The subsea segment of the oil and gas industry is the by far the fastest growing industry in the world today. The global turnover is expected to grow by 30% from today towards 2011. This creates opportunites for companies that are not part of this booming oil anmd gas industry today..

A recent study shows that the players in the oil and gas industry is finding new platforms to collaborate on. The buyers no longer trust their own contact database to be the one to find suppliers that gives them the lowest price. Online platforms like OilGasPortal.Com - the oil and gas industry business directory provide the oil and gas industry with the platform they need to source the lowest bidder in minutes. These eBusiness markets are not yet fully recoginzed, but the players using them are certainly the winners in the long term. The study showed that the avaerage supply chain manegment could save as much 30% by actively using such platforms. 

The liberalization of Indonesias downstream oil and gas sector has been under discussion for several years. In October 2001, the Indonesian legislature passed the much-anticipated Oil and Gas Law 22/2001 which limited Pertaminas monopoly on upstream oil development (which requires it to be included in all PSCs) by the end of 2003. Also, Pertaminas regulatory and administrative functions were transfered to other entities, while its regulatory role was spun off to a new body, BP Migas. Legal changes adopted in 2005 have allowed for the extension of contracts beyond the previous 20-year limit, which helped to facilitate the deal with ExxonMobil for the development of the Cepu fields.

Pertamina maintained its retail and distribution monopoly for petroleum products until July 2004, when the first licenses for a foreign firm to retail petroleum products are due to be awarded to BP and Petronas of Malaysia. The government is still promising to open the sector to full competition, although progress has been very slow to date. Political interests with ties to Pertamina are likely reluctant to see the state-run firm lose its assured revenue streams. Pertamina itself was changed to a limited liability company by presidential decree in 2003, and is slated to be fully privatized by 2006.

Indonesias Ministry of Mines and Energy has taken over the function, formerly carried out by Pertamina, of awarding and supervising PSCs with foreign oil companies. Foreign firms also are to be freed from some of the regulatory approval requirements which they argue hinder their efficiency. One concern foreign oil companies have with the new law is the granting of a limited authority to regional governments to tax oil companies profits.

Although the Philippines has 3.8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves, the country had no significant natural gas production until late 2001. In recent years, the government has made expanding natural gas use a priority, particularly for electric power generation, in an effort to cut oil import expenses.

Under the leadership of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Philippines has undergone an economic transformation, deregulating its energy sector and offering new incentives for foreign investment.  President Macapagal-Arroyo came into power when former President Joseph Estrada was forced to resign in 2001. In May 2004, President Arroyo was re-elected to another six-year term.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 6.1% in 2004, the highest level of real GDP growth in 15 years.  High oil prices also contributed to a jump in remittances from Filipino workers in the Middle East, though the net effect of higher oil prices on the Philippine economy is considered to be negative. Real GDP growth is projected at 4.5% for 2005 and 4.4% for 2006, with the slowdown due in part to the impact of higher oil prices on domestic consumer demand.
The Philippines is one of the claimants, along with China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Vietnam, to the Spratly Islands, located in the South China Sea.  Potential oil and natural gas reserves surrounding the islands have sparked the interest of all the littoral states. In September 2004, the Chinese and Philippine governments reached an agreement to jointly pursue seismic survey work in the Spratlys, but without giving up their respective territorial claims. Vietnam joined the agreement in March 2005, and it was formalized with a memorandum of understanding between the three governments.

Approximately 4,000 scientists and researchers live in Antarctica during the austral summer, with about half of these being American. During the winter months, however, this number is greatly reduced to a total of about 500 people. Although the number of people living on the Antarctic continent remains quite small, scientists have been blamed for pollution problems ranging from sewage leaks to oil spills. In July, 1995, approximately 21,000 gallons of oil were spilled in Argentina's Marimbo base as the result of a poorly constructed fuel storage system, which consisted of large rubber fuel bladders placed directly on the snow. Similar incidents have occured on other international scientific bases, including Russia's Bellingshausen base (known to be one of the continent's more contaminated sites) and the United States' McMurdo Station. However, as more attention has been placed on the continent of Antarctica such spills are rare, and scientists have done much to clean up and improve waste management procedures on the continent.

Production from deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico has been increasing rapidly, with deepwater wells now accounting for about two-thirds of total U.S. Gulf output.

Deepwater subsea projects may represent the future of Nigerian petroleum by allowing multinational operators to avoid security risks inherent to the unstable Niger Delta region. In March 2005, a new licensing round began that offered a total of 77 deepwater and inland blocks

There is an extensive network of subsea oil pipelines linking offshore platforms with onshore terminals. The 765,000-bbl/d Oseberg Transport System (OTS) connects the Oseberg field with the Stura receiving terminal. Operated by Norsk Hydro, OTS also carries crude oil from fields in the vicinity of Oseberg, which connect to the OTS through auxiliary lines.

Norwegian oil production rose dramatically from 1980 until the mid-1990s, but has remained flat since then. During the first 6 months of 2005, Norway's oil production averaged 2.95 million bbl/d. As North Sea fields continue to mature, Norwegian oil production will likely remain steady or decline, though there is some hope that new developments in the Barents Sea will offset some of this decline.