With less than 7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) discovered year-to-date (YTD), 2017 is turning out to be yet another record low year for discovered conventional volumes globally, if not an all-time low, a research report by Rystad Energy suggests.

The discovered volumes averaged at 550 million boe a month, with the reserve replacement ratio in the current year reaching only 11 per cent (for oil and gas combined) compared to over 50 per cent in 2012, the Rystad Energy report states.

According to Rystad’s analysis, 2006 was the last year when reserve replacement ratio reached 100 per cent, largely due to the discovery of the giant onshore gas field Galkynysh in Turkmenistan.

Not only did the total volume of discovered resources decrease – so did the resources per discovered field. An average offshore discovery in 2017 held 100 million boe, compared to 150 million boe in 2012.

The top three countries in terms of discovered volumes in 2017 were Senegal, Mexico and Guyana.

In Senegal, Kosmos Energy continued with its exploration success story by discovering the Yakaar gas field. Coupled with the 2016 discovery of Teranga, this could represent a large LNG development in the future.

It was also a promising year for Mexico. Zama and Ixachi discoveries, together with some other smaller finds, added around 1 billion boe of recoverable resources for the country. Zama was of particular importance for Mexico. It was the first discovery in the country by a private company – Talos Energy – in the past 80 years.

In Guyana, ExxonMobil achieved a new milestone by adding another 1 billion boe of recoverable resources through its 2017 large discoveries like Payara, Turbot and Snoek.

Rystad Energy does not expect the final volume of 2017 discovered resources to be significantly impacted by the results of exploration wells being drilled currently. The results of the ultra-deepwater well Lamantin in Mauritania, operated by Kosmos Energy, were reported on 12 December.

Even though large prospective resources were expected from the well, the results were ‘disappointing’, according to Rystad, and the well has been plugged and abandoned.

Another high-impact well is currently being drilled offshore Nigeria – Oyo Northwest – operated by Erin Energy.

Rystad Energy expects the well results to be announced at the beginning of 2018. The most recent pre-drill estimate indicates resources of over 1 billion boe, which would mean a very positive start for the year.