Global drilling & well services (DWS) spending is forecast to reach $213 billion by 2025, according to a new report issued by Westwood Global Energy Group. This growth trajectory highlights the improved market sentiment seen so far in 2021. It also follows a very challenging 2020, where DWS expenditure plummeted by an estimated 34% as the combined pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic and the oil price collapse hit the industry.
A combination of OPEC+ signaling a continued commitment to restricting production to help balance oil markets and promising progress with the global vaccine rollout should support higher prices and, subsequently, greater levels of drilling activity in 2021 compared with 2020. The commodity price environment remains highly sensitive, and Westwood expects activity levels to grow slowly, remaining constrained as the industry slowly recovers from one of the deepest pricing shocks on record.
