New Exploration Hotspots: Ranking of Attractiveness on Selected Countries

Exploration hotspot is defined as the next potential places for the exploration and production activities of oil and gas. The large discoveries being made in the hotspot regions in the past few years have attracting the interest of the investors especially oil and gas companies. These locations have emerged due to the need of meeting the oil and gas demand by the world, to counter the decline in production from mature fields, to move away from traditional/production resource centre, and to ensure energy security and boost the economy of a country especially in African region. Eight countries have been selected to be analysed for this study. This study will be focusing on finding the best exploration hotspot for the upstream investment. All selected countries are going to be assessed based on four main parameters which are resource potential, fiscal terms, accessibility and country risk. All the parameters will then be given a weightage based on their level of significance. Finally, these countries will be ranked in order to find the best exploration hotspot for the upstream investment to be made. This study has found that Mexico is the best hotspot for the upstream investment. It is followed by Myanmar, Gabon, Cote d‟Ivoire, Angola, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. Lack of infrastructures and tougher fiscal terms have hindered the development in the Africa region and country risk is still a major issue in all the assessed countries.