By an OGJ Correspondent
PARIS, Oct. 9 -- Worldwide spending on exploration and production should hit a record $115 billion this year, up 16% from last year's 12% increase to $100 billion, according to the recent joint annual report by Institut Français du Pétrole, the French Suppliers Council, and the Marine and Oil Studies Committee.
That acceleration in spending is the result of previously high oil prices, which averaged $30/bbl in the last half of 2000 when producers were figuring their 2001 budgets, the report said.
But whether the upstream industry can maintain growth in 2002 is open to question, depending on the effects of an economic slowdown on world oil consumption and the subsequent results of recent terrorist attacks in the US, the report said.
World drilling activity increased by 33% in 2000, with the US and Canada cumulatively accounting for more than 85% of the wells drilled. Growth of global drilling activity should continue this year, albeit at a lower rate of 20%.
France's oil equipment and services industry generated a record $12.5 billion in sales during 2000, up 12% over 1999 figures, according to the report. The same growth rate is expected this year to produce another sales record of $14 billion.
French companies are especially well positioned on upstream engineering and construction (25% of the world market), geophysics services and equipment (16%), and mud-logging services (35%). With a small domestic market, 90% of their sales were international.
Victor Vachier, executive vice-president of the French Suppliers Council, said French oil field equipment and supply companies were second only to the US in exports.