Amid a series of armed conflicts and curtailment of oil production, the Middle East is not as attractive for oil companies as it used to be. Indeed, they have to deal with increasing expenses for oil production equipment. Moreover, they have to ensure security for their personnel. Thus, global oil corporations are losing interest even in the Persian Gulf containing the world’s largest oil and gas fields. Besides, the production output of hydrocarbons in the Middle East and their share on the global market is shrinking.
In 2013, the oil output in the countries of the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf accounted for 33% of the total global output whereas the gas output – only 17%. However, these figures had stayed flat for three years in a row. The oil and gas output in this region used to grow steady.
Nowadays, oil production companies in the Middle East are greatly concerned that their share in the global oil and gas inventories has been falling. This print lost 8% to 48% in the period since 2005 to 2013. In comparison to 1993, the hydrocarbon resources in the Middle East stood at 64% of the global oil and gas fields. To make things worse, recently the petroleum production in the region has recorded visible slowdown, even in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
So, in the current geopolitical context, North and South Americas, Asia, and Africa are expected to be the new centers of the petroleum industry. For the reference, recently, new vast hydrocarbon fields have been discovered near the shores of SAR and West Africa as well as Latin America. Besides, Central Asia (Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in particular) could arouse interest of oil giants. Lately, new advanced technologies have increased capacities of oil and gas exploitation.
Under the circumstances, oil corporations are facing a dilemma. Easy access to oil fields in the Middle East requires extra expenses on personnel security and equipment. Alternatively, oil companies have to focus on different regions and increase expenses for excavation.
