Global upstream investment has rebounded and is now sufficient to meet expected demand growth over the medium term, according to the IEA industry watchdog. Recent years have been dominated by a narrative that investment cutbacks risked pushing the world into a supply shock, but the IEA now sees such risks subsiding.
“Global upstream oil and gas investment is on track to increase by an estimated 11% in 2023 to $528bn,” says the agency in its Oil 2023 medium term outlook released this week. “While the impact of higher spending will be partly offset by cost inflation, this level of investment, if sustained, would be adequate to meet forecast demand in the period [to 2028] covered by the report,” it says. A caveat here is that this is based on a substantial slowdown in demand growth from 2024 onwards (MEES, 16 June). (CONTINUED - 1222 WORDS)
