Despite Campaign against Fossil Fuels, 2025 Set to Witness $54bn in EPC Contracting 

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The hydrocarbons industry is expected to witness Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracting activities valued at over $54 billion across the offshore oil and gas landscape, despite the campaign to cut back on global emissions.

These jobs,  according to a research conducted by Westwood Global Energy, an energy market research and consultancy firm, will revolve around subsea equipment, offshore platforms, floating production units, and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) equipment and facilities.

Global appetite for energy has continued to grow as governments try to balance the energy security, affordability, and sustainability scales of their citizenry, a development that has pitted the fossil fuels lobby and the renewables club against each other.

But Nigeria, an oil and gas-rich nation has vowed to continue to take advantage of its natural resources to develop the economy, despite the pressure from the developed world. The country has over 37 billion barrels of oil reserves and 209 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Westwood recalled that the EPC contracting activities related to offshore oil and gas field development and carbon sequestration projects remained resilient in 2024, with the EPC award value for associated subsea equipment and offshore platforms totaling approximately $52 billion.

This was  an 18 per cent uptick year-on-year, despite a 33 per cent drop in the annual number of Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) recorded.

Research Director, SubseaLogix & PlatformLogix, Mark Adeosun, said the difference between the FID count and EPC award value trend between 2023 and 2024 stemmed from the award of large ticket items.

Westwood predicted that the 2025 offshore oil and gas-related EPC contract award value will experience a marginal 1 per cent YoY boost, totaling $54 billion, underpinned by 53 greenfield and brownfield field FIDs.

While contemplating the regional deviations in the EPC opportunities, Westwood spotlighted that Africa and the Americas will drive offshore EPC contracting activity in 2025, accounting for 26 per cent and 25 per cent respectively, with the Middle East accounting for 24 per cent of forecast EPC award value.

Key awards to watch in Africa include Eni’s Coral Norte offshore Mozambique and its Baleine Ph.3 project offshore Ivory Coast as well as ExxonMobil’s Owowo project,  Erha North-Ph.3 development, TotalEnergies’ Preowei field offshore and infill drilling activities at Chevron’s Agbami development offshore Nigeria.

Woodside said its projected EPC contracting activities over the 2026-29 period are underpinned by  “a relatively stable oil demand” from China, which should support oil prices to average over $70 per barrel and “a softening of supply chain inflationary pressures,” which will be favorable for project economics.

If these scenarios hold, the annual oil and gas-related EPC award valueit said, is forecast to average $50 billion over the 2026-29 period.

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