Fragile oil price recovery

The upstream benefited from higher spending in 2018, thanks to higher prices; but this increase was tentative, and signs of lower prices towards year-end forced a downturn in rig counts

With spending returning on the back of stronger oil prices, 2018 saw a recovery gain traction in the global oil and gas upstream sector, with activity overall heading in an upward trajectory—though the story was mixed, with shale doing better than conventional projects. After collapsing between 2014-16 by over 40pc amid the downturn, an upstream recovery that saw 4pc growth in 2017 was in 2018 expected to accelerate to 5pc, accounting for projects worth $472bn, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its World Energy Investment report. Here, it was the US shale success story that was driving much of the growth. Capital spending in the US shale patch was expected to increase by 20pc in