Oil and Gas

The oil and gas sector comprises three key areas:

1. Exploration. This involves searching for underwater and underground natural gas fields or crude oil reserves, drilling exploration wells, and extracting oil and gas from established wells.
2. Midstream. This encompasses the transportation, storage, and processing of oil and gas. Transportation methods include tanker ships, pipelines, and trucking fleets.
3. Downstream. This refers to refining crude oil and purifying natural gas obtained during the upstream phase. It also includes the marketing and commercial distribution of these products to consumers and end users in various forms, such as natural gas, diesel oil, petrol, gasoline, lubricants, kerosene, jet fuel, asphalt, heating oil, and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), as well as other petrochemical products.

Considered the largest sector in the world in terms of dollar value, the oil and gas industry is a global powerhouse, employing hundreds of thousands of workers worldwide and generating hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

According to British Petroleum's Evolving Transition scenario, global GDP is projected to more than double by 2040, driven by increasing prosperity in fast-growing emerging economies. This rising prosperity is expected to drive an increase in global energy demand, which is estimated to grow by about one-third over the next 25 years.

As a primary resource, oil prices have a significant impact on the balance of payments for both importing and exporting countries.

Natural gas is considered a clean energy source as it does not produce CO₂ as a by-product. Additionally, both natural gas and oil serve as key feedstocks for the rapidly developing and innovative chemical industry.