Continental contrasts
Oil and gas production in North America is continuing its rising trend. Mexico's prospects are looking up, while Venezuela's hydrocarbon sector is collapsing
North American liquid hydrocarbons output hit 20.1m barrels a day in 2017, as production from the US and Canada offset a decline in Mexico, according to the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy. US oil output is expected to continue to rise. The US Energy Information Administration expects oil production to grow by 1.4m b/d this year, and another 1m b/d in 2019. It also suggests natural gas output will increase by 10%, to 81.2bn cubic feet a day. As such, the US looks set to remain the world's largest oil and gas producer in 2018. Such production growth is presenting challenges to the US and its neighbours in the Americas. On the domestic front, new infrastructure is urgently needed
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Petroleum Economist analysis highlights sharp shift from crude oversupply to market deficit, with Iraq and Kuwait badly affected and key producers Saudi Arabia and the UAE also seeing output sharply lower
13 April 2026
Turkmenistan is moving ahead with a modest expansion of the giant Galkynysh field to sustain gas deliveries abroad, but persistent delays to other key pipeline projects and geopolitical risks continue to constrain its export ambitions
13 April 2026
Expensive electricity has forced out swathes of energy-intensive industry and now threatens the country’s ability to attract future investment in datacentres and the digital economy
13 April 2026
For GCC producers, the ceasefire may prove more destabilising than the war itself: exports remain constrained, and control over Hormuz has shifted in ways that could endure
