Oil companies are focused on South America, where low production costs help keep global prices down.

Oil companies are focused on South America, where low production costs help keep global prices down.

Oil companies are focused on South America, where low production costs help keep global prices down.Already oil companies have found roughly 10 billion barrels of probable recoverable reserves of oil and gas off the coast of neighboring Guyana.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York TimesJan. 21, 2021, 5:56 a.m. ETSuriname, Guyana and Brazil are the new areas of focus for oil companies, attracting more new investment than the Gulf of Mexico and other more established oil fields. They are helping to keep global oil prices relatively low, undermining efforts by Russia and its allies in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, like Saudi Arabia, to manage global supply and push up prices.The recent pickup in interest in Guyana and Suriname is somewhat surprising because their promise as oil producers has often come up empty, reports The New York Times's Clifford Krauss. Companies drilled more than 100 unsuccessful wells there, mostly in shallow waters, from 1950 to 2014. But after rich fields were found in the deep waters off Brazil, Exxon Mobil and other companies returned to take another look. Exxon struck a gusher in Guyanese waters in 2015, opening the current flurry of exploration.In Guyana, oil companies have found