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Although Kuwait has formidable underground reserves, its singular-based economy, heavily reliant upon hydrocarbon exports, creates the incentives for the government to fully dominate the wider domestic industry. And as Kuwait's overwhelming dependence upon oil and natural gas exports draws in constant government intervention and control, a stifling investment climate develops within the country, ultimately diminishing the country's export potential as large investment is kept at bay and never fully realised. If trends do not change significantly, we expect Kuwait to miss its 2020 target of 4mn b/d, mainly caused by several delays to upstream projects. This same pattern will most likely be repeated in the country's natural gas sector, where expansion capacity will fall victim to the very same complex forces that are hurting the country's oil sector. While we expect downstream projects to eventually advance, we believe liquids supplies will disappoint as gas supply tightens, leading to an increasing reliance on imports.

GlobalData's energy offering, "Oil and Chemicals Storage Industry Outlook in South and Central America, 2014 - Capacity Analysis, Forecasts and Details of All Operating and Planned Storage Terminals" is the essential source for industry data and information relating to the oil and chemicals storage industry in South and Central America. It provides asset level information relating to active and planned oil and chemicals storage terminals in South and Central America. The profiles of major companies operating in the oil and chemicals storage industry in South and Central America are included in the report. The latest news and deals relating to the sector are also provided and analyzed.

MarketLine's Company Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Partnerships & Alliances and Investments reports offer a comprehensive breakdown of the organic and inorganic growth activity undertaken by an organization to sustain its competitive advantage.

GlobalData's energy offering, "Oil and Chemicals Storage Industry Outlook in Europe, 2014 - Capacity Analysis, Forecasts and Details of All Operating and Planned Storage Terminals" is the essential source for industry data and information relating to the oil and chemicals storage industry in Europe. It provides asset level information relating to active and planned oil and chemicals storage terminals in Europe. The profiles of major companies operating in the oil and chemicals storage industry in Europe are included in the report. The latest news and deals relating to the sector are also provided and analyzed.

Carbon Cycle Crush now enables clients to buy expeller-pressed Canola meal directly from them. Customers can also purchase expeller-pressed Canola oil for various needs such as high quality and natural industrial lubrication. Clients can gain indepth knowledge about expeller-pressed Canola meal and oil by visiting the company’s site.

MarketLine's Company Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Partnerships & Alliances and Investments reports offer a comprehensive breakdown of the organic and inorganic growth activity undertaken by an organization to sustain its competitive advantage.

MarketLine's Company Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Partnerships & Alliances and Investments reports offer a comprehensive breakdown of the organic and inorganic growth activity undertaken by an organization to sustain its competitive advantage.

GlobalData's energy offering, "Underground Gas Storage Industry Outlook in North America, 2014 - Details of All Operating and Planned Gas Storage Sites" is the essential source for industry data and information relating to the gas storage industry in North America. It provides asset level information relating to active and planned gas storage facilities in North America. The profiles of major companies operating in the North American underground gas storage industry are included in the report. The latest news and deals relating to the sector are also provided and analyzed.

Conventional gas deposits would support Uzbekistan's hydrocarbons industry, though we project a continued decline in oil production. Consumption growth in both oil and gas will be curtailed by the diversion of gas to external markets to meet its export obligations, a failure to meet its domestic refined products demand and restrictions on fuel imports.

GlobalData's energy offering, "Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry Outlook in North America, 2014 - Details of Operating and Planned Crude Oil, Petroleum Products and Natural Gas Pipelines" is the essential source for industry data and information related to the pipeline industry in North America. It provides asset level information related to all active and planned crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas transmission pipelines in North America. The profiles of major companies operating in the pipeline industry in North America are included in the report. The latest news and deals related to the sector are also provided and analyzed.

Although current domestic production of oil and gas negligible, with imports meeting around 98% of current demand, we are witnessing a gradual but notable uptick in investment targeting Spain's upstream. The acceleration of onshore and offshore activity could cut Spain's hefty import bill, but there are political and regulatory risks that hold sizable downs risks to both conventional and unconventional efforts.

Belgium's Oil and Gas sector offers little upside for growth due to a lack of indigenous reserves. A small amount of unconventional exploration may be possible targeting Belgium's coal-bed methane but the potential exit of one of the country's key energy companies is likely to negatively impact the rate of development. Belgium is expected to remain dependant on imports through the forecast period with limited potential to attract any major investment in the near term despite mature infrastructure in the country.

We see only limited upside to the current bearish outlook for domestic oil and gas production in Germany. There are some areas of opportunity, including redevelopment of maturing sites, enhanced oil recovery and the upside from underexplored regions in East Germany. The largest source of upside risk is from unconventional gas development, though the sector remains mired in political and environmental uncertainty. The CDU-SDP coalition agreement to form a new government outlined that the use of hydraulic fracturing remains too high-risk, largely due to potential water contamination. As such, it is unlikely much progress will be made in this area for at least four years.

The International Energy Agency reports that in 1990 the country was able to provide 14% of its oil needs, but heightening demand and no sizable discoveries within its borders mean Chile barely provides 2% of its needs from domestic production. It's the same story with natural gas: a very small resource base cannot hope to transform the country into one of oil and gas independence, but small discoveries of shale may point to an opening for some small explorers. The real opportunities are in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude as well as refined product importation. A new presidential administration with a centre-left agenda came into power in March 2014. While there is no hint of regulatory reassessment, the new administration knows it has to address the balance between rising demand and declining reserves.

While Australia is set to become a major player in the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market by the end of the decade, the spiralling costs of existing LNG developments will most likely slow growth momentum, preventing the country from meeting its full gas production and export potential in the decade to come. Gas production and consumption growth could be further threatened by increasing rules on the extraction of coal bed methane. The country will also have to contend with a growing reliance on oil imports as domestic crude oil production experiences weak growth while refining outlook is bleak in face of regional competition.

We expect Saudi crude production to remain elevated but decline in 2014 and 2015. This view is based on rising non-OPEC supplies, assumed growth in Iraqi production and the potential of higher volumes from Iran. However, major disruptions to supplies from key producers such as Libya, and expectations for a recovery in global demand for crude, are likely to keep production elevated, posing upside risks to our forecasts. Major downstream additions are to continue into 2014 while Aramco is planning a major effort to tap conventional and unconventional shale gas reserves. The outlook for gas remains tight, despite ambitious plans to tap unconventional resources; we believe that rising consumption and faltering supplies may yet see the Kingdom seriously consider imports.

Robust unconventional and offshore production is set to buoy US crude oil growth, such that in the coming year we see the country as set to overtake Saudi Arabia to become the largest liquids producer in the world. The robust production story has also fed through to the US' downstream sector. Indeed, while we do not foresee the US ending its crude oil imports in the coming years, with rising liquids production and a ban on crude exports, this will encourage greater refined product output - especially diesel and liquefied petroleum gases. We are somewhat less sanguine on the country's gas production, at least in the short term, forecasting a more moderate growth trend. Indeed, while the severe weather in the first months of 2014 has seen Henry Hub prices rally, we believe the fundamental short-term nature of this move may not be sufficient to draw in a substantial uptick in capex. However, although for now we believe that E&P companies will prefer to channel capital expenditures toward liquids rich plays, by 2016/17 increased LNG export capacity and a rising petrochemical industry will begin to put more constant upward pressure on gas prices, reviving production growth.

Pathfinder is presenting “Cost Containment through Effective Project Management” at the 2014 CIM Convention. This session will be Tuesday March 13th from 2:00 – 4:30 in the Construction to Production block.

Asian FTG a premium commodities broker and a professional information provider and publisher of benchmark price references, today announced that it is enhancing the methodology for its Dated Brent price assessment, as part of ongoing efforts to boost liquidity and ensure the long-term viability of one of the world’s most important oil benchmarks.

In the race for attention and upstream investment interest, Hungary is only marginally in the race in central Europe. Despite many desirable elements; a clean regulatory process, proximity to hundreds of millions of customers, a well run downstream sector and pipelines to deliver goods, try as it might, Hungary has so far failed to identify source rock in sufficient quantity and quality to hold out hope of the elephant size discovery that lures the super majors and their large exploration budgets. That said, there are some smaller independents that remain committed and convinced that the absence of competition from those super majors clears the field for them.

Slovakia has above-average energy import dependency with high overall energy intensity compared with the regional average. As a result, the EU has made development of better gas interconnections a priority for Slovakia as net gas imports are expected to cost the country around US $3.25bn in 2013. The country remains dependent on Russia, but a recently announced EUR5.9bn EU infrastructure programme aims to allow for more flexibility when negotiating gas purchases and may boost supply. Slovakia has a growing renewable capacity, but a drop in nuclear output has left an energy shortfall that will be filled with increased use of expensive gas power. Efforts to raise domestic gas prices are being resisted by the government, which may reduce the attractiveness of the Slovak gas sector to foreign investors.

Increasingly challenging economics could slow the growth of oil-sands driven production, although we note that liquids-rich shales could be the new engine of liquid output growth. Exploration in the country's offshore acreage and unconventional resources could unearth more oil and gas reserves to support the country's long-term growth prospects. The outlook for Canada's oil and gas industry is still a positive one, though its upstream potential needs more support from the community and the government for infrastructure development.

We see the recently passed Mexican energy sector reform as the start of a fundamental paradigm shift for the country's hydrocarbons sector. While it does not challenge the national narrative that hydrocarbons belong to the state, working within these constraints the landmark bill takes steps to incentivise private sector involvement through the creation of a flexible contract system. As such, although we stress that it will take a number of years before results are felt in the country's production and reserves data, over the long term we believe this will bolster investment and could reverse a nearly decade-long decline in oil production.

While shale gas exploration has thus far presented a mixed picture, there have been positive below and above-ground developments in recent months. However, while Poland could see its first commercial flow rates in 2014-2015, we remain cautiously optimistic with regard to the country's shale gas production. At the moment, the need for additional exploration, the fact that most companies will likely wait until new regulations are passed before taking final investment decisions on shale gas projects, and assuming that projects take three years to be developed, we have only factored in significant shale gas production into our forecast from 2018-2019. We note that risks lie to the downside, depending on the industry reception of the new regulations and below-ground results.

Keeping in mind large underground potential, we maintain our optimistic outlook for Kazakhstan. However, we continue to underline risks related to resource nationalism and geological complications on major prospects that could deter foreign investors. Kazakhstan's choice to block the sale of ConocoPhillips' Kashagan stake in order to allocate it to CNPC illustrates the uncertainty of the business environment that surrounds the country.