New analysis highlights the geological factors that can lead to commercial success as interest returns to the Atlantic margins
London, UK, 7th July 2026: New analysis from Westwood Global Energy Group (Westwood), the specialist energy market research and consultancy firm, highlights the challenges of bringing exploration success in South Atlantic post-rift Cretaceous plays to market, with technical discoveries not consistently translating into commercial success.
The study comes as the appetite for exploration across the Atlantic margins increases, with Westwood data showing that half of acreage taken by the supermajors since the start of 2025 has been in the South Atlantic. However, while the technical success rate from exploration drilling across the region remains high, the chance of a discovery leading to a commercial development is significantly lower, highlighting the need to identify the geological parameters that can lead to a commercial success.
Westwood’s South Atlantic Margin Study analyses 425 exploration wells targeting post-rift Cretaceous stratigraphy drilled between 2007 and 2025, assessing performance across the Equatorial, Central and Austral segments of the South Atlantic. The study combines Westwood’s well data and analysis with palaeogeographies plus structural and crustal domain data from Getech, a leading subsurface and geospatial insight provider for the natural resources sector.
The research shows that across the study dataset, whilst the exploration technical success rate is significantly higher than the global average, less than a third of those discoveries leads to a potentially commercial development. Key findings include the importance of an effective source rock at local and basin scale, the influence of depositional slope type and palaeo-slope angle on resource density, and the role of reservoir provenance and palaeo-drainage area in shaping exploration potential.
The analysis points to a region of major opportunity, but one where success has been sporadic. Exploration drilling peaked in 2012, following success at Jubilee and Brazilian pre-salt plays, before falling sharply following the oil price crash of late 2014. Since 2021, activity has cautiously returned, with more than 10 wells drilled per year.
Graeme Bagley, Head of Exploration & Appraisal at Westwood, said: “Post-rift Cretaceous exploration across the South Atlantic has delivered some of the most significant exploration successes of the past two decades, but the data shows that technical success alone is not enough. Commercial outcomes depend on a specific set of geological factors that impact the fluid quality, resource density and reservoir deliverability. As companies assess the next wave of acreage and drilling opportunities, understanding those parameters will be critical to identifying potentially commercial opportunities.”
Max Brouwers, Chief Business Development Officer at Getech, added: “Exploration performance across the South Atlantic has varied significantly between basins, plays and margin settings, so understanding the wider geological context is critical. By combining well results with palaeodepositional environments, palaeobathymetry, geologic structure and crustal domain data, this study provides important regional context for understanding those variations and the geological factors that have shaped exploration outcomes.”
Further information on Westwood’s South Atlantic Margin Study is available here.
ENDS
About Westwood
The energy landscape is changing; and Westwood Global Energy Group is evolving in-step to answer the strategic, commercial and technical questions industry stakeholders face each day. As trusted advisors to companies in key energy transition and oil and gas sectors, Westwood Global Energy Group scrutinises and integrates parts of the energy system that others don’t.
From global exploration to offshore equipment and services, we dig deeper, reach further and join up previously unconnected information to help our clients thrive through the energy transition. From the depth of our data to the insight from our industry experts, our commercial advisory to our quantitative techniques and databases – we insist on excellence in everything we do.
Westwood Global Energy Group is headquartered in London and has offices in Aberdeen, Houston and Singapore.
About Getech
Getech provides trusted subsurface and geospatial insight to organisations across the global natural resources sector. We help corporates, governments, and regulators find and manage the subsurface resources essential to the evolving energy and minerals landscape by combining unique global earth‑science data, leading geospatial expertise and advanced analytics. Our solutions reduce risk, accelerate opportunities, and enhance project value throughout the resource lifecycle, supporting activity across oil and gas, critical minerals, geothermal, natural hydrogen and other emerging resource domains.
Founded in 1994, Getech is listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: GTC).
For further information, please visit www.getech.com.
