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Thailand remains driven by a strong demand growth for both oil and gas which far outweigh domestic production. With no scope for the country to become self sufficient, it will be critical to develop the necessary import infrastructures and to maximise the country's below ground potential. With several delays already affecting the planned 21st licensing round, we expect oil production to decline over the long term and gas production to slightly increase or remain stagnant. Despite an uptake in exploration activities throughout 2013, an offshore pipeline oil spill which occurred in late July creates large risks of opposition to offshore exploration by a population already concerned by the risks it creates for the country's tourism industry.

Petrochemicals and refining remain the lifeblood of Singapore, with strong regional demand growth meaning there is potential for capacity expansion - although investment in countries such as China and Vietnam has led to increasingly fierce competition. Growing gas demand means liquefied natural gas imports are needed to augment pipeline volumes from Indonesia and Malaysia.

"Oil and gas Business Confidence Report Q1 2014" is a new report by Kable that analyzes oil and gas industry executives' views on the global economy, expectations on customer confidence, supplier prices, key business concerns, and how executives' future investments are set to change in Q1 2014. This report also gives you access to regional analysis of industry outlook, industry and company growth prospects, future opportunities, staff hiring, sales performance, and procurement budget allocation, and expenditure outlook. Apart from providing access to the opinions and strategies of global oil and gas industry executives, it also examines their actions surrounding business priorities, threats and opportunities, and future investment areas over the next six months. Moreover, this report provides a comparative analysis of survey results with Q4 2013 wherever applicable.

Ecuador, long a laggard for petroleum investment due to its above-ground risk profile, can be expected to make modest near-term gains in production. However, the incremental uptick in production is not matched by any commensurate growth in proven oil reserves. That is because exploration investment remains static, as the sector is beset by economic terms that are unattractive to many firms, a history of legal uncertainties and likely compounded by investors aversion to the risk of reputational criticism if they were to invest in blocks located within sensitive environmental areas of the country. Those blocks have failed to generate much interest and the deadline for bids has been pushed back several times. The country's government is trying to counter the corporate assumptions of risk with an aggressive courting of potential entrants to the country from Russia, and most notably China. Gas production is still predicted to continue to trend downward, albeit at a slower rate than oil.

Gas shortages continue to loom in Pakistan as the country awaits the development of required import infrastructure. With struggling production, a limited potential for significant increases in gas production and a lack of import infrastructure, the country will most likely continue to experience severe gas shortages over the near-to-medium term. Large expectations are placed on the March 2013 agreement with Iran on the development of the IP pipeline by 2015. LNG could also become part of the energy mix with two planned fast-track regasification projects, which if constructed, could see first LNG imports in 2015 at the earliest. We believe that LNG imports and the IP pipeline could ease the risk of prolonged energy supply constraints in the long term. However, significant downside risks exist to the completion of these projects The situation is particularly complicated with regards to Iran's global political standing, as sanctions on the country may prevent the timely delivery of badly needed supplies and expertise from Western MNCs. Domestic consumption continues to rise rapidly, boosted by the start-up of additional gas-fired power stations and continued use of condensate natural gas cars. While we do not believe it would render Pakistan gas self-sufficient over the next 10 years, the recent start-up of shale gas exploration creates a large upside risk to our forecast, especially as the EIA now estimates the country could hold as much as 3tcm in shale reserves. Similarly, exploration for shale oil could accelerate as it is now thought that Pakistan sits on nearly 9bn barrels.

Euromonitor International's Industrial reports provide a 360 degree view of an industry. The Industrial market report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the Extraction of Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new product developments, packaging innovations, economic/lifestyle influences, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts illustrate how the market is set to change.

The main trends and developments we highlight for Indonesia's oil and gas sector are:

DonRay Petroleum, LLC, a privately held oil and gas company located in Oklahoma City, today announced the completion of the DRP Grace #35 Joint Venture well in Noble, County Okla.

Introduction

Euromonitor International's Industrial reports provide a 360 degree view of an industry. The Industrial market report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the Extraction of Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new product developments, packaging innovations, economic/lifestyle influences, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts illustrate how the market is set to change.

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.

Hydraulic Breaker Services is pleased to announce they will be the first US company to unveil Bretec Hydraulic Breaker range. The company, recognized in the supply and aftercare of hydraulic attachments, will extend its product portfolio, by introducing the new range of hydraulic breakers at the ConExpo-Con/Agg exhibition in Las Vegas (4 to 8 March 2014).

This report is the result of Timetric's extensive market research covering the paylater cards market in Chile. It contains detailed data on market dynamics along with latest industry happenings, industry players in Chile. "Chile Paylater Cards: Market Update" provides a top-level overview and detailed insight into the operating environment of the paylater cards market in Chile. It is an essential tool for companies active across Chile paylater cards value chain and for new players considering to enter the market.

Herrington Global announced today that it has successfully launched a number of Gas Basis products on Energy Mix®, Herrington Global’s leading electronic trading platform for energy and commodities in Asia and executed a number of trades for clients on the system.

With no domestic energy resources, Hong Kong faces the challenge of meeting growing oil and gas demand through imports alone. Having mainland China at its doorstep helps, as the outlook for Hong Kong is linked directly to that of its parent state.

North Vancouver has some of the strictest regulations regarding oil tank removal of any area in the country. When it comes to oil tank removal services at http://www.cerctankremoval.ca, North Vancouver homeowners cannot afford to take chances with an unknown oil tank removal company. Many homeowners who need oil tank removal in North Vancouver cerctankremoval.com turn to CERC Oil Tank Removal Service in order to be sure they are in compliance with all zoning and housing regulations.

DonRay Petroleum, LLC, a privately held oil and gas company located in Oklahoma City, today announced the completion of the DRP Grace #29 Joint Venture well in Noble, County Okla.

Japan's consumption of imported oil and natural gas has increased as a result of nuclear power generation losses in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. However, liquefied natural gas (LNG) consumption appears to have hit an upper limit as gas power is running near maximum capacity, while demand for expensive oil wanes. We expect some nuclear power will return to service in 2014 though it will be a slow and gradual process leaving Japan with significant long-term fuel import costs. As a result Japan is looking to move away from oil-indexed LNG, and is showing the most interest in North America's LNG projects.

The owners of 312 Manhattan Avenue had contacted Dual Fuel Corporation for an oil to gas conversion in January 2013. The heating system of this 59 unit multi-family building had an IC-ME-42 burner that was only capable of burning heating oil. Dual Fuel Corp replaced the burner with a brand new dual fuel capable IC-VLG-40 and performed an oil downgrade from #6 to #2. At the time of their conversion the owners were spending $65,000/year for #6 heating oil and now anticipate spending $38,800/year on natural gas- savings of 41%/year. This gas conversion & new burner project was started in June 2013 and completed in January 2014. To guarantee their conversion savings, the owners of 312 Manhattan Ave. signed with Dual Fuel Energy Corp. a 3 year price lock for the gas to hedge their conversion savings and guarantee a positive ROI on this project.

Oil Shale Investment projects are growing worldwide as more companies and countries with large reserves are increasing their investments and resources in exploration activities.

Upstream interest in Turkmenistan's growing gas reserves remains strong, with foreign players, particularly China, eager to gain access to the country's lucrative gas fields. The energy relationship between Turkmenistan and China continues to strengthen, with continued upgrades to existing long-term supply agreements and investment commitments. Turkmenistan has made ambitious gas production targets, raising its own forecasts of gas production in 2030 to 250bn cubic metres (bcm) from 230bcm previously. Although 2030 is outside our forecast period, the ambitious figures highlight the country's optimism, which is reflected in our forecasts for gas production, which we expect will more than double from 71bcm in 2012 to 186bcm in 2023.

Taiwan is almost entirely dependent on imports to meet energy demand and is likely to stay in this state for the foreseeable future. A growing appetite for imported gas has created a need for fresh liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchase schemes, with Australian and Qatari volumes on the rise and Papua New Guinea set to become a new source of supply. The government has also allotted a monthly budget of approximately NT$17mn per month towards exploration activities, with operators eyeing deepwater exploration off Taiwan's south-western coast and near Itu Aba island, the largest island in the disputed and potentially oil-rich Spratly chain in the South China Sea.

Russia is pumping post-Soviet record levels of oil and is likely to continue to see a short-term increase in both oil and gas production, but a high level of investment will be required to maintain this. It also faces pressure to diversify its gas markets, in view of an increasingly challenging core market in Europe and growing competition from other global gas suppliers. Tax breaks given to encourage offshore and tight oil developments could help support Russian oil and gas output in the longer term, though we warn that the consolidation of Rosneft's position in the country's upstream segment limits gains from regulatory changes to privileged firms with political connections in the country. It also threatens to squeeze out Russia's independent refiners owing to Rosneft's control of crude oil supplies to the market.

We have modestly revised up our average hydrocarbon production growth forecasts for Trinidad & Tobago (T&T), from 0.7% year-on-year (y-o-y) over the next decade to 1.2% y-o-y for oil, and from 1.3% y-o-y to 1.4% y-o-y for natural gas. There are still significant risks, including the mounting technical difficulty and expense involved in the discovery and production of T&T's oil and gas, as well as a more competitive market. Indeed, these factors account for our still relatively tempered growth forecasts.

We retain a cautious stance on the Venezuelan oil and gas sector. While a flurry of new loans and deals may improve the financial position of PdVSA over the short term, the threat that badly needed funds will diverted from investment into the oil and gas sector to fund social programmes remains as real as ever. Moreover, although our long-term forecasts call for growth as projects in the Orinoco belt ramp up, we expect Venezuela to continue its underperformance given the scale of challenges - which range from political interference to chronic underinvestment. Similarly, despite abundant gas reserves, we expect Venezuela to remain a net importer of gas over the course of our forecast period.