Private: Publications

PESGB November 2017

Thu 26 October 2017

Category: Magazines

Highlights include:

  • REVIEW: The Old Red Sandstone & Highland Border Complex at Glen Esk
  • ARTICLE: GEOLiteracy & Beyond…
  • ARTICLE: Supporting the future of the industry
  • NEWS FEATURE: The Kutch Basin, history and progression into India’s eighth producing basin
  • NEWS FEATURE: Arctic region to double oil & gas supply by 2025

Plus much more inside

Global portfolio reload

There has been an unprecedented level of global licencing round activity this year, notably high profile rounds launched in Mexico, Brazil, US and the much awaited Uruguay 3rd Round. Closer to home, the UK 30th offshore round is drawing to a close, with bids due in later this month. This round has seen a huge number of blocks being made available to industry, mostly in mature areas of the UKCS.

The last two quarters in particular have seen a proliferation of countries launching exploration licensing rounds, as governments look to capitalise on industry’s desire to re-build exploration portfolios. Industry is trying to balance short-term cash flow requirements with longer term growth. Since the onset of the downturn in 2014, investors and company boards have been focused on capital discipline, with high risk investments typically off the table. This approach is only sustainable up to a point and many longer-term focused companies are now counter cyclically reloading their exploration portfolios through licensing rounds, taking advantage of reduced entry costs and government terms that put activity and investment ahead of upfront cash and hefty signature bonuses. If you are able to get into prospective acreage at low cost you have made a significant first step in achieving material full cycle returns on your future projects.

Time will tell as to what all this licensing round activity will generate. Whilst levels of drilling activity are likely to remain lower for longer, the quality of exploration targets will improve as companies high-grade drilling candidates from a wider portfolio of opportunities. This should then lead to better success rates and value returns for the industry, albeit from a lower level of activity – quality rather than quantity.

It’s that time of year again for the PESGB – election time. We want you to have a say about the future of our organisation and vote in our Council election. You can do this simply through your member’s page, located in the ‘My Account’ area of the PESGB website. Many positions within our Council are now up for contest as the terms of many of our current board members are coming to an end. We have a promising selection of nominees for the 2018 Council. Cast your vote by Thursday 30 November. Thank you in advance for taking part!

Our annual PROSPEX conference, scheduled for 13th and 14th December at London’s Business Design Centre in Islington, is shaping up well this year. We have a wide range of confirmed exhibitors and a parallel speaker programme featuring our highly popular ‘Prospects to Go’ sessions. This event continues to be the UK’s leading networking event for exploration and appraisal opportunities. The PESGB is again collaborating with the Oil and Gas Authority and MER UK Exploration Task Force to run the bi-annual Exploration Managers Forum early on the first day of the conference. The idea of this session is to hear from a variety of quite different oil and gas companies with varied perspectives on UKCS exploration and the challenges and opportunities of bringing investment to the basins. This will be followed by an update from the Oil & Gas Authority on the next UK 31st Round and their various ongoing exploration projects, including the next phase of the 21st Century Exploration Roadmap.

To wrap up the calendar year we will be hosting as many of you as we can at the Granite City Reception in Aberdeen and Presidents Evening in London. As in previous years the Presidents Evening will follow on from PROSPEX and will be a chance for all of us to catch-up over drinks, this year at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden. I promise to keep my end of year speech short and to the point so that you can all focus on catching up and network in our usual festive style!