The price of crude oil has been on an upward trend over the last few months and rose sharply last week after OPEC+ failed to agree to output increases. Brent crude oil futures prices reached a high of $75 earlier this month with a year-to-date gain of nearly 36%. While the burst of global economic […]
Regional spotlight: Oil & Gas in Central Asia
Central Asia comprises of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan is the main oil producer in the region, while the rest of the region mainly produces gas led by Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. As of 2019, the total proved reserves in the region are 31.4 billion barrels of oil and 825.8 trillion cubic feet […]
Upstream outlook: A shift to responsible drilling
In 2020, the oil and gas upstream sector dramatically shifted to a self-preservation and survival mode. The impact of COVID-19 shattered crude oil prices to all-time lows in March 2020 followed by a sudden slump in global crude oil demand distressed all upstream stakeholders. It translated into drastic CAPEX reductions (especially in exploration), a postponement […]
Key takeaways from BP Week 2020
I gatecrashed an oil and gas conference in India as a grad student in the mid-1990s where India’s then Petroleum Secretary, T.N.R. Rao, while discussing the difficulties of the business lamented, “Cigarettes and beer make more money for gas stations than fuel sales.” The technically sophisticated oil and gas industry has always snickered at consumer […]
Silica markets: Growing off the back of oil & gas industry
Silica is composed of the two most abundant elements in the earth’s crust, silicon and oxygen. Silica exists in various crystalline forms such as fibrous, granular, anhydrous, tridymite, cristobalite, and quartz. Quartz is the second most common mineral in earth’s crust. Before sale, silica deposits go through extensive processing including cleaning, washing, scrubbing, melting, and grinding to remove […]
Jack of few, Master of one: Strategic consolidation of oilfield service companies
Oilfield services demand is strongly correlated to upstream exploration and production spending and activity patterns. However, we see significant play-wise variations in oilfield services spending. With advancing technology to increase oil and gas recovery, shale plays are becoming more specialized and unrelated to other plays in terms of lithology, fluid properties (e.g. water cut, gas-oil […]
Iran sanctions: Will oil prices reach $100?
The U.S. has imposed sanctions on OPEC’s third-largest oil producer, Iran, which are expected to come into effect November 4, 2018. The oil market has already started seeing a shortfall in global supply even as overall global oil demand has been rising rapidly and, in fact, anticipated to top 100 million barrels per day (bpd) […]
Coal, carbon capture, and EOR: A triple crown of synergies
NRG has recently started a demonstration plant for carbon capture and storage at its coal-fired power plant southwest of Houston, Texas. The project is a 50/50 joint venture between JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration and NRG and aims to capture all CO2 emissions from the 240 MW plant and use it in a nearby […]
Saltwater disposal regulatory outlook
Wastewater management is becoming a critical issue in the growth of unconventional resource plays. Interest in wastewater treatment is driven by growing volumes of produced water from hydraulic fracturing that need disposal. Based on our research there are multiple factors that will impact how oil and gas producers will handle wastewater one of which is […]
Will private equity cap oil prices?
The general consensus is that oil prices are headed towards some stability in the $60s for the near-term barring major supply disruptions. The OPEC supply cut — far more successful than anticipated thanks to the high levels of compliance as seen in Figure 1 — is now serving as a floor for oil prices. Compliance […]
