Economic Predictions for the Oil and Gas Industry in 2018

At the turn of the new year, hope was on the horizon for the oil and gas industry. For three years, the industry dealt with a difficult downturn. But in January, we started to see some higher oil prices – perhaps an indication of recovery for the industry.

Brian Williams, an investment banking and financial restructuring advisor provides some additional insight.

According to Williams, the climate for exploration and production (E&P) has “dramatically improved just in the last few weeks.”

A recent survey from Rigzone found that almost half of all respondents expect the upstream sector to have the most growth opportunities this year. Williams provides his take on the matter:

“There was a real movement and real flurry of midstream activity, building pipelines connecting Permian oil down to the Gulf Coast and massive pipelines that are going to be finished soon. There’s still opportunities to get crude and liquids out of the Permian, given all the activity that is there and the abundance of the resource. But I think it’s more of an upstream story for this year as people respond to the higher oil price.”

Williams also believes that demand is going to be much higher in 2018 than in recent years, and that for the service industries, prices will rise throughout 2018.