Trends in Oil and Gas by Chris Faulkner, CEO of Breitling Oil and Gas
“This decade will see national oil companies which are oil companies majority owned by a national government and include the biggest NOCs as Abu Dhabi NOC, China National Offshore Oil Company and Gazprom, Russia, posing greater challenges to the established oil majors in the industry. NOCs are likely to significantly increase their global presence by using inorganic growth as a key strategy. They produce more than 50% of the worlds global oil production and own 88% of proven oil reserves,” explains Chris Faulkner at Breitling Oil and Gas.
“Latin America is emerging as the preferred destination for new investments. We have seen a marked shift in Chinese activity away from Africa towards the Americas.”
“There is also a growing interest in shale plays containing liquids and some interesting new innovative approaches to monetizing shale resources which is a substitute for conventional crude oil but more costly to produce, prompted by the widening gap between gas and oil prices.”
“We also see a trend towards taking companies private from public for re-capitalization reasons which is not unique to the Oil and Gas industry.”
“While nations belonging to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will continue to dominate the conventional energy sector, the vast opportunities in the unconventional sectors will drive a lot of investment during this decade.
The efficient harnessing of unconventional resources will require a collaborated approach from NOCs and international oil companies (IOCs). The natural gas domain can be expected to witness a healthy growth driven by emerging sectors, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and shale gas.”
“The CNOOC-Chesapeake deal in 2010 marked the first entry of a Chinese NOC in the US. More NOCs are likely to follow suit with the aim of acquiring technological know-how in developing unconventional sources of oil and gas. NOCs can then make an attempt to implement these technologies for harnessing their domestic unconventional resources. In recent years, NOCs have also started to make sizable research and technology expenditures.”
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