Analyst finds more delayed projects sanctioned to date this year than all of 2016

Offshore staff

OSLO, Norway– Rystad Energy has reported that more delayed projects have been sanctioned to date in 2017 than during the entirety of 2016.

The announced sanction ofEni’s Mozambican Coral South FLNG project moves yet another development off Rystad Energy’s delayed final investment decision (FID) tracker, the analyst noted. It has been tracking FID delays since the second half of 2014 to post-appraisal pre-sanctioned upstream projects.

It finds that 17 of these delayed projects have since been launched, accounting for an estimated $78 billion of development spending. Tengizchevroil’s 2016Tengiz FGP/WPMP expansion in Kazakhstan accounts for about 40% of this spend.

Earlier this week, Husky Energy announced the sanction of its deepwaterWhite Rose West project offshore Newfoundland. This was 2017’s second double-drop week, after week eight saw BP’s Mad Dog Phase 2 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, and Noble Energy’s Leviathan Phase 1 offshore Israel exit the FID delay tracker. In addition, projects in China, Iraq, and Vietnam, as well as an oil sands scheme, finally reached FID during 2017.

“In spite of this apparent positive momentum, the FID delay list has continued to grow. Since we last published in January 2016, the list has grown in almost all themes, except oil sands, which is not surprising since oil sands projects are largely confined to one province in Canada, while all other themes have a global candidate pool.

“The ongoing results of theoil price pain is clear to see — still over 100 projects delayed, accounting for nearly 35 Bboe and $300 billion spend estimate at delay,” says Readul Islam, Research Analyst at Rystad Energy.

06/02/2017