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Refining and Marketing), thus divesting non-core
assets. Eni has set a divestment target of $7bn
between 2016 and 2019, while Shell launched a
large asset sale program consisting in $30bn as-
sets sales mainly in the North Sea and other exam-
ples can be made for most IOCs. This trend is also
Figure 2 – Global decommissioning costs reflected in the market capitalization of Oil Majors
which, taken as an aggregate, has decreased by
around 22% between 2014 and 2015.

IOCs Business refocus. International Oil com- Growing relevance of NOCs as spenders.
panies have not only reacted by cutting costs, but While Major IOCs, E&P companies and indepen-
also by refocusing their businesses on core activi- dents have sharply reduced investments, National
ties (being geographical areas or industry segments Oil Companies have been more resilient. Indeed,
such as refocusing on E&P while divesting from figure 3 shows that their upstream investments

Figure 3 – Upstream Capex by type of player

have decreased by 18% as opposed to an industry
average of 24%, thereby driving their share of total b EPCs and OFS have also suffered from
capex from 26% to 28% between 2014 and 2015. reducing investments
As NOCs are indeed the new clients, understand-
ing and supporting their agenda will be critically im- Impact on EPCs/ OFS. The reduction in Oil Com-
portant for most suppliers. panies’ capex has strongly affected EPCs and
OFSE in all segments, with well services, rig build-
ing and drilling contracting being the most affected
activities (spending reduced from 10% to 25%
based on projects, in two years). Such players saw
their market capitalization shrink by 40% between
2014 and 2015, as can be seen in figure 4.
Emerging global mega-players. In response to
the significant clenching in terms of market value
and operative results, major OFSE providers un-
dertook a robust consolidation path that has al-
ready resulted in major M&A operations. As a con-
sequence, year 2016 has seen the rise of global
“mega-players”: in April 2016 Schlumberger, the
world’s largest oilfield services company, merged
with Cameron International Corporation resulting in
the industry’s first complete drilling and production

30 Impiantistica Italiana - Gennaio-Febbraio 2017