When you think of an oilfield, what comes to mind? Most people are familiar with the appearance of a traditional drilling rig, but what goes into making it work safely, effectively, and efficiently is an increasingly complex technical arena?
As part of this technical area, the Department of Energy’s Fossil Energy Office of Oil & Natural Gas supports research and policy options to ensure domestic and global supplies of oil and natural gas and provides overviews on many sectors of interest, including Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), which was initially developed as a method to extract additional oil from reservoirs after primary and secondary recovery methods ceased to be productive enough to maintain economic field operation. BCC Research reports that the global EOR market totaled nearly $22.9 billion in 2016 and should total $30.4 billion by 2021, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9% through 2021. This market includes a wide variety of products and components, such as injection pumps, wellheads, specialized well tubing, chemical feeder systems, air separation units, gas compressors, blowers, steam generators, specialized storage vessels, gas recapture and separation systems, and various other equipment and facilities. Additionally, this market includes surfactants, polymers, alkali chemicals, liquid nitrogen and CO2, which act as oil recovery media.
These specialized recovery media chemicals are also utilized in more traditional oilfield settings. BCC Research reports that the global market for oilfield process chemicals should reach $29.6 billion by 2021 from $26.9 billion in 2016 at a CAGR of 2%, from 2016 to 2021 and the global market for advanced exploration and downhole technology reached $163.2 billion in 2015. This market is estimated to reach $233.4 billion in 2021 from $175.8 billion in 2016 at a CAGR of 5.8% for 2016-2021 and includes such players as Dawson Geophysical Company, Fugro NV, Mitcham Industries, Petroleum Geoservices ASA (PGS), Polarcus Ltd., Schlumberger WesternGeco, SeaBird Exploration, Helmerich and Payne. The condition monitoring aspect of the oilfield is also extremely important for safe and efficient operations, MarketsandMarkets reports that this market was valued at $460.9 million in 2016 and is expected to reach $850.1 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 9.1% between 2017 and 2023. The key players operating in this market include Bureau Veritas SA (France), Intertek Group plc (UK), Parker Hannifin Corporation (US), Castrol Limited (UK), General Electric Company (US), TestOil (Insight Services, Inc.) (US), and Spectro Analytical Instruments GmbH (Germany).
The global digital oilfield market, which utilizes of advanced software and data analysis techniques to improve the profitability of oil and gas production operations is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.09%, from 2017 to 2022, to reach a market size of $27.10 billion by 2022. Driving factors in this market include the increase in production activities in the Middle East region, the presence of unconventional reserves, and growing investments in offshore in the Asia Pacific region. Some of the key players in the digital oilfield market include integrators such as Schlumberger (US), Weatherford (Switzerland), Halliburton (US), BHGE (US), National Oilwell Varco (US), and equipment providers such as ABB (Switzerland), Emerson (US), Rockwell (US), and Siemens (Germany). Another growing segment of the oil and gas market is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in operations. MarketsandMarkets reports that this area is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.66%, from 2017 to 2022, to reach a projected $2.85 billion by 2022. The growth will be mainly driven by the rise in adoption of the big data technology, digitalization of the Oil & Gas industry, investments in AI-related start-ups, and rising pressure to reduce production costs and increase efficiency. The use of AI in the Oil & Gas market has brought in many new players, such as IBM (US), Accenture (Republic of Ireland), Google (US), Microsoft Corporation (US), and Oracle (US) who have adopted various strategies such as new product launches, contracts and agreements, and investments and expansions, to increase their global presence and market share.
Conferences, trade shows, and events can provide an excellent opportunity to learn more about these markets, technologies, and key players. Oil & Gas Journal provides a comprehensive listing on their website as does the American Oil & Gas Reporter.
Posted on August 3, 2018 by Eliza Gough
