /0)
1000 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown /0)
213 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown /0)
744 million barrels Flow Rate (unknown /0)

This is PO folks. Flow rate unknown or zero. And all the discoveries let alone production with oil at historic prices, barely able to offset one year three months oil consumption.

Flow rates that are available are pitiful compared to the million plus bbl elephants of the past.

But sure keep deluding yourself everything is ok, clear skies smooth sailing ahead. Twisted Evil

This entry caught my attention

The Brazilian discoveries are starting to pile up.

Size of discovery: 1.4 billion barrels
Date: September 11, 2007
Company(s): Petrobras. Who else?
Name: Xerelete
Location: Offshore Brazil deepwater
API: unknown
Flow rate of test well(s): 2500 barrels/day
LINK

We have deepwater (not cheap) pulling out 2500 bbl per day. Require 400 wells to produce 1 million barrels per day. At 1 mbpd field exhausted in 3.28 years if you get every last drop realistically you wont get every last drop.

But yeah you're right we're saved rah rah rah.
_________________
"Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box."
-Italian Proverb

TheDude · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:18 am Post subject: Re: 2007