The independent energy research and business intelligence company Rystad Energy is predicting a robust performance from the global oil and gas industry, to the continually looming threat of the still rampant Covid-19 pandemic and its variants.
At the beginning of January the company asserted that global investments in the oil and gas sector will grow by US$26 billion this year to US$628 billion. Last year, global oil and gas investments reached US$602 billion.
Rystad says that this year will see the continuation of the industry’s recovery from the 2021’s Covid-19-driven downturn. The company says that the increase in investments in the sector this year can be attributed in large measure to growth of around 14% in upstream gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) investments. It says that these segments are set to be the fastest growing across the industry this year, with investments set to go to as much as US$149 billion, up from US$131 billion last year. This increase, the company says, however, still falls below pre-pandemic levels, not least the US$168 billion in 2019.