“As 2015 comes to a close, I am struck by what a unique year this was in the always-fascinating and dynamic world of oil and gas. 2014 was a year marked by a price shock that rapidly brought us from our \u201cnew normal\u201d (or so we thought) of $90-$100\/barrel to prices around $60\/barrel by the end of the year,” says\u00a0John England, US Oil & Gas leader, Deloitte LLP in the latest\u00a02016 Oil and Gas industry Outlook.<\/p>\n
In 2015, oil prices continued to trend lower, getting down to the $40-50\/barrel range since mid-summer and dipping below $40\/barrel in December. In less than a year, upstream oil and gas companies faced 50 percent drop in revenues.<\/p>\n
The industry responded by experiencing the five stages of grief:<\/strong><\/p>\n For the most part, 2015 saw the exploration and production sector of the industry pull out the 1980\u2019s playbook for a severe price decline:<\/p>\n “The first three have been quite effective at reducing costs and preserving cash. The fourth one is still in progress, and although I often hear \u201chope is not a strategy,\u201d it sure beats \u201cno hope,\u201d at least when it comes to morale,” adds John England.<\/p>\n We do see some positive development that should get us to a better place from a pricing perspective:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n