What industry leaders expect in 2012

Despite high oil prices and a shale-driven boom in drilling activity, the approach of a new year brings with it plenty of reasons to be concerned for the future of the oil and gas industry. The Arab Spring has melted any semblance of stability in the Middle East, raising the specter of oil supply disruptions or worse if the most hardline elements come to power in the emerging democracies. Meanwhile, Western governments’ misgivings about hydraulic fracturing are slowing the development of their own unconventional oil and gas resources, and even threaten the United States’ burgeoning shale sector. And operators in the Gulf of Mexico ponder how to comply with a new and still-shifting regulatory framework—though tantalized by the prospect of new offshore areas being opened for exploration. Against this backdrop, members of World Oil’s Editorial Advisory Board—representing a broad spectrum of E&P expertise—present their predictions and prescriptions for 2012 to an apprehensive industry.