Prospecting for and extracting petroleum and natural gas

In ExxonMobil jargon, activities related to prospecting for and extracting natural gas and crude oil are called "upstream" activities. These activities take place on land as well as at sea.

The creation of petroleum and natural gas is a natural process that takes millions of years. We have determined how these natural products originate, but we do not always know precisely where they are located in the ground. The modern oil industry has advanced prospecting techniques at its disposal for this purpose.

Extraction methods have also advanced in recent decades. Nowadays a wide range of techniques enable us to extract more from oil and gas fields than before. In the Benelux, the upstream activities of ExxonMobil take place in the Netherlands. These include prospecting for and extracting oil and, in particular, natural gas from fields below Groningen and the North Sea.