全球正处于空前的油气繁荣之中

原标题：全球正处于空前的油气繁荣之中

中国石化新闻网讯 据油气新闻1月15日消息称，40年前，人们对石油的普遍看法是，我们正在耗尽石油，需要找到节约的方法。20年前，石油业人士流行谈论“所有的大象都找到了”，“大象”一词指的是巨大的原油和/或天然气储量。

事实证明，在世界各地，过去有大象，现在仍然有大象，石油和天然气行业一直在寻找大象。雷斯塔能源的一份新报告发现显示，在2019年，美国以外的全球石油和天然气发现实际上达到了4年来的最高水平，其中绝大多数与页岩气或水力压裂法无关。

根据这份报告，“根据雷斯塔能源的估计，世界石油和天然气勘探公司在2019年开足马力，发现了122亿桶油当量，这是自2015年以来的最高产量。去年超过1亿桶油当量的发现共有26个，其中绝大多数新油气田来自近海。”

就发现的石油资源而言，报告提到的离岸地区中最大的是斯塔布鲁克海上圭亚那区块，这个小国毗邻南美洲中北部海岸。在那里，一个由埃克森美孚(ExxonMobil)、赫斯(Hess)和中海油(CNOOC)组成的财团宣布了2019年的四项重大新发现。图洛石油公司同样宣布了今年在斯塔布鲁克以西的油田发现的两项重大发现。总而言之，“雷斯塔能源估计，圭亚那的可采储量累计约为18亿桶石油当量。”

当然，2019年的数字不包括上周由休斯顿阿帕奇公司和法国巨头道达尔公司宣布的位于苏里南海上的重大新发现，该发现位于圭亚那东部。显然，这个南美洲中北部地区未来有着巨大的前景。

但这个故事不仅仅是关于原油—2019年还发现了一系列新的天然气。其中最大的一个是在俄罗斯和毛里塔尼亚钻探的，这两个国家都发现了超过13亿桶油当量的天然气。在伊朗、塞浦路斯、南非和马来西亚发现了其他的主要天然气资源。

因此，虽然美国页岩油气非常繁荣，尤其是二叠纪和马塞勒斯页岩盆地，在美国能源相关的新闻报道中占了绝大部分，但更重要的是要知道，另一个繁荣正在国际上发生，这有助于确保世界未来的能源安全。

EIA发现，美国2018年的石油和伴生气凝析油产量比2017年增长了17%，而天然气产量增长了12%。去年，新增储量也大幅增长，已探明石油储量较2017年创下的纪录高出12%，天然气储量同比增长9%。

虽然美国的繁荣在2019年期间明显放缓，但需要注意的是，这只是增速放缓，而不是整体收缩。EIA目前的数据显示，2019年10月美国石油产量比2018年12月高出62.7万桶/天。与此同时，美国天然气产量在2018年12月至2019年10月期间增长了10%以上。

因此，归根结底，世界正处于空前的石油和天然气繁荣之中。这种繁荣将在未来多年继续促进全球繁荣和安全。

曹海斌 摘译自 油气新闻

原文如下：

The Oil And Gas Situation: In The Midst Of A Major Global Boom

Forty years ago, the conventional wisdom about oil was that we were running out of it and needed to find ways to conserve. Twenty years ago, it was faddish for people in the oil business to talk about the then-assumed fact that “all the elephants have been found,” with the word “elephant” referring to massive reserves of crude oil and/or natural gas.

As things have turned out, there were and are still elephants out there around the world, and the oil and gas industry keeps finding them. A new report from Rystad Energy finds that global oil and gas discoveries outside of the United States in fact reached a 4-year high during 2019, and the vast majority of them had nothing to do with shale or fracking.

According to the report, “The world’s oil and gas explorers powered ahead and discovered 12.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in 2019, the highest volume since 2015, according to estimates from Rystad Energy. Last year recorded 26 discoveries of more than 100 million boe, with offshore regions dominating the list of new oil and gas deposits.”

By far the largest, in terms of discovered oil resource, of the offshore regions to which the report refers was the Stabroek block offshore Guyana, the small nation adjacent to Venezuela on the north-central coast of South America. There, a consortium comprised of ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC announced four major new discoveries during 2019. Tullow Oil also announced two major discoveries on its own acreage to the west of Stabroek during the year. All told, “Rystad Energy estimates that the discoveries in Guyana hold cumulative recoverable resources of around 1.8 billion boe.”

Of course, the 2019 numbers do not include last week’s announced major new discovery offshore Suriname – just to the East of Guyana – by Houston-based Apache Corp. and French giant Total. Obviously, this north-central South America region holds great promise for the future.

But this story is not just about crude oil – 2019 was also characterized by an array of new natural gas discoveries. The largest of those were drilled in Russia and Mauritania, both of which were home to over 1.3 billion boe in natural gas finds. Additional major natural gas resources were discovered in Iran, Cyprus, South Africa and Malaysia.

So, while the oil and natural gas booms in U.S. shale in general and the Permian and Marcellus Shale basins specifically tend to get the lion’s share of the energy-related news attention here in the United States, it’s important to know that another boom is taking place internationally, one that helps to ensure the world’s future energy security.

The EIA finds that U.S. 2018 production of oil and lease condensate grew by a whopping 17% over 2017 levels, while natural gas volumes for 2018 were up by 12%. Reserve additions also grew dramatically during the year, with proved oil reserves surpassing the previous record set in 2017 by 12%, and reserves of natural gas rising by 9% year-over-year.

While the U.S. boom obviously did slow during 2019, it is important to note that represents just a slowing in the rate of increase, not an overall contraction. The EIA’s current data indicates that October 2019 U.S. oil production (the most recent month available) was 627,000 bopd higher than in December 2018. U.S. natural gas production, meanwhile, rose by more than 10% between December 2018 and October 2019.

So, bottom line, the world is in the midst of the one of the largest oil and natural gas booms of modern times. It is a boom that will continue to promote global prosperity and security for many years to come.