The offshore oil and gas industry is expected to invest more than US$800 billion in 200-plus major upstream oil and gas projects slated to come on stream by 2025, GlobalData has said in a report.
Around 57 percent of the estimated capex could be spent between 2016 and 2025, GlobalData noted.
Brazil will host the highest number of those projects, ahead of the UK and the U.S. The South American country will also lead the global capex splurge with an estimated US$116.2 billion. Two projects offshore Brazil, Libra and Itapu, will get US$15.8 billion of the investment.
The North Pars and Sardar-e Jangal fields offshore Iran are two notable underdeveloped discoveries, with estimated 2P reserves of 8,333 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) and 8,000 mmboe, respectively.
Among companies, Petrobras is seen leading in terms of both planned production and capital investments, with US$90.9 billion between 2016 and 2025.
Just last week, Petrobras opened up one the world's most important fields, the pre-salt of offshore Brazil, to foreign ownership. Norway's Statoil agreed to buy a 66-percent stake in the Carcara field for US$2.5 billion. Carcara, located in the Campos Basin, is one of the biggest recent oil and gas discoveries globally.
Half of the US$2.5 billion is to be paid to Petrobras when the deal is sealed, and the rest will be released at the reaching of certain milestones.
According to Statoil estimates, the Carcara field holds around 700-1,300 million barrels of oil equivalent. What's more, the BM-S-8 license block, of which the Carcara is part, hold the promise of further hydrocarbon reserves.
The pre-salt layer on Brazil's continental shelf has proved to be an important focus of attention for international oil companies, which are increasingly focusing on deepwater drilling as onshore and shallower offshore fields start to get depleted.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More