Industry Trends

Control of Oil Supplies
There are many countries in the world – most of them among the top crude oil producers – where the state owns and controls the country’s oil assets, either through nationalization of those assets or through partially state-owned companies. In fact, as more overseas oil assets have come under local state control, major oil companies in the West have been left controlling less than 10% of the world’s oil and gas. That type of shift in ownership and control can have a significant effect on the international energy markets – affecting current wholesale and retail prices, as well as where and when exploration and extraction will be conducted. That impacts not only the oil supply today but tomorrow as well.

A body with significant influence on the global oil supply is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The Western oil companies have been interested in diversifying their operations, as well as enhancing supply security by strengthening ties with the emerging national oil companies and entities like OPEC, but strategic alliances have been difficult to form. The interaction between emerging national oil companies, major oil producing countries, and Western consumer countries will have a large impact on the question of energy security and the stability of the oil and gas markets.
 

Peak Oil and Declining Supply
There are constant questions about whether we, as a planet, are running out of oil. Oil is expected to be the dominant energy source for decades to come. But the challenge will be managing rising energy consumption across the globe. Projections estimate that global energy consumption will rise by 71% percent by the year 2030.

[Source: 2007 International Energy Report, U.S. Energy Information Agency]

However, oil is a finite, non-renewable resource and "peak oil" is a way to describe the time when we have extracted half of the total existing known supply. From that point onwards, the supply can only deplete and there will be no more. When exactly that point will be reached is a topic of fierce debate: Some peak oil theorists claim we have already reached it, while others think we still have some time to go. No matter which side is right in predicting the timing of it, that point will eventually come, and the energy and utility companies are going to need to invest heavily in technology and in workers who can create innovative solutions to what could be a serious energy consumption crisis. Whether they search out new supplies of oil, establish wind farms, produce cheaper solar cells, develop next-generation nuclear energy facilities, or focus on alternative energy sources – engineers will be at the heart of one of the closest-watched trends in the industry for the near future.