GlobalData outlines oil and gas market trends for 2020-2024
The world’s refining industry is set to be dominated by Asia; Arctic exploration is driven by Russia and Norway; the energy sector’s overall development is shifting to natural gas — these are three main oil and gas market trends according to GlobalData information provider.
Asia is expected to lead the global refining industry in the near future, says DirectIndustry’s e-magazine citing GlobalData analytics and consulting company. The region is expected to add 5,3 million bpd of planned and announced crude oil refining capacity by 2024. Thus, Asia will account for about 40% of refining capacity additions from planned and announced projects in the next five years. According to GlobalData’s Oil and Gas Analyst Adithya Rekha, 47 planned and announced refineries are expected to start operations in Asia between 2020 and 2024. The Middle East is meant to become the second-largest region in terms of planned and announced refining capacity followed by Africa, where Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt are expected to be the major contributors in 2020–2024.
An increasing role of natural gas development projects is another major trend in the energy market, considers the analytics company pointing out that final investment decisions planned across the sector in 2020 are set to focus on gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) developments. “The world is increasingly looking to natural gas as a transition fuel, and the rise of LNG is facilitating this shift, particularly for major Asian economies,” says Will Scargill, managing oil and gas analyst at GlobalData. In the downstream sector, the majority of new projects are expected in the petrochemical segment.
In the Arctic, Russia and Norway are meant to drive the oil and gas industry, as Russian and Norwegian exploration and production operators keep expanding their operations in the Arctic region. Russia is so interested in hydrocarbon appraisal and development of the Arctic region that it even settled its longstanding territorial dispute with Norway, GlobalData points out. The company’s thematic research identifies Gazprom, Rosneft, Novatek, Lukoil, BP, Equinor, ConocoPhillips and Aker BP as the top oil and gas producers in the Arctic region. Russian companies that invest in the region receive tax breaks from the government.
The Norwegian Continental Shelf is also likely to emerge as a potential hotspot for oil and gas projects. “The oil and gas production landscape in the Norwegian Arctic is primarily dominated by the Equinor-operated Snøhvit gas field located in the Barents Sea. In the last few years, Equinor has been pushing for Arctic resource development amid depleting reserves in its legacy assets,” comments GlobalData’s Oil & Gas Analyst Ravindra Puranik adding that in 2020, Equinor intends to drill more wells in the western section of the Barents Sea.