Hotspots, trends, and regional focus on oil or gas exploration: A bibliometric comparative study

Abstract

Oil and gas resources serve as the driving force for economic and social development. This rapid development of science and technology has accelerated the exploration, development, and utilization of oil and gas resources, and thus led to spurts in related research. However, the research trends in global oil and gas exploration vary with the progress of science and technology as well as social demands. Accordingly, they are not easily captured. This study explores the research trends in global oil and gas exploration through the bibliometric analysis of 3460 articles on oil and gas exploration collected from the Web of Science database and published from 2013 to 2023. The research hotspots, objects, regional distribution, methods, and evaluation methods in oil and gas exploration are analyzed, and the direction of development of oil and gas exploration is presented on this basis. The research characteristics of four major countries or regions related to oil and gas exploration were further investigated and compared. The results show that the number of publications on oil and gas exploration research has been continuously increasing in the past decade, with China ranking the top in terms of publications. Given the continuously evolving global energy demand, exploration of unconventional oil and gas, application of digital technology, deep and emerging regional resource exploration, and environmentally friendly and low-carbon source exploration will be future research hotspots.

Keywords

bibliometric analysis / oil or gas exploration / resources / shale gas / unconventional energy

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2025 The Author(s). Deep Underground Science and Engineering published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of China University of Mining and Technology.