bp’s Conifer, Tupinamba among the wells to watch in 2026

Westwood Global Energy Group has identified 65 high-impact wells that could spud globally this year, similar to the level of activity in 2025.

One of the wells to watch in the US Gulf of Mexico, according to Jamie Collard, exploration research manager, is bp’s Conifer-1 in the Paleogene. bp is also considering a high-impact infrastructure-led exploration well on the northwest flank of its Kaskida discovery.

Offshore South America, most of this year’s action will likely be in the Suriname-Guyana Basin and the Santos and Campos basins offshore Brazil.

Petronas is lining up at least two high-impact wells offshore Suriname, while in the Santos Basin, bp’s Tupinamba will target a large presalt prospect adjacent to its 8-Bboe Bumerangue discovery made last year.

Frontier wells could also be drilled in deepwater Uruguay and offshore Peru. In Brazil’s frontier deepwater Equatorial Margin play, Petrobras’ Morpho well is still drilling in the Foz do Amazonas.

To the southeast in the Potiguar Basin, Petrobras will drill the Mãe de Ouro well, said to be a follow-up to its 2024 Anhanga discovery.

Offshore Norway, planned high-impact wells include Var Energi’s Lakris and Aker BP’s Alpehulme prospects. In the Bulgarian western sector of the Black Sea, OMV Petrom will drill the Krum well, testing an Upper Miocene and Pliocene turbidite play.

To the north in the Romanian sector of the sea, OMV Petrom also plans to drill the Anaconda prospect about 37 km south of the deepwater Domino gas field.

West African activity could include four wells in the Orange Basin offshore Namibia and Chevron’s Gemsbok, the first well in the frontier Walvis Basin since 2018.

In the Tano-Ivorian Basin offshore Cote d’Ivoire, Murphy’s Caracal well is in progress, which will be followed shortly afterward by the Bubale well. Offshore Libya, Eni is looking to drill the Matsola well in the Sirte Basin.

Others worth monitoring could be Shell's Velox well offshore Egypt in the Herodotus Basin in the Mediterranean Sea, and TPAO’s Curad-1 offshore Somalia.

Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC) looks set to drill the Riquah-3 well offshore Kuwait in a deeper Jurassic interval than its 2024 Al Nokhetha discovery.

Collard foresees up to 12 high-impact wells across Southeast Asia in 2026. There should be deepwater frontier carbonate wells on the Mailu prospect offshore Papua New Guinea at Mailu and offshore Malaysia at Jampuk and Langka.

If Petronas’ deepwater Akbar-1 well goes ahead in the Bobara PSC offshore eastern Indonesia, it would be the first in the region in 12 years.

In the country’s Kutie Basin, Eni is presently drilling Geliga, a large Miocene fan prospect at Geliga.

Offshore eastern India, Vedanta will likely initiate a high-impact deepwater campaign in the Krishna-Godavari basin (KG-DWHP-2017/1).