SBWire

GlobalData's energy offering, "Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry Outlook in North America, 2014 - Details of Operating and Planned Crude Oil, Petroleum Products and Natural Gas Pipelines" is the essential source for industry data and information related to the pipeline industry in North America. It provides asset level information related to all active and planned crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas transmission pipelines in North America. The profiles of major companies operating in the pipeline industry in North America are included in the report. The latest news and deals related to the sector are also provided and analyzed.

Although current domestic production of oil and gas negligible, with imports meeting around 98% of current demand, we are witnessing a gradual but notable uptick in investment targeting Spain's upstream. The acceleration of onshore and offshore activity could cut Spain's hefty import bill, but there are political and regulatory risks that hold sizable downs risks to both conventional and unconventional efforts.

Belgium's Oil and Gas sector offers little upside for growth due to a lack of indigenous reserves. A small amount of unconventional exploration may be possible targeting Belgium's coal-bed methane but the potential exit of one of the country's key energy companies is likely to negatively impact the rate of development. Belgium is expected to remain dependant on imports through the forecast period with limited potential to attract any major investment in the near term despite mature infrastructure in the country.

We see only limited upside to the current bearish outlook for domestic oil and gas production in Germany. There are some areas of opportunity, including redevelopment of maturing sites, enhanced oil recovery and the upside from underexplored regions in East Germany. The largest source of upside risk is from unconventional gas development, though the sector remains mired in political and environmental uncertainty. The CDU-SDP coalition agreement to form a new government outlined that the use of hydraulic fracturing remains too high-risk, largely due to potential water contamination. As such, it is unlikely much progress will be made in this area for at least four years.

The International Energy Agency reports that in 1990 the country was able to provide 14% of its oil needs, but heightening demand and no sizable discoveries within its borders mean Chile barely provides 2% of its needs from domestic production. It's the same story with natural gas: a very small resource base cannot hope to transform the country into one of oil and gas independence, but small discoveries of shale may point to an opening for some small explorers. The real opportunities are in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude as well as refined product importation. A new presidential administration with a centre-left agenda came into power in March 2014. While there is no hint of regulatory reassessment, the new administration knows it has to address the balance between rising demand and declining reserves.

While Australia is set to become a major player in the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market by the end of the decade, the spiralling costs of existing LNG developments will most likely slow growth momentum, preventing the country from meeting its full gas production and export potential in the decade to come. Gas production and consumption growth could be further threatened by increasing rules on the extraction of coal bed methane. The country will also have to contend with a growing reliance on oil imports as domestic crude oil production experiences weak growth while refining outlook is bleak in face of regional competition.

We expect Saudi crude production to remain elevated but decline in 2014 and 2015. This view is based on rising non-OPEC supplies, assumed growth in Iraqi production and the potential of higher volumes from Iran. However, major disruptions to supplies from key producers such as Libya, and expectations for a recovery in global demand for crude, are likely to keep production elevated, posing upside risks to our forecasts. Major downstream additions are to continue into 2014 while Aramco is planning a major effort to tap conventional and unconventional shale gas reserves. The outlook for gas remains tight, despite ambitious plans to tap unconventional resources; we believe that rising consumption and faltering supplies may yet see the Kingdom seriously consider imports.

Robust unconventional and offshore production is set to buoy US crude oil growth, such that in the coming year we see the country as set to overtake Saudi Arabia to become the largest liquids producer in the world. The robust production story has also fed through to the US' downstream sector. Indeed, while we do not foresee the US ending its crude oil imports in the coming years, with rising liquids production and a ban on crude exports, this will encourage greater refined product output - especially diesel and liquefied petroleum gases. We are somewhat less sanguine on the country's gas production, at least in the short term, forecasting a more moderate growth trend. Indeed, while the severe weather in the first months of 2014 has seen Henry Hub prices rally, we believe the fundamental short-term nature of this move may not be sufficient to draw in a substantial uptick in capex. However, although for now we believe that E&P companies will prefer to channel capital expenditures toward liquids rich plays, by 2016/17 increased LNG export capacity and a rising petrochemical industry will begin to put more constant upward pressure on gas prices, reviving production growth.

Asian FTG a premium commodities broker and a professional information provider and publisher of benchmark price references, today announced that it is enhancing the methodology for its Dated Brent price assessment, as part of ongoing efforts to boost liquidity and ensure the long-term viability of one of the world’s most important oil benchmarks.

In the race for attention and upstream investment interest, Hungary is only marginally in the race in central Europe. Despite many desirable elements; a clean regulatory process, proximity to hundreds of millions of customers, a well run downstream sector and pipelines to deliver goods, try as it might, Hungary has so far failed to identify source rock in sufficient quantity and quality to hold out hope of the elephant size discovery that lures the super majors and their large exploration budgets. That said, there are some smaller independents that remain committed and convinced that the absence of competition from those super majors clears the field for them.

Slovakia has above-average energy import dependency with high overall energy intensity compared with the regional average. As a result, the EU has made development of better gas interconnections a priority for Slovakia as net gas imports are expected to cost the country around US $3.25bn in 2013. The country remains dependent on Russia, but a recently announced EUR5.9bn EU infrastructure programme aims to allow for more flexibility when negotiating gas purchases and may boost supply. Slovakia has a growing renewable capacity, but a drop in nuclear output has left an energy shortfall that will be filled with increased use of expensive gas power. Efforts to raise domestic gas prices are being resisted by the government, which may reduce the attractiveness of the Slovak gas sector to foreign investors.

Increasingly challenging economics could slow the growth of oil-sands driven production, although we note that liquids-rich shales could be the new engine of liquid output growth. Exploration in the country's offshore acreage and unconventional resources could unearth more oil and gas reserves to support the country's long-term growth prospects. The outlook for Canada's oil and gas industry is still a positive one, though its upstream potential needs more support from the community and the government for infrastructure development.

We see the recently passed Mexican energy sector reform as the start of a fundamental paradigm shift for the country's hydrocarbons sector. While it does not challenge the national narrative that hydrocarbons belong to the state, working within these constraints the landmark bill takes steps to incentivise private sector involvement through the creation of a flexible contract system. As such, although we stress that it will take a number of years before results are felt in the country's production and reserves data, over the long term we believe this will bolster investment and could reverse a nearly decade-long decline in oil production.

While shale gas exploration has thus far presented a mixed picture, there have been positive below and above-ground developments in recent months. However, while Poland could see its first commercial flow rates in 2014-2015, we remain cautiously optimistic with regard to the country's shale gas production. At the moment, the need for additional exploration, the fact that most companies will likely wait until new regulations are passed before taking final investment decisions on shale gas projects, and assuming that projects take three years to be developed, we have only factored in significant shale gas production into our forecast from 2018-2019. We note that risks lie to the downside, depending on the industry reception of the new regulations and below-ground results.

Keeping in mind large underground potential, we maintain our optimistic outlook for Kazakhstan. However, we continue to underline risks related to resource nationalism and geological complications on major prospects that could deter foreign investors. Kazakhstan's choice to block the sale of ConocoPhillips' Kashagan stake in order to allocate it to CNPC illustrates the uncertainty of the business environment that surrounds the country.

Denmark is likely to remain an oil and gas net exporter over our forecast period, despite production decline. The government is confident the country will sustain its position as a net exporter of oil and gas until the end of the decade. We expect a partial recovery in oil and gas volumes over the medium term. However, we forecast that overall production will decline in the long term and that exports will become increasingly thin by the end of our forecast period despite a small drop in consumption.

Nigeria's hydrocarbon sector continues to struggle amid a worsening political and business environment. Most recently, Chevron's decision to move out of the OKLNG project signals that even the large upside potential of the Nigerian gas market is not sufficient to offset the degradation in investor sentiment. The weak output flows in 2012 and 2013 were the consequence of flooding, repeated oil thefts and regulatory uncertainty. We estimate that total oil production for 2013 declined to about 2.4mn barrels per day, and expect production to remain feeble over the coming year. Output should ramp-up more significantly as many large fields come online after 2015, more than offsetting current depletion. Adoption of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which we do not expect before the Nigerian 2015 election, would be a strong signal for investors that Nigeria's hydrocarbons sector is ready to move forward. Without the adoption of the PIB, further offshore project delays could occur, resulting in a stagnation of Nigerian production.

An uptick in offshore investment is providing some relief from the overall downward trend in oil and gas production from the UK. While we see a small boost to oil production from 2017 onwards based on current projects in the pipeline, without new discoveries and given falling volumes from mature fields, this will likely only stem the decline or lead to a small-scale and temporary increase in the country's oil production While the industry has responded positively to the end of a moratorium on shale gas development, as well as to incentives, strong opposition at the local level has already disrupted drilling plans. These challenges only reinforce our view that shale gas is unlikely to make a significant contribution to total gas output before the tail-end of our forecast period.

We foresee a steep learning curve for the Greek authorities as they attempt to establish Greece as a destination for exploration and production (E&P) investments. The multi-month delays (on account of fiscal and taxation issues) in the finalisation of the open-door licences in Ioannina and the Gulf of Patras and the nebulous arrangements of the Katakolo licence, along with an ongoing 20-month delay in appointing the statutory hydrocarbons supervisory and management agency (EDEY AE), testify to the inability of the Greek authorities to move through the process (even of this small licensing round) in a timely manner - a negative precursor to the government's aspirations for an international licensing round.

Gas production from the Tamar field has largely made Israel self-sufficient in natural gas supplies, though the country did require an emergency LNG cargo during a rare December snow storm. We expect stagnation in production growth in 2015 as bottlenecks at the onshore receiving facility at Ashdod will limit output to 10.5bcm. This should be resolved by 2016 in sufficient time to take output from the Leviathan field where development is due to begin in mid 2014. Gas from Leviathan could flow from late 2018 with export opportunities increasingly likely from this point. We see comparatively strong liquids upside with growing condensate volumes from Tamar and eventually Leviathan.

Oil production is set for robust growth in the short-term, as new projects are brought online or ramped up to peak production levels. However, after peaking in 2016, we forecast output to fall, as new discoveries are insufficient to offset declining volumes from the flagship Bach Ho field. New developments have the potential to boost long-term gas production, but we note that stalled progress on the Block B project could dampen the country's mid-term gas production outlook.

While the start of major upstream projects over in the coming quarters highlights Iraq's potential, volatile production, a challenging security situation and unresolved issues with the Kurdistan region underscore the country's challenges. Although we expect strong growth in both oil and gas output over the course of our forecast period, we expect delays and setbacks to continue, causing production to underperform in light of the country's raw potential. A resolution to the political situation between Baghdad and Erbil will be a key challenge to achieving production targets and long-term growth, particularly with new export infrastructure from Kurdistan to Turkey in place.

MarketLine's Company Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Partnerships & Alliances and Investments reports offer a comprehensive breakdown of the organic and inorganic growth activity undertaken by an organization to sustain its competitive advantage.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (Cabot), an independent energy company, is primarily engaged in exploration, development and production activities in the US. Its primary operations are concentrated in Pennsylvania and south Texas. In the Pennsylvania region it is present in the Marcellus Shale through its interest in the Dimock field, which is located in the northeast of the region.

Croatia is expected to launch a licensing round for offshore gas and oil exploration in the central and southern Adriatic by Q214. This comes after a survey revealed promising deposits of oil and gas in the region, according to Croatia's Economy Minister Ivan Vrdoljak. Before promoting the licensing round, the country will define the concession blocks that will be put on offer to the companies interested in exploration activities in the Adriatic.