Oil firms chase efficiency gains

The spectre of ‘peak demand’ puts an onus on producers to tighten up their games

Energy efficiency in the upstream clearly means different things to different people. But what is evident is that virtually every firm is looking at where to make marginal gains, as a subdued price environment and fears over the future of oil demand growth significantly reduce the ability to run flabby operations. The oil majors are taking divergent paths in some aspects, but one trend is easily identifiable, namely portfolio efficiency. The firms are concentrating their financial and technical muscle on fewer, high-potential prospects in key upstream areas and excluding marginal production provinces—in turn, leaving independent producers to bring their own specific focus into areas from whi