No end to surprises from offshore Guyana and an ExxonMobil-led consortium, which have identified at least 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil resources, and catapulted the impoverished South America country firmly onto the global oil map.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com – After years of uncertainty and stagnation, the offshore drilling market is on the rebound and is in the early innings of an up cycle in investment and activity that will outpace the 2016-2019 cycle, major services and rig providers say. Analysts and top offshore drilling executives say that offshore rig utilization and day rates are also rising in a market that is expected to tighten going forward.
Brazil will hold an offshore oil deposit auction in October featuring blocks that were the object of a long-running dispute with state energy giant Petrobras. Reuters reports, citing Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, that participants in the auction will need to cough up a signing bonus of a total US$26.9 billion for the four blocks.
Geopolitics has taken over the oil market, driving oil prices up to three-year highs. The inventory surplus has vanished, and more outages could push oil prices up even higher. Yet, there are some signs that demand is starting to take a hit as oil closes in on $80 per barrel.