HOUSTON--Where’s the next energy hot spot? Could you—in 10 minutes or less—make a compelling case for why it should be your country? It would certainly be a challenge, but a possible one, as representatives from six countries demonstrated during Monday afternoon’s OTC 2015 Active Arena panel discussion on “The Next Energy Hot Spots.”

Panel moderators Doreen Chin of Shell E&P Co. and Sandeep Khurana of Granherne Inc. led panel participants from Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, the U.S. and Vietnam through the discussion that answered the questions of why, what, how and more.

Brazil, which has been an industry darling for many years now, was launched into the oil and gas spotlight with its legendary presalt resources. João De Luca, president of the Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute (IBP), was the panel’s first presenter and noted that the country has many advantages and a few challenges.

The country, with “about 3MM sq km [1.16MM sq miles] of potential exploration area” and which is rich in resources, continues to provide plenty of opportunities for success, he said. The Santos Basin presalt cluster area is the most successful current play in the world, he added, noting that the basin’s largest presalt discovery, the Libra Field, has 8Bboe to 12Bboe in potential reserves.

Murray Coolican, deputy minister of energy for the province of Nova Scotia, noted that North America has a significant role to play in supplying the world with energy in the decades to come. Canada holds significant resources and is the fifth largest producer of crude oil and the 14th-largest supplier of natural gas. In addition to market opportunities for Western Canadian natural gas, there also are plenty of opportunities on the eastern seaboard.

There are currently three proposals for LNG facilities in Nova Scotia, he noted, adding that the province is uniquely positioned to provide the world with LNG as it is closer to Europe and India than British Columbia and the Gulf of Mexico. Newfoundland and Labrador has four offshore fields producing about 250Mbbl/d, representing about 10% of Canada’s crude oil production and 25% of the country’s light crude output.

Mexico has very vast and very diverse resources, according to Dr. Edgar Rangel-German of CNH. In the year since the country officially opened its oil and gas resources to outside companies, there have been two rounds, Zero and One, with the third call for bids under Round One set to be announced next week for onshore fields. With more than 100Bbbl of resources, with 25Bbbl to 27Bbbl in deepwater and 25Bbbl to 26Bbbl in conventional oil fields, there are opportunities for all sizes of companies in Mexico, he said.

Indonesia, with its more than 17,000 islands, is a country that provides a unique set of opportunities and challenges, according to Dr. Ir. I Gusti Nyoman Wiratmaja of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in the Republic of Indonesia. A majority of the area, about 60%, is ocean, making the need for offshore technology development a must for his country, he said. There are 314 working areas, 80 of which are in production and maturing rapidly.

The country has proven natural gas reserves of 4.2Tcm (149Tcf) and yet will need to begin importing LNG in 2019 or 2020 if no new discoveries are made, according to Wiratmaja. There is a need to move from the western area, where 91% of discoveries have been made, to the east, where only 9% of discoveries have been made, he said.

Development of natural gas infrastructure from the west to the east has been estimated to cost $32 billion and $57 billion for crude oil. The country is considered by most to be heaven on earth, with the island of Bali making the perfect home for OTC Asia, he suggested.

Offshore