Discovered resource opportunities: Qatar and Brazil to dominate 2019 awards

Over 50 billion boe of discovered resource opportunities (DROs) have been awarded to upstream companies since 2015. This is dominated by Middle East onshore conventional oil, principally the legacy ADCO and ADMA contract extensions in the UAE. The renewals attracted upfront bonus payments of US$16.5 billion. The strong momentum will continue in 2019, led by Brazil deepwater and Qatar LNG awards. Brazil has 9 billion boe of low-breakeven pre-salt oil opportunities while Qatar plans four new LNG mega trains with 8 billion boe of associated resources. Expect fierce competition with big bonuses and capital commitments reflecting the high quality of assets. Combined, 2015 to 2019 will be a stellar five-year run, with around 75 billion boe of DRO awards.