Increase in sales of drilling equipment in 2000-2007 was recorded in all major oil producing countries. The highest rates were demonstrated by the USA, Canada, China and Russia. Thus, the volume of sales in the USA grew by more than 4 times, reaching $20 billion (this is more than half of the entire world market).
The increase in demand and the rise in world oil prices have significantly increased the attractiveness of new projects. The implementation of a number of large projects on the deep-sea shelf began, the development of unconventional oil (oil sands in Canada, Venezuela), investments in the production of conventional oil in the USA, Canada, and also in leading developing countries increased significantly. The overall growth in investments in the oil and gas complex was accompanied by a significant increase in demand for oil and gas equipment. 2002-2007 total costs for oil and gas equipment more than doubled, reaching $74 billion. Such significant growth rates were associated primarily with an increase in physical volumes of purchases due to the need to update equipment introduced during the period of high oil prices (1970-1980 years). Another important factor in the growth of purchases of new equipment was the change in the sales structure – a shift towards equipment intended for the development of offshore fields, fields with more difficult geological conditions.
The structure of production of oil and gas equipment differs significantly from the structure of demand. The main producers of oil and gas equipment are located in the USA and Western Europe. Japan and South Korea are also major producers of oil and gas equipment.
In most regions of the world, the import of oil and gas equipment plays a supporting role in providing the industry with the necessary equipment and is often associated with existing intra-corporate or inter-corporate relationships. With the exception of the countries of the Middle East and Africa, which do not have their own machine-building technologies and do not have national personnel for the development of machine-building, in the rest of the world the share of net imports of oil and gas equipment does not exceed 20-25%. In the countries of the Middle East and Africa, net imports exceed 60% of all purchases of oil and gas equipment, reaching up to 100% in individual countries. However, a number of large oil producing countries in these regions are striving to develop the production of oil and gas equipment domestically to improve the safety of supplying oil and gas companies with equipment. None of the major oil producers, which already have their own production of oil and gas equipment, refused to develop domestic production of oil and gas equipment.
The drilling equipment market is a part of the oil and gas complex, which ensures the preservation and reproduction of the mineral resource base. All over the world there is an intensification of drilling processes, as well as the renewal of the existing fleet of drilling equipment. The production of oil and gas equipment (including drilling equipment) is a strategic sector of the economy, therefore, almost all large producers of hydrocarbon resources (with the exception of the countries of the Middle East and Africa) have a developed domestic production of oil and gas equipment.
The world market for oil and gas equipment is one of the most dynamically developing parts of the oil and gas complex. Oil and gas equipment market for 1997-2007 increased in value by 3.3 times, the highest growth rates were demonstrated by the segment of drilling equipment – an increase of more than 4 times. Such high growth rates are associated with the need to update the system introduced in the 1980s equipment (period of high oil prices). The growth of unconventional oil and gas production and an increase in offshore production are also of great importance, which imposes new requirements on the equipment used.