Oil Majors Begin Exploration Renaissance – WoodMac
Oil and gas exploration spending is recovering from pandemic lows.
Wood Mackenzie reports that after record profits in 2022, oil majors have more courage, and the ESG agenda in many countries has faded into the background amid the energy crisis.
Britain’s Shell and BP and France’s TotalEnergies said this year that they would increase oil and gas production over the course of a decade, focusing on low-cost, low-emission resources. And this despite the fact that Shell and BP recently said that they had reached a peak in production.
Just this week, TotalEnergies said it would increase oil and gas production by 2-3% per year for five years.
“Oil and gas companies generally prefer to keep a low profile when it comes to exploration, and budgets are rarely published. But having conducted the research, we understand that exploration appetite is becoming stronger,” said WoodMac’s director of global research.
Exploration spending will begin to rise this year, with spending expected to increase by 6.8% compared to 2022 in real terms. Most of all, analysts believe, it will be deep-sea mining that will attract attention.
