Oil climbed above $61 a barrel for the first time in two and a half years, surpassing a crucial threshold for spurring new shale drilling.
“India is the place where there is incremental demand,” Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said. “Our per capita energy consumption is one-fourth of the world. In India, there is an emerging middle class and they are aspirational. Per capita energy consumption is going to increase. So, we need energy. There is no shortcut around that.” The country needs investments to boost the production of natural gas and crude oil, and to refine, transport and distribute the fuel to households. India’s state-run companies are scouring the world for access to reserves and technology.
Saudi King Salman’s lavish tour of Asia had a mission – to cement the kingdom’s place as leading oil supplier to the world’s biggest consumer region. The string of deals inked on his three-week tour to Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and China – the big prize – also point to a fresh strategy: growth in the downstream. Chief executive officer of Aramco, Amin Nasser, said on this: “The growth in that sector is very important, and anything integrated between refining, petrochemical, with marketing and distribution, is of interest to us.”
For every dollar invested this year in North American shale plays another dollar will be allocated for planned projects offshore racking up spending of $70 billion in each sector, analysts at Rystad Energy said: “Offshore projects that were uncommercial at $110 per barrel in 2013 are now commercial at an oil price of $50 per barrel.” However, Rigzone Data Services said offshore investment declined 30-35% in 2016 and offshore capital expenditure is expected to decline for the current year. According to Diamond Offshore, it’s difficult for deepwater operators to compete with the unconventional space.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission are revising the foreign investment industry catalogue.
China has lost the top position as an investment destination to India, and has now opened up more sectors for foreign investors in order to catch up in the race between the two countries.
India’s energy system faces the challenges of meeting growing demand, cutting pollution and offering more than 300 million people not connected to the power grid access to modern energy. The target is to build 175GW of renewable energy by 2022, primarily solar and wind. This would present an investment opportunity of more than $150 billion in clean power generation. This report examines the recent growth across India’s off-grid, small energy grids, rooftop solar and utility-scale renewable energy segments and looks at challenges in their future growth.
According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Nigeria has capacity to create about $51 billion investment opportunities in the midstream and downstream gas sector. This investment will go into gas exploration and production activities, power plant projects, fertilizer plants, virtual pipelines and flare gas commercialization initiatives; as well as in Free Trade Zones infrastructure development and concessioning, port infrastructure, central gas processing facilities, gas transmission, LPG plants, real estate development, pipe milling and local fabrication yards. The intent is to position Nigeria as a regional hub for gas-based industries.
