Wireline Services Market Reaping Benefits of Shifting Focus Towards Natural Gas Production

These are exciting times in the global oil & gas market, a market which is driven by technological breakthroughs and strong demand continues to grow strongly despite the global economic pressures.

The long-term drivers of the oilfield services market are well known. The relentless depletion of onshore and shallow-water fields have compelled oil companies to focus on deep-water and unconventional onshore areas where various oilfield services are in demand.

Wireline services are used for a wide range of purposes over the lifecycle of a well that includes exploration, drilling, completion, stimulation, intervention, and others. Wireline services are precisely used to run the tools and equipment into the downhole, before and after the completion is done. These services are provided by oilfield service companies to the oil and natural gas E&P companies.

The potential increase in recoverable resources, increased exploration and production, and completion activities, are the most important factors which upholds the wireline services market. The increased focus towards natural gas production also requires wireline services. Currently, natural gas is referred to as transitional fuel for being the chain link between conventional resources and renewable energy. This proves to be an advantage to the international natural gas market, and hence, to the wireline services market.

The need to satisfy rising energy demand will enhance the growth prospects of the wireline services. Since 2000, there have been several important deep and ultra-deep discoveries. About 16% oil & gas fields from 2008 to 2017 are likely to recline in such environments including Pre-salt Brazil, the U.S. GOM (Gulf of Mexico), West Africa, and Malaysia. The lucrative and high investment areas of subsea regions such as the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, and new discoveries in West Africa drive the exponential growth of the wireline services and the new technology development.

The major value-generating activities of the market are recorded in North America, where the remaining regions are growing at a higher growth rate with the exploration of new reserves, creating growth prospects for the wireline services market. The North-American market is reaching a stage of maturity, and the movement in the market will mainly be subjected to competition. On the other hand; as the energy demand in developing countries such as India and Brazil increase; fulfilling this demand will enhance the growth prospects of the wireline services market.

The U.S. oil output has increased a staggering 25% since 2008, and the IEA estimates that it will increase a further 30% by 2020 to 11.1million barrels a day. In just a decade, shale gas has risen from 2% of the U.S. natural gas production to 37%. Natural gas prices in the U.S. hit a decade low in 2012 as a result of shale supplies with benefits for consumers and producers alike.

Today the wireline services market is worth $19 billion a year and comprises of a range of businesses with very specific functions within the sector spectrum. Among those companies which make and sell products for use as wireline fleet are FMC Technologies (U.S.), Cameron International (U.S.), and National Oilwell Varco (U.S.), while players which provide these wireline services include Schlumberger (U.S.), Halliburton (U.S.), Baker Hughes (U.S.) and Weatherford International (Switzerland). There is also a major market for the small local and regional players.

The growth of companies across this spectrum has been driven by a range of factors. For instance, technological breakthroughs such as horizontal and directional drilling have played a significant part, while the rising price of oil has also encouraged firms to look for oil in more remote places. A major driver has also been the trend by oil giants to increasingly outsource wireline services, while rising global demand from state-owned oil firms which has played its part too.

There is an utmost need to maximize the hydrocarbon recovery from the maturing oil fields. In order to channelize it, there will be a requirement of a lot of intervention, completion, and logging services which will be fulfilled by using the wireline. This market promises a decent growth rate in the coming future and ensures better profits for the industry players.

Share this post:

Recent Posts

Comments are closed.