The challenges facing the global oil and gas sectortoday are well known. By autumn 2015 oil was trading at $45-50/barrel: half the price of a year earlier and around a third of the peak it reached before the 2008 financial crisis. The decline in the value of the commodity surprised many with its depth and severity, and the underlying causes are a potent mix of technological progress, economic change and geopolitical pressure. The big oil producers of the Middle East kept production levels high in a battle for market share against new competition from unconventional hydrocarbon producers in North America and new supplies coming on stream from elsewhere in the world. Meanwhile, economic uncertainty in emerging markets -especially China-and decreasing energy intensity in mature economies have combined to suppress demand growth.
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