The downturn has forced oil and gas companies to reduce spending, but some exploration efforts moving forward appear promising as news of hydrocarbon discoveries surfaced this week across the world.

From Apache Corp.’s (NYSE: APA) Alpine High discovery in the prolific Delaware Basin in the U.S. to Hurricane Energy’s “significant” hydrocarbon find offshore the U.K. to Bengal Energy’s oil find in Australia’s Cuisinier Basin, the drillbit is finding success.

The recent discoveries might help ease a declining trend that could make meeting longer-term energy demand challenging, although today’s plentiful supplies and lower demand have left the industry in a financial rut.

Global conventional oil and gas discoveries alone were down to 191 in 2015, less than half of the average annual number of discoveries for the previous nine years, according to Wood Mackenzie. With less than 60 conventional finds made by the end of July, 2016 is on track to have fewer discoveries, Julie Wilson, the firm’s research director of global exploration, told Hart Energy recently. She noted the second half of the year, however, typically brings word of more discoveries.

Hurricane Energy said Sept. 9 that analysis of its Pilot Well, located in the U.K. Continental Shelf’s Lancaster Field, indicates the presence of a significant hydrocarbon column that is at least 620 m. Drillstem testing of the basement reservoir resulted in a maximum natural flow rate of 6,600 barrels of oil per day (bbl/d), the company said. This rate jumped to 11 Mbbl/d when an electrical submersible pump was used. No formation water was produced.

The U.K.-based company said the flow is believed to come from a single fracture zone connected to the underlying basement. Analysis indicates minimum oil down to 1,620 m total vertical depth subsea, which is deeper than previously thought.

“Our initial assessment of the well results, which are subject to refinement of the provisional data, suggests that the Lancaster Field is likely to be significantly greater than the 200 MMbbl 2C case,” Hurricane’s CEO Robert Trice said in a news release.

“The combination of high flow rates, an extensive oil column and underlying aquifer materially de-risks Hurricane’s plans for a future Lancaster Field development and further underlines the potential of the fractured basement west of Shetland.”

The company plans to permanently abandon the Pilot Well reservoir section and then drill a horizontal sidetrack as it prepares for a second production well.

Farther west, Bengal Energy Ltd. said it cased four of five wells in its Cuisinier 2016 drilling campaign as future oil producers in the Murta horizon. The latest well, Shefu-1, hit 8.1 m of sand with 7 m of net oil pay at depths lower than those encountered during other appraisal drilling campaigns in the basin.

“This discovery is another exciting example of the opportunity in front of us as we continue to explore and develop our significant light oil assets in the Cuisinier Basin,” Bengal’s CEO Chayan Chakrabarty said in a news release. “While further testing is needed to illustrate the full production potential from the Sefu-1 Well, expanding the known oil in place at Cuisinier further confirms the excellent new reserves potential and supports our overall plan to continue developing the multiple commercial finds at the Barta permit.”

The Barta permit, where Bengal holds a 30.357% working interest, is near the producing Cook oil field, which is in the Cooper Basin in Queensland, Australia. Next steps include moving the drilling rig and starting the fifth well of the campaign. The company aims to have the Shefu and Cuisinier wells completed and connected to pipeline in the first quarter of 2017.

In other reservoir evaluation and appraisal news,

  • Carnarvon Petroleum Ltd. said the Roc-2 Well confirmed hydrocarbons in the Caley section. The well, operated by partner Quadrant Energy, is located in the WA-437-P exploration permit in Australia’s North West Shelf. It was drilled to appraise and test the Roc-1 gas and condensate discovery; and
  • Beach Energy’s developments in Australia’s Cooper and Eromanga basins are progressing. On Sept. 7, the company said the Big Lake-134 appraisal well on the Big Lake Field in South Australia encountered 143 m of net gas pay across a 681-m Permian section. “Results were in-line with pre‐drill estimates and confirmed down‐flank extension of gas reservoirs,” the company said. The well is part of a five-well appraisal campaign.

However, the biggest exploration news of the week came from Apache Corp. The company confirmed the discovery of a new stacked pay resource play, now called the Alpine High, in the southern part of the Delaware Basin in the U.S.

At least 2,000 future drilling locations have already been identified in two formations there alone. The company estimates that there could be 3 Bbbl of oil and 75 trillion cubic feet of rich gas in place on its acreage position. So far, 19 wells have been drilled in the play, including nine that are now producing with quantities limited by infrastructure constraints.

"We are incredibly excited about the Alpine High play and its large inventory of repeatable, high-value drilling opportunities,” Apache CEO John J. Christmann IV said in a statement.

RELATED: Apache Uncovers Alpine High’s Potential

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Velda Addison can be reached at vaddison@hartenergy.com.