The global offshore drilling industry will stabilise this year but is not likely to return to growth until 2011, according to a report by Datamonitor.
The independent business analyst revealed global drilling is predicted to rise 12% in 2010-14, compared with the previous five years.
“Around $291 billion was spent over the last five years on offshore drilling”, said Dr Michael Smith, report author and consulting oil and gas advisor at Datamonitor.
“Spend surged in 2005 to 2007 but rose only slightly in 2008 and declined in 2009.
“The forecast for 2010-2014 is a surge in 2011 and 2012 followed by a return to previous levels of growth but with a small drop-off in 2014.”
In the Middle East spending and well numbers are forecasted to rise 63% and 40% respectively.
“Over the long term Saudi Arabia, Iran and UAE will need substantially more wells than have been drilled in previous years to maintain and increase both oil and gas supplies,” said Dr Smith.
