Slow rise for Asia's deep-water sector

Deep-water exploration in the region is expected to see an uptick in investment in the coming decade

Countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam will seek to offset falling production from established and more accessible fields. It will be a marked change on recent years when low oil prices have curtailed spending on deep-water oil and gas exploration and drilling activity. The challenge for capital-intensive deep-water developments in Asia Pacific (Apac) will be to stay viable if oil prices fluctuate downwards. The region will also need to keep cost competitive with developments in less expensive regions of the world, including deep-water Brazil, Mozambique and Tanzania, and, to a lesser extent, Mexico and the US. According to Mei Ching Koay, principal Far East energy researcher at I