Crude Oil Flow Improvers Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The market for crude oil flow improvers is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 5% globally during the forecast period. Growing demand for paraffin & asphaltene inhibitors along with increasing demand for petroleum-based products are driving the market. On the flip side, stringent environmental regulations coupled with unfavorable conditions arising due to the COVID-19 outbreak are hindering the market growth.

Key Highlights

• The crude oil flow improvers market is expected to grow during the forecast period owing to the growing demand for paraffin & asphaltene inhibitors.
• Middle-East region to dominate the market across the globe with the largest consumption from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates.

Key Market Trends

Growing Demand for Paraffin & Asphaltene Inhibitors

• Crude oil flow improvers are widely used in oil & gas industries and are expected to grow rapidly during the forecast period.
• Paraffins made of long-chain hydrocarbons, naturally occur in crude oil inhibit the free flow of crude oil thereby increasing power consumption, decreasing the efficiency of pumps, and their lifetime. Paraffin inhibitors help in preventing the deposition of wax on the surface on pipelines, wellbores, and during processing. They alter the wax appearance temperature thereby improving flow and are often referred to as pourpoint dispersants or cold flow improves.
• Asphaltene occurs in heavy crude oils. The changes in pressure and temperature during extraction or transportation in a pipeline make the existing asphaltenes (tar) to precipitate into black rock type deposits which affects the flow by creating a choke point. Asphaltene inhibitors help in preventing agglomeration and precipitation of asphaltenes in the pipelines.
• Crude oil flow improvers help in the free-flowing of crude oil products, asphalt-crude, and multiphase systems. The global petroleum and other petroleum-based liquids consumption are at 100.75 million barrels per day in 2019 from 99.97 million barrels per day in 2018, which shows an increase of about 284.7 million barrels per year and is expected to grow during the forecast period.
• However, due to unprecedented conditions arisen due to the COVID-19 outbreak the consumption of oil & gas will be down by at least 5 million barrels per day due to lockdown in various countries and shut down of travel, tourism, e-commerce, and restaurants are likely to affect the consumption in 2020.
• The growing urbanization and increasing demand for crude oil-based products are expected to drive the market for the crude oil flow improvers during the forecast period.

Middle-East Region to Dominate the Market

• The Middle-East region is expected to dominate the market for crude oil flow improvers during the forecast period due to an increase in demand from countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates.
• Crude oil contains long-chain hydrocarbons that decrease the pressure drop for the same flow rate and thereby increase the pipeline flow using the same amount of energy. Crude oil flow improves include drag-reducing agents, scale, paraffin, asphaltene, hydrate, biocide, hydrogen sulfide, iron sulfide, foam inhibitors, etc., which improve flow efficiency.
• Saudi Arabia is the second-largest producer of crude oil in the world after the United States and has the second-largest crude oil reserves after Venezuela. As per the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), 64.5% of the OPEC crude oil reserves which account for 79.6% of total world reserves are present in the Middle-East region.
• In 2019, Saudi Arabia oil production is at 11.79 million barrels per day, Iraq is at 4.75 million barrels per day, and the United Arab Emirates is around 3.99 million barrels per day. The growing use of crude oil-based final products in energy generation, automobiles, industries, etc., is expected to drive the market.
• The aforementioned factors, coupled with government support, are contributing to the increasing demand for crude oil flow improvers market in the Middle-East during the forecast period.

Competitive Landscape

The global crude oil flow improvers market is partially fragmented with players accounting for a marginal share of the market. Few companies include BASF SE, Dow, Innospec, Baker Hughes, and Dorf Ketal.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support