Asia-Pacific Oil & Gas Industry Analysis
The Asia-Pacific’s demand for oil and gas continues to rise as it witnesses rapid urbanization and industrialization. At the moment, the Asia-Pacific is said to be consuming approximately 25% of the world’s oil supply, 45% of coal and 10% of natural gas.
While it has traditionally supported its demand with exports from other regions, at present countries in the Asia-Pacific are taking significant steps towards decreasing import dependency and boosting regional energy security and autonomy.
In order to satisfy the increasing demand for energy, oil & gas and petrochemicals, and thus encourage further regional economic growth, the Asia-Pacific is keen on boosting the productivity of new and established oil and gas reserves within its territories.
Renewed Energy
Some of the more mature oil and gas reserves in the region are found in China and India, and in certain parts of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Currently, new oil frontiers are being developed in other countries, like the Philippines and Myanmar.
Exploration of unconventional oil and gas reserves in deeper and more remote waters is notably gaining traction.
National oil companies within the region, such as the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Malaysia’s Petronas, Thailand’s PTT and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam have taken the lead in investing in and developing the region’s oil & gas industry. Additionally, independent oil & gas companies and international oil companies are seeing increasing regional participation.
American and European oil & gas titans have started ramping up their project activities within the Asia-Pacific, with the keen interest of capitalizing on the region’s rapidly expanding market.
Some of the more notable regional activities of international oil companies include Exxon Mobil’s agreed acquisition of Papua New Guinea’s InterOil, British Petroleum’s (BP) plans of expanding its Tangguh LNG project in Indonesia, and Chevron and Exxon Mobil’s bid to invest in an oil project in Kazakhstan, which is geared towards transporting crude to China. Other international players actively participating in the regional oil & gas activities include Reliance, Shell and Murphy.
Spotlight: In-field Power Generation Technologies
But while the Asia-Pacific oil & gas sector is gradually picking up the pace, the industry players remain cautious about the volatile prices, the challenges of exploration and production in harsh remote areas and other environmental and technological concerns.
With this in mind, oil & gas operators are constantly in search of ways to enhance long-term production, control operational expenditure and minimize the environmental impact of their operations.
One aspect that industry players aim to optimize is in-field power generation, considered the life-blood of oil & gas operation.
Temporary power plants can prove to be a viable power generation option for oil & gas operations. Turning to rental power solutions can spare new and mature oil & gas companies alike from making a huge investment in permanent power facilities amidst this uncertain economic climate.
Opting to rent power plants will not require a substantial capital investment, and the power produced can be easily paid from operational revenues.
Because rental power generators are completely scalable, they can support the energy requirements of various processes of oil & gas operations of any size.
Temporary power plants can be transported from and to virtually anywhere in the world, even in extremely remote areas where new oil & gas facilities are being established. Equipment comprising rental power stations are enclosed in industry-grade containers so they are suitable for safe and reliable operation even in the harshest environments.
They are modular so they can be laid out and installed in various configurations even in the limited spaces available in oil & gas facilities.
At present, many oil & gas facilities are realizing the economic and environmental advantages of using natural gas to provide power for its operations. While oilfield equipment is traditionally powered by diesel generators, natural gas generators are progressively gaining utilization in oil & gas operations.
Its growth within the industry is largely spurred by the development of modern power generation solutions capable of running on-site natural gas, the increase in unconventional gas resources and the strict implementation of emission regulations in many countries around the world.
What Lies Ahead
The Asia-Pacific is expecting continued economic growth of 7.3% in the coming years.
What this means is that the region’s energy demand will proportionally increase. This, in addition to the modest recovery in crude prices, drives the expansion of the oil and gas market in the Asia-Pacific. But while national and international oil & gas players are excitedly looking to ride this new growth wave, they remain optimistically cautious of the industry’s prospects.
Having said this, they remain on the look-out for innovations and technologies that can enhance their productivity and mitigate any associated risks within the Oil & Gas Industry.