In 2016, the global oil and gas (O&G) industry experienced sustained low crude oil prices and slow price gains,
culminating in a major production cut agreement among members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) as well as non-members in November 2016. The coordinated production increased the
international price of crude oil to around $50 per barrel as of the writing of this report. The OPEC production cut
and resulting price increase have prompted U.S. shale oil producers to restart projects that were not economically
feasible at lower prices, and the outlook for U.S. crude oil production in 2017 appears positive.
We expect 2017 and 2018 to be a buyers’ market for crude oil and natural gas as global production appears to be
outpacing demand growth. The modest increase in crude oil prices that resulted from OPEC’s coordinated
production cut, have not trickled down to natural gas, and prices remain low in a well-supplied international
market. Despite low natural gas prices, the United States began exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the
lower-48 states for the first time in fifty years. Cheniere Energy, the only U.S. company with an operating
liquefaction and export facility in the United States, shipped its one-hundredth LNG cargo in April 2017, a
milestone that demonstrates the competitiveness of U.S. produced natural gas. While 2016 was positive for U.S.
natural gas exporters, the future looks rocky as more liquefaction and export capacity in the United States and
around the world is scheduled to come online in an already oversupplied international market.
ITA’s 2017 Upstream Oil and Gas Equipment Top Markets Report is designed to provide market intelligence to U.S.
companies, as well as inform policy-makers on O&G markets where U.S. Government (USG) resources can make
the biggest impact in support of increased U.S. equipment exports. The report ranks 151 markets based on export
potential for U.S. O&G equipment through 2020. Markets ranked highly represent those countries with significant
potential for increased U.S. O&G equipment exports. The report further looks at the export opportunities for the
U.S. O&G equipment sector in six strategic markets and three regions with additional information on U.S. crude oil
and LNG exports.