Intelligent Well Completion Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The intelligent well completion market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 1.0% over the period of 2020-2025. Factors such as increasing production from conventional and unconventional resources and reducing maintenance costs of the well are expected to drive the market. However, volatility in crude oil and natural gas prices may restrain the growth of the market.

Key Highlights

• Oil and gas production is expected to continue to be a vital part of meeting global energy demand, and the offshore segment is expected to grow fastest in the forecast period. Increasing advancements in technologies are expected to aid the growth of the segment.
• New development in the intelligent well completion technology, like the advancements in the high-end self-adaptive inflow control completion technology, is expected to make the oil and gas production more viable and may provide an opportunity for market players.
• North America is expected to be the largest market to the intelligent well completion in the forecast period with the United States and Canada leading in the utilizing of a large portion of the market.

Key Market Trends

Offshore to be the Fastest Growing Segment

• Intelligent completions incorporate permanent downhole sensors and surface-controlled downhole flow control valves, enabling to monitor, evaluate, and actively manage the production (or injection) in real-time without any well interventions. Data is transmitted to surface for local or remote monitoring in a digital well platform. All these data may or may not be automated but deliver to increase the production of the well. These systems are being used in the offshore segment as a method to decrease the production of water from the wells.
• In offshore drilling, the well intervention is expensive and high-risk, intelligent completions have proven their value in managing production from multilateral wells, horizontal wells with multiple zones, wells in heterogeneous reservoirs, and mature reservoirs. Further advancements in the technologies are expected to aid the growth of the market.
• Despite the volatility in oil and gas prices, expectations are that free cash flow continues to grow in 2019, giving major offshore customers greater flexibility to invest in oil and gas production. The free cash flow of major offshore exploration and production companies is expected by SpareBank 1 SMN to be around USD 109 billion in 2019. High level of free cash flow aids in new investments into the sector, which may aid the intelligent well completion market.
• Although significant growth has taken place in unconventional onshore production, offshore production represented approximately 28% of overall oil and gas production in 2018. Offshore production of oil and gas is expected to increase due to the increasing demand for hydrocarbon resources. Increase in the offshore sector is expected to contribute to the growth of the market.
• Oil production in the world has decreased by 0.3%, to 4484.5 million tonnes, in 2019 from 4499.5 million tonnes in 2018. The output may increase further in the forecast period and provide boost to the intelligent well completion market.
• Hence, the offshore segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment in the forecast period due to an increase in free cash flow, advancement in technology, and an increase in oil production.

North America to Dominate the Market

• The United States was the largest producer of oil in the world in 2019. It is also among the largest user of intelligent well completion techniques, which, among others, are used in the economically viable recovery of unconventional sources of hydrocarbons in the country’s shale plays. This is because shale oil and gas reservoirs are more complex to handle and tend to mature faster than conventional wells. Therefore, unconventional reservoirs require higher usage of an intelligent well completion to produce the oil.
• In 2019, Emerson, in partnership with Metrol, a leader in battery-powered wireless well monitoring, has launched the Intelligent Multistage Completion Network and integrated upper and lower completions downhole solution that communicates wirelessly with instruments at the reservoir sand face, the physical interface between the formation and the wellbore. This is enabled by a new wireless interface that generates crucial zonal flow information and sand face monitoring in the lower completion. Further advancements in the market are expected to create more reliability and growth in the market.
• Shale gas and tight oil play production in the U.S. is estimated by the Energy Information Administration to be around 22.32 trillion cubic feet in 2019. The production is expected to increase further in the forecast period and aid the growth of the intelligent well completion market.
• Oil production in the region has increased by 7.1%, to 1116.5 million tonnes, in 2019 from 1042.2 million tonnes in 2018. The output may increase further in the forecast period and boost the intelligent well completion market.
• The intelligent well completion system used by the Schlumberger Ltd. has, on-an-average, increased the production by 20% and decreased 60% of the water injection for their clients. Many different companies are using and investing in the research and development of the techniques of intelligent well completion to increase the profit from the wells which are expected to aid the growth of the market.
• Hence, the North America region is expected to be the largest market for intelligent well completion due to its abundant oil production, increasing extraction of unconventional sources, and advancements in technologies.

Competitive Landscape

The intelligent well completion market is partially fragmented. Some of the key players in this market are Schlumberger Ltd, Halliburton Company, Baker Hughes Company, Weatherford International plc, and National-Oilwell Varco, Inc.

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