Offshore oil production could reach a peak next year and then begin sliding downwards in 2021, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
The US-based consultancy predicted in a new report released earlier this week that developers working in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of South America would see oil output levels rise substantially in 2020. After that, though, production growth is likely to slow down, it said.
Bob Brackett, one of the authors of the Bernstein report, pointed out that offshore operators were not the only oil producers under economic pressure. Companies involved in deepwater, shale, and oil sands projects are also headed for trouble, he told Bloomberg in an email message.
“The first peaks in 2020,” Brackett wrote. “The second peaks a few years later (and is slowing). And the future of oil sands is in question from a sustainability/CO2 impact [standpoint].”