Deloitte MarketPoint’s production outlook
To develop Deloitte MarketPoint’s production outlook, we assume OPEC, with the exception of Iran, will continue to produce at current levels through 2020. We assume Iran will produce an incremental 500 thousand b/d in 2016 and grow an additional 300 thousand b/d in 2017, putting Iran roughly back at pre-sanction production levels by the end of 2017.
For non-OPEC producers, we build up a detailed analysis of production: For US tight oil and onshore, we expect production declines for 2016 while the US Gulf of Mexico will likely have some offsetting production growth. As for other non-OPEC countries’ 2016 production, we expect an increase in Canada, Europe, Brazil, and the FSU as a result of the new projects already under development. Some of this new production could be offset by higher decline rates due to reduced maintenance as a result of budget cuts. The net effect for 2016 non-OPEC production is an overall decline of 0.6 million b/d to 44.5 million b/d (crude and lease condensate).
The balancing act A look at oil market fundamentals over the next five years 7
For 2017 through 2020, we apply decline rate estimates for existing production. Leveraging analysis discussed in the EIA’s World Energy Outlook 2013,17 we estimate non-OPEC annual decline rates at 4 percent. This reflects our estimate of an overall global average including both high-decline rate regions (e.g., US tight oil) as well as low-decline rate regions. We then added the new projects remaining in development (see Figure 2, page 3). The net effect is 2017 should see production growth of 600 thousand b/d. By 2018, we finally see production declining back to 2016 levels, which then continues downward, resulting in a nearly 2 million b/d decline from 2018 to 2020.
Given the numerous deferred projects and the time required to develop new ones, our analysis indicates the severe project cutbacks could eventually lead to a shortfall in future production. To determine how much of a shortfall, we need to look at both demand forecasts and the impact that could result from drawing down excess inventories of crude oil in storage.