Feb 2003

This year, oil production from Angola should exceed 1m barrels a day for the first time, and is set to double over the following five years as six or more multi-field deep-water developments start flowing. With its destructive civil war over and with a new importance as a supplier of oil to the US, foreign investment should rise rapidly – but some policy and corporate issues must first be resolved, Martin Quinlan writes

Not all the world’s pipeline companies have got themselves into exactly the deep water they wanted. While some are floating, others are in danger of drowning. The two main causes are the failure of the expected deep-water offshore services bonanza to materialise and, more significantly, losses made on Epic contracts. Nigel Ash reports

Projections for energy demand growth in China could prove to be wildly optimistic unless the country improves its inadequate infrastructure. Furthermore, economic growth of about 7.0-7.5% a year will be stifled if there are energy shortages in the major demand centres of the eastern provinces. Derek Bamber reports

It is widely forecast that the UK will suffer a shortfall in gas supply by the middle of this decade. The race is on to build the pipeline infrastructure that will import European gas to meet demand. Liz Bossley and Jennifer Anderson, of Ceag, consider the plans for the pipelines and whether the gas will arrive in time

The planned Alaska Producer gas pipeline will be one of the largest, most complex challenges the upstream industry has faced for several years, writes Nigel Ash

Growing demand for natural gas, primarily for power generation, has fuelled an almost unprecedented expansion of the US gas pipeline grid. And with continued demand growth forecast, the boom is likely to continue, writes Anne Feltus

Export constraints are possibly the single biggest problem confronting the Russian oil industry. Production is rising by over 8% a year, but with flat domestic demand, oil must either be left in the ground or transported to world markets, writes Isabel Gorst

Physical threats to Russia’s pipeline networks are more pronounced than ever. Strategies to protect the nation’s energy lifelines are implicit in its foreign policy and explicit in its bilateral and multilateral relations with the near abroad. The threat environment, perceived or otherwise, requires Russian policy makers to devise planning and response mechanisms to safeguard its energy infrastructure, writes Kevin Rosner

Aspen Technology, the US software company, says the oil industry is at an “inflection point” – where companies are under pressure to improve their performance and a set of technologies is emerging that can achieve that improvement. David McQuillin, the firm’s president and chief executive, talks to Tom Nicholls about his vision of the next major trend in IT for the process industries

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has stalled, along with ambitious schemes to expand energy co-operation in the region. Although Israel plays a pivotal role in many of these projects, and Arab hostility to the nation is a major stumbling block, it is too soon to write off chances of success, writes James Gavin

The UK gas and power industries have undergone another huge upheaval in the last year, trying to cope with the impact of changes in trading arrangements and the fallout from Enron. Against that background, the merger of National Grid and Transco has been accepted calmly by a market reeling from change. Liz Bossley and Jennifer Anderson, of CEAG, investigate

Worldwide upstream oil and gas spending is expected to show only a slight rise in 2003 compared with last year, with most of the increase coming from state-owned companies and the European majors. The US faces another year of reduced spending, writes David Townsend

Facing stagnant gas demand in its domestic market, RWE Gas has been forced to look outside Germany to find opportunities to expand. The company has made one major purchase in eastern Europe and similar deals in the future have not been ruled out. David Townsend reports