Features
Oil & Gas
At a UK Trade and Investment seminar held in Wakefield in March, John Crawford, UKTI’s oil & gas expert spoke about the state of the oil & gas sector and future developments. He advised that the next 20 years will see a 39 percent growth in demand for primary energy, 90 percent of which will be from emerging economies. This will result in increasing demand for oil & gas despite the growth in power generation from renewable sources.
Oil from deepwater will increase to 10 percent of all oil production by 2030 and will benefit from improved recovery rates and developments in new frontiers such as the Arctic. Deepwater capital expenditure is estimated to exceed $200 billion over the next 5 years. However gas production is growing even faster than oil.
Significant increases in oil production are expected in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Canada whilst other Middle East and North Africa areas (MENA) struggle with lack of investment. Saudi Arabia still has the largest oil reserves than any country and is seeking investment.
However, this is seen as the Golden Age for gas with growth to be seen in Russia, China, Qatar, USA and Australia. Experimental data has shown that half of all gas reserves will be found in unconventional reserves. Currently, the USA is the world’s largest producer of shale gas, with 30 years reserves. Similarly, China has a vast amount of shale gas reserves estimated to meet their gas demands for the next 200 years. However, the country is self-reliant, which means there are limited opportunities for UK companies. Nevertheless, the Gulf of Mexico remains immensely important.
State involvement in developing countries has increased but there is still a heavy reliance upon western technology. Other areas to watch include Algeria, which has shale gas, Libya, Indonesia and East Africa.
Deepwater capital expenditure
is estimated to exceed $200 billion over the
next 5 years. However gas production is
growing even faster than oil.
12 The National Metals Technology Centre Quarterly Journal
The National Metals Technology Centre will be holding a Global Subsea conference in September which will focus on those areas of the world where offshore oil and gas developments are taking place. In addition, NAMTEC has recently published a technical report on Life Extension in Oil & Gas which focuses on metals used for subsea applications and the challenges that exist as a result of the ageing offshore infrastructure (available to Forum Members).
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