But I would say, digital, productivity, technology that has improved and give higher accuracy, better geology interpretation capability, better structural modeling from seismic to wireline, and to modeling or to sampling like our ORA [reservoir] samplingtechnology, all combine to give a significant support to the G&G team of our customers and to not a slowdown but actually accelerate and improve the productivity and ability to generate prospects.So I’m not concerned. And I believe that you will see this prospect be fast-tracked from exploration to appraisal to development going forward.Scott Gruber That’s great. And just how would you compare the strength of this exploration cycle? So those are the path. Is the trajectory trending us back towards that 2011 to 2014 period?
Could we possibly get back to the mid-to late 2000s levels just as tieback opportunities are consumed? Just some color on the potential strength of this exploration cycle relative to history would be great.Olivier Le Peuch So I think I will contrast it more by saying the type of activity in exploration that is happening. And I think there are a lot of near-field exploration as it is called or backyard exploration that is being used by the most operators that have gained access to critical asset, critical basin or advantaged assets and they want to explore and do near-field exploration across and beyond and use tieback. So there is a lot of exploration happening across every basin, major basin that characterize this and has been — this trend has been going up.
And this trend is certainly different from the greenfield, frontier exploration that characterized maybe the last cycle.However, this cycle, I think, beyond the near-field exploration, we are seeing a return of frontier exploration, driven by energy security, driven by the desire to replace reserves and to secure new gas particularly, and we see it happening across many basins. I mentioned before the equatorial margin as one. You heard about, obviously, continuous exploration, which is almost becoming a near-field exploration across Guyana.But if you go across the Atlantic, you will find a lot of exploration happening in the south part of Africa, gave some huge success for two or three operator into Namibia that are here on the onset of something that could be very significant for the industry in oil development.
And then gas in East Med, I think, has been developing, and you heard about the development that we helped fast-track on the Black Sea. That was also gas.So security is incentivizing people to invest and operator to invest into certain regions with access to the demand market and near-field is continuing to grow very well. So in combination, it’s different from the past and I will not try to compare the scale but I think the quality of this exploration and the diversity in terms of customers and interval basin is quite unique and is really accelerating this year.Scott Gruber I appreciate the color. Thank you.Olivier Le Peuch Thank you.Operator Next, we go to the line of Roger Read with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.Roger Read Yes, thank you.
And I imagine good afternoon in Rio. Maybe just to come back to the exploration appraisal kind of question. You mentioned that earlier, slowdown in North America offset or more than offset by what’s going on in E&A. So I was just curious what — and I think you also mentioned it had materially improved in the last couple of months. What you think really has led to this increase in E&A because it’s not as if commodity prices weren’t good in ’22, right? And they haven’t been something exceptional thus far in ’23. So is it a change in just how your customers are looking at their future inventories? Or is there something else that’s helping to drive this improvement?Olivier Le Peuch I think the energy security, the supporting commodity price outlook and the desire indeed to go and leverage the cycle to explore and to tie back reserve to the existing advantage basin or to fast-track gas or new oil pools as I described earlier.
Now the timing of it, the acceleration, I think, is linked more to the availability of — and the contracting of deepwater rigs or the contracting of rigs offshore or land on some occasion when it is — when this exploration is happening.More than yes, but the cycle has started last year of E&A return is accelerating in line to some extent, with the offshore acceleration. And I think it will be part of the mix and will give an opportunity to extend and create a new leg of activity and a new leg of FID in two or three years from now when those exploration will have been appraised and will be FID at that time.So I think it’s more — it’s an underlying trend that have started in the last few quarters and have accelerated. And I think that is a more long view that customers are taking and not looking at the short-term uncertainty or short-term commodity price variation and committing on one new basin or committing on expanding near-field exploration.
So that’s the way we have seen it.Roger Read Okay. So maybe just the natural evolution within a cycle, I mean, as things get some duration, you would expect the exploration to pick up. One other question for you, just APS, so obviously, kind of highlighted had some issues. Looking back over the last couple of years, there’s been talk of potentially disposing of these assets or at least not investing in them aggressively. I was just curious, it seems like M&A has picked up or at least talk of it within the E&P sector. So more likely, less likely, same to look for a way to exit these assets as you go forward?Stephane Biguet So look, Roger, on EPS, we really have to distinguish Ecuador. These are service contracts, tariff-based. There’s no intention to exit.
And we do need to maintain a minimum level of investment. But rest assured, these projects are highly positive in terms of not only earnings but cash flow.The Canada asset is a bit different. This is a pure equity position. And it’s also very accretive in terms of cash flow even at current commodity prices. And as you know, we ran a process on that particular asset last year. We were not satisfied with the offers we received. So at the moment, we are happy with keeping that asset and the cash flow it generates. But if one day, there is an offer at the right price, we’ll certainly consider it.Roger Read Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you.Olivier Le Peuch So ladies and gentlemen, I think I want to give a close to this call. It’s almost to the hour.
