The exploration part of our business is concerned with identifying new oil and gas resources.  

Many of today's exploration targets lie miles below the sea bed in extreme and inhospitable waters. Exploration in areas such as these would not have been technically or economically viable a decade ago.

ExxonMobil proprietary technology in seismic acquisition and processing enables us to execute even the most difficult and challenging seismic projects.

ExxonMobil is known as the industry leader in the field of seismic imaging which involves three critical phases: the acquisition, processing and interpretation of seismic data.

As the inventors of 3-D seismic imaging, our researchers have continued to develop new ways of reducing the cost and increasing the quality of subsurface imaging.

We have also developed advanced interpretation tools that enable us to understand how the source rock matured, what hydrocarbons formed, how oil and gas migrated from source to reservoir and what compositional changes may have occurred over time.  These techniques greatly enhance our ability to predict the distribution and quality of oil and gas in a reservoir - a critical factor in evaluating the viability of a prospect.

In the UK, we are currently undertaking exploration projects in the northern, central and southern sectors of the North Sea. We have also explored in the Altlantic Margin, an area to the west of the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland where the sea is over a mile deep and represents a high-risk 'frontier' opportunity.