NEWS RELEASE                                                                                                                     APRIL 2013

Thousands of Projects Worth Hundreds of $ Billions in Booming Oil and Gas Industry

Depending on the definition, the number of opportunities in the oil and gas sector ranges from a few thousand to over one million. At the top end there are single projects where the investment will exceed $10 billion. This is the conclusion reached in Oil, Gas, Shale and Refining Markets and Projects published by the McIlvaine Company.

 

Segment

Number

Operating gas and oil wells

1,000,000

Well completions in 2012

105,000

Rigs in operation

3,500

LNG trains in operation

100

Current LNG projects

20

Current operating large gas-to-liquids plants

10

Large gas-to-liquids projects

10

Smaller gas-to-liquids projects

100

Liquid separation from natural gas projects

200

Coal to chemical new projects

50

Refineries in operation

700

New refineries in planning and construction

40

Refinery upgrades and environmental projects

1,000

Tar sands expansion and new projects

15

 

Existing gas and oil wells need pumps, valves, compressors, instrumentation and control equipment. Accuracy is needed due to the custody transfer and value of the products. Despite the large number of existing wells, the major capital investment is in a relatively small number of large projects.

Figure 1: Comparative Investment Value (Overnight Cost) for major Industrial Plants

InvestmentValuePerPlant

Some of the investments in the oil gas industry are even larger than the investment in a new supercritical coal-fired power plant. The gas-to-liquids plant now underway in Louisiana will cost Sasol more than $10 billion. New refineries, LNG and tars sands plants are all multibillion dollar expenditures. Much of this is for liquid and gas flow and treatment equipment. In addition, the tar sands plants have big investments in material handling.

With the shale gas and liquids boom there are many projects to separate liquids from gas. Conversion of coal to chemicals is attracting billions of dollars of investment. China is the leader with both direct and indirect gasification processes.

McIlvaine tracks the projects and provides market forecasts in Oil, Gas, Shale and Refining Markets and Projects. For more information on Oil, Gas, Shale and Refining Markets and Projects, click on: http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php/component/content/article?id=72#n049