OIL AND GAS Ӏ SECTOR REPORT
oILING THE WHEELS
With demand for oil at record levels, plus the rapid rise in new liquefied natural gas terminals around the world, there plenty of lifting and moving work available. Julian Champkin reports.
One of the many effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been that it has concentrated minds on energy supply. With sanctions applied against buying from Russia, and pipelines shut down or blown up, a freezing, oil-and gas-rationed winter was feared for many countries in Europe. Fortunately the winter was kind. Even Germany, the most dependent country in Europe on Russian gas, got by. But huge efforts were made by many to locate and secure alternative sources of oil and gas. Germany’s breakneck-speed installation of two floating terminals for LNG deliveries
at Mukran and at Lubmin on the Baltic coast are just prime examples among many. Much of the LNG it now imports
In February
Sarens skidded and loaded out a 2200t jacket in Angola
comes from the US – which, in response, is building three export terminals on its east coast. Australia, too, is positioning itself as a major LNG exporter and is upgrading its facilities – see the box on page 38. And whatever the eventual outcome of the Ukraine invasion, and whenever it might come, experts are united in forecasting that Europe will not return to a dependence on Russian gas afterwards and that Russia will seek instead markets in China. This complete change in the gas
market will require almost global changes in the infrastructure for export – and hence work for the lifting industry. There is more. The pandemic
had already thrown both supply and demand for the oil and gas industries into disarray. The Ukraine invasion compounded it. But despite both of those immense disruptors, and despite the astonishing rate of wind power and other renewable installations worldwide, fossil fuel demand and extraction of oil and gas is very much on the increase. It might not be good for the planet but it is happening… and at record rates.
GLOBAL DEMAND The International Energy Agency’s Oil Market report for January 2023 finds global oil demand set to rise by 1.9 million barrels a day in 2023, to a record 101.7 million barrels per day. Nearly half the gain is from
China following the lifting of its Covid restrictions. And for those that imagine all oil flows from the Middle East, know that in 2022 the US overtook both Russia and Saudi Arabi as the world’s largest oil producer and now ranks as the world’s leading source of supply growth. Along with Canada, Brazil and Guyana, its annual production was a record for a second straight
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