• CERAWEEK 2025 | March 10-14, 2025
  • CERAWEEK
  • March 10 - 14, 2025

Sonia Scarselli

BHP

Vice President, Exploration and Appraisal

Sonia Scarselli was appointed Vice President, Exploration and Appraisal for BHP Petroleum in August 2019, and in her role she leads BHP’s global petroleum access and exploration activities. Sonia joined BHP in 2012 and has served in several leadership roles including Head of Algeria, Exploration and Appraisal Planner and Manager Exploration Trinidad and Tobago. She has also been heavily involved in the integration of geoscience across BHP, working with the Geoscience Centre of Excellence on how the company explores for and characterise resource. Before joining BHP, Sonia started her career in the oil industry at ExxonMobil UK in a number of exploration and geology roles. She holds a master’s degree in Geological Science from Università degli studi di Perugia, a PhD in Geology from ETH Zurich and an MBA from the London Business School.  

Sessions With Sonia Scarselli

Tuesday, 10 March

  • 11:30am - 12:30pm (CST) / -

    Role of "E" in "E&P": The future of exploration
    Upstream Oil & Gas

    Globally, conventional exploration and discoveries are at the lowest level in seven decades—not from lack of resource potential, but from lack of investment by a financial market disenchanted by lower returns from North American unconventional production onshore. Larger operators are determining strategies that emphasize financial returns, but with lower growth; however, financial market distrust is driving investors out of the upstream sector altogether. Conventional NFW drilling has shifted towards maturing phase basins, close to infrastructure, and with faster cycle times. Could disenchantment with onshore NA production drive operators back to conventional exploration in the medium term? Will a push to generate value versus volume growth hurt conventional exploration or reward those companies that show that a relentless focus on exploration generates value? Will the role of future exploration programs be to find new, highly competitive basins or to improve the value of larger, maturing basins? In lower oil and natural gas demand scenarios, will investors still be interested in even highly successful exploration?