‘Top five oil companies focus on developing existing reserves’

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Kuala Lumpur, June 13: The world’s five biggest oil companies including Exxon Mobil Corp are focusing on development of existing fields as it becomes more difficult to find new reserves, Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd said.

Oil explorers are considering developing areas including Venezuela’s heavy oil deposits and Canada’s tar sands, David Morrison, chairman of energy at consultant group Wood Mackenzie, said at the Asia Oil & Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur.

‘‘The super majors are clearly taking the view that there’s a lack of good prospects and that drilling won’t be the only way to replace reserves,’’ Morrison said in an interview. ‘‘It’s more an issue of commercializing’’ discovered deposits.

Rising exploration and production costs are deterring investors and delaying projects.

The costs to explore and develop oil and gas fields have surged by an average of 50% over the last two years as companies compete to find reserves, Hassan Marican, chief executive of Malaysia’s state oil company Petroliam Nasional, said on Monday.

Oil prices have more than tripled from their 2001 low and touched an all-time high of $75.35 a barrel on April 21 and April 24 in New York.

Without commercialising discovered reserves, the companies won’t be able to make up for the decline in reserves in the past five years, according to Wood Mackenzie data.

When companies add deposits from areas that don’t need drilling, the reserves are quite ‘‘healthy,’’ Morrison said.

Exxon, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, Chevron Corp, and France’s Total SA are among six companies having shares in four projects to take heavy oil in Venezuela, the world’s fifth-largest producer.

About 600,000 barrels a day, or 23 percent of the country’s overall oil output, comes from the Faja tar-like deposits, which are easy to find and expensive to extract.