Economics of Global Marginal Hydrocarbon and Non-traditional Resources

During the last decade many producing countries have reassigned conventional oil and gas development rights to their national oil companies (NOCs). In fact the 13 largest energy companies, when measured by oil and gas reserves, are controlled by sovereign governments. The result is that the NOC’s will control a significant share of future oil and gas production. The international oil companies (IOCs) are relegated to minority project partners, contractors, or to marginally economic hydrocarbon resources. These latter resources may require special extraction technologies because of location, environment, or because they are unconventional. The largest part of the remaining hydrocarbon resource base is associated with unconventional oil and gas resources. These resources include stranded gas, heavy oil, and natural bitumen; resources that historically did not enter established markets because of quality, location, or extraction technology. The resource volumes that make up these massive accumulations must be scaled by economic variables for energy policy analysts and industry decision makers to predict when these resources will enter international oil and gas supplies.