Outlook 2024: The future is not what it used to be
The appetite for long-term oil investment remains variable
The issue of whether contemporary long-term oil investment appetite is at an optimal level is not a new one, indeed it has been a recurrent feature of both equity and commodity market analysis and discussions since the 1986 oil price crisis. The debate often splits into two broad camps: one view posits that markets are self-correcting and that the amplitude of oil market cycles is usually unproblematic; the other sees corrections as slow with informational failures creating a downward bias in investment leading to overly amplified and damaging cycles. It is often difficult to separate views about investment appetite from those about prices and long-term demand. For example, the view that the
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US LNG exporter Cheniere Energy has grown its business rapidly since exporting its first cargo a decade ago. But Chief Commercial Officer Anatol Feygin tells Petroleum Economist that, as in the past, the company’s future expansion plans are anchored by high levels of contracted offtake, supporting predictable returns on investment
