Nurturing the green shoots of upstream growth
A combination of cuts to upstream capital spending and steepening well decline rates will threaten global supply security, industry leaders warn
As companies doubled down on cutting costs over the past two years, a leaner and more efficient upstream industry has started to emerge. That was one of the key messages from the Upstream session at AOGC 2017 on 8 May, which saw leading industry figures chart new routes for upstream success in a panel appropriately entitled the Green Sheets of Growth. Shaikh Nawaf al-Sabah, chief executive of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Expansion Company, kicked off proceedings by underscoring the sheer scale of the disinvestment seen under the low-price climate. "About $1 trillion has been removed as capex from companies' development plans," he said, noting this has had an inevitable impact on exploration succ

Also in this section
15 May 2025
Financial problems, lack of exploration success and political dogma cause uncertainty across much of the region
14 May 2025
The invisible hand of the market has seen increasing transparency but much more needs to be done to build a better understanding
13 May 2025
A fall in Venezuelan output drives overall production lower, as Saudi Arabia starts to slowly bring more crude to the market
12 May 2025
With the gas industry’s staunchest advocates and opponents taking brutal blows, the sector looks like treading a path of insipid indifference