MENA upstream: 2019 in review – and a look ahead

Capital investment remained strong with a focus on expanding oil & gas production capacity. Gas production grew by over 5%, and liquid production fell by 4% mainly due to OPEC agreements. Egypt’s gas-story goes a full circle as it caps production from Zohr. Saudi production swiftly recovers post attacks on its facilities. After a record year in 2018, M&A spend decreased by 23%. MENA witnessed the largest global discovery of 2019 – the Eram gas field in Iran. Egypt’s first Red Sea bid round attracts major IOCs.

2019 was a busy year for Alaska with a string of successful appraisal campaigns, some ground-breaking announcements on the corporate landscape and the filing of a new ballot intuitive. Fourteen exploration and appraisal wells were drilled with resulting resource upgrades announced at Willow, Pikka, and Narwhal. However, this success wasn’t echoed in the producing assets. 2019 proved to be yet another year of production decline for the state. A string of notable corporate deals was announced climaxing in August when BP declared its exit from the region in a US$US5.6 billion deal with Hilcorp. In August, a new ballot initiative, the Fair Share Act, was filed aiming to increase government tax take on Alaska largest fields. Finally, the year was closed out with another large corporate announcement with ConocoPhillips stating its intention to divest 25% of its North Slope assets. 2020 looks set to be an equally exciting year.

Arm yourself for 2020 by catching up on the key stories and statistics from 2019. Our Asia-Pacific review provides a comprehensive update on the key 2019 exploration, production, spending and M&A data across the region. Discovered volumes were up and South East Asia, in particular, had a big year with the drill bit. We also recap the key regional events that shaped 2019: China progresses with reforms and unconventionals, Australia wraps up the greenfield LNG boom, while acquisitions, discoveries – and a fair bit of politics – dominated Malaysia and Indonesia.