Message from Paris oil summit: low prices and high costs threaten oil and gas investment crunch

摘要

Energy consumers will be left facing a future of greater oil and price volatility and a possible supply crunch if the asymmetry that has emerged between end-user prices and supply project costs persists for much longer.That was the clear message to emerge from this week’s oil summit in Paris where speaker after speaker – representing a surprisingly broad cross-section of the energy industry – warned that the disparity between increasingly soft oil and gas prices and construction costs that remain sky high is threatening to stifle much-needed investment. On a more positive note, several speakers noted that costs had begun to fall, but their future trajectory remains highly uncertain.