Europe Seismic Survey Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Europe seismic survey market is expected to register a CAGR of more than 6% in the forecast period. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the market severely. The pandemic led to a series of lockdowns all over the world, which caused a significant slump in demand for crude oil, and as a result, the prices crashed, which made upstream activities economically unfeasible. In terms of market growth, the ban on imports of natural gas and crude oil from Russia has increased the upstream operation to improve energy security in Europe, aiding the seismic survey market. In addition, the increasing prices of crude oil are aiding the development of the seismic survey market. However, European countries are shifting to renewable energy sources and ending their reliance on crude oil, which may restrain the market growth during the forecast period.

Key Highlights

• The offshore segment accounts for the largest share in the seismic services market due to several favourable conditions compared to onshore.
• Land-based and shallow-water oil fields have reached maturity, and there is little scope for any new field discovery in these areas. Therefore, developing deepwater and ultra-deepwater water reserves is expected to create significant opportunities for the seismic services market in the future.
• The United Kingdom is expected to witness significant demand in the seismic services market during the forecast period.

Key Market Trends

Increasing Demand of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry

• Europe has the North Sea basin, one of the oldest hydrocarbon basins globally and has contributed to the European countries' economies for decades. Currently, deep water areas have become a hotspot for exploration and production for most of the market players involved in the offshore oil and gas market, which directly aids the development of the seismic survey market.
• The rising demand for hydrocarbons across the globe, essentially in European countries, owing to the European Union sanctions on Russia and reducing the import of natural gas.
• The Government of the United Kingdom announced that it plans to boost the exploration and production activities in the North Sea, as natural gas produced domestically is more economical and the carbon footprint is less compared to when it is imported from other countries.
• For instance, in 2021, ION Geophysical, a Texas-based company, announced that it is in the third phase of remaining underexplored United Kingdom's North Sea area for low development costs to make future investment attractive in the offshore oil and gas industry.
• Overall, in the European region, offshore seismic survey segment is going to dominate the market as onshore reserves are very limited compared to offshore reserves.

United Kingdom one of the fastest growing market in the region

• In the United Kingdom, the North Sea production and exploration activity are expected to increase to reduce the dependence on the import of natural gas and crude oil, especially natural gas imports from Russia. Further, according to the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics, offshore crude oil production has increased significantly from 10.04 hundred thousand tons in 2015 to about 19.36 hundred thousand tons in 2020.
• Moreover, amid the energy crisis in the country, the United Kingdom's Committee on Climate Change reported that it wouldn't object to any new issuing license for further oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, due to the escalating natural gas prices and threat to long term energy insecurity. It will be one of the primary drivers for development of offshore seismic survey market.
• In 2022, the country gave the green light to develop the Abigail oil field located in the North Sea to be acquired by Ithaca Energy, an Israeli oil and gas company. The first oil from the project is expected to be achieved in Quarter 3 of 2022.
• Similarly, as of March 2022, IOG PLC reported that the first gas has started flowing from Phase 1 of its Saturn Banks project, with the start-up of production from the Blythe field. A production hub is also expected by 2023 to link the gas produced from the offshore wells to the onshore facility in the Southern North Sea.
• Overall, in the United Kingdom seismic survey market is expected to grow due to increasing investment in offshore oilfields.

Competitive Landscape

The Europe seismic services market is highly concentrated. Some of the major companies include Schlumberger Ltd, Halliburton Company, ION Geophysical Corporation, and Fugro NV.

Additional Benefits:

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