Production Testing Market

Production Testing Market Analysis

The Production Testing Market is expected to register a CAGR of greater than 2.54% during the forecast period.

• Majority of the growth in the production testing market in the recent past has been dominated by onshore segment due to lack of the projects in the offshore. However, with the current high crude oil price the offshore segment has witnessed an uptake in activity with a large number of projects receiving FIDs in 2018 and 2019. A number of these projects will be developed in phases and contribute to driving the market in the latter part of the forecast period.
• The oil & gas industry in the past few years has witnessed major oil & gas discoveries in countries such as Guyana, Egypt, and Senegal. These discoveries have attracted a number of oil & gas operators to invest to develop these new discoveries and create an opportunity for the production testing service providers to expand their global presence.
• Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Oman and Russia has a number of mature fields and production from these fields are declining. Monitoring oil, gas and water production rates is very crucial for reservoir management and production optimization in mature fields. Maturing fields in the Middle East and Russia have encouraged the oil & gas operators such as Saudi Aramco, and Rosneft to offer production testing contracts and drive the market.

Production Testing Market Trends

Rising Deepwater Offshore Development Activity

• Land-based and shallow water oil fields have reached their maturity. In the Permian Basin, the most important basin currently in terms of crude oil production, the production from old wells have started to decline. And there is little scope for new discovery in these areas. As a result, the oil and gas industry is shifting towards the deeper regions, in search of oil and gas to meet the increasing demand.
• Also, more than half of the oil and gas discoveries in the last three to four years have been in the deep sea and ultra-deep sea regions. The number of Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) (for reserves of volume more than 25 million boe, excluding shale/tight) in 2018 increased by more than 80%, compared to 2016. Further, in 2019, the number of FIDS is expected to increase by around 10% compared to 2018. Offshore oil and gas reserves accounted for the majority of the FIDs in the last three years. The deepwater liquid production is expected to reach 10.3 million bbl/d in 2019, an increase of 700 kbbl/d compared to 2018.
• Brazil is one of the largest markets for deepwater oil and gas projects. The Brazilian oil and gas market is driven by successful regulatory changes and improving financials. The Brazilian government is aiming at 2 MMb/d of additional oil production by 2027, mostly from deepwater areas. The country is expected to sanction 10 FPSOs, highest in the world, during 2019-2021.
• This rising deepwater offshore development activity to meet the increasing crude oil demand is expected to drive the demand for production testing.

North America to Dominate the Market

• The production testing market is dominated by the US mainly due to the highest number of wells being drilled each year and declining production from mature wells.
• Also, the decline rate in shale reserves such as Permian basin is more than 5-10% annually, which is a widely used rule of thumb. This has encouraged the oil & gas producers in the shale reserve to opt for production testing for better reservoir management and production optimization.
• Also, the number of wells completed in the Permian basin in 2018 was 96% more than that drilled in 2016. Such huge growth in the completion activity has led to an increased number of new wells resulting in a huge demand for production testing.
• Further, the United States in the near term is expected to shift its focus on capital discipline and completing the uncompleted wells due to lack of pipeline takeaway capacity as major pipeline are expected to be online in 2019 and 2020. This is expected to give an additional boost to the production testing market in North America.
• However, lower capital investment in drilling in Canada in 2018 and 2019 compared to previous years is expected to restrain the market growth in North America.

Production Testing Industry Overview

The market for production testing is consolidated. Some of the key players include Schlumberger, Halliburton, Expro and Tetra Tech.

Production Testing Market Leaders