Australia and China to lead global fracking market race: Lux Research

Australia is primed to become the next big play in the booming fracking market, with China and Argentina close behind, as global nations with estimated reserves of 1.7 trillion barrels of oil equivalent seek to emulate the US’ pioneering, and astonishing, success in tapping shale gas and tight oil, according to Lux Research.
 
To determine leaders and laggards among nations pursuing development of shale assets, Lux developed a proprietary model based on a country's market attractiveness and path to commercial production.
 
“Shale gas and tight oil have single-handedly altered North America's energy landscape, away from a long and steady fossil fuel decline and toward the path of energy independence. Not surprisingly, the rest of the world is keen to pursue similar success,” said Daniel Choi, Lux Research Associate and the lead author of the report titled, ‘Uncovering further opportunities in the booming frac market’.
 
He added, “Australia's strong infrastructure, low population density and legacy of mining; Argentina’s powerful government incentives; and China’s seemingly bottomless development capital make the three countries clear front-runners in this race.”
 
According to Lux Research, with over 300 licenses for fracking sites, the UK is Europe’s leader while Poland and Norway have fallen behind. However, Ukraine announced two separate $10 billion deals with Chevron and Shell in 2013, positioning it to become a major energy player and overtake the UK. Overall, many European countries have attractive shale and other tight resources but environmental and not-in-my-backyard concerns complicate development.
 
Software companies have rushed also into the oil and gas sector to tap a $ 40 billion market for optimisation created by the growing volume of data, according to Lux Research. For example, OVS Group creates a user-friendly workflow system that organises data gathered from different providers; and Stochastic Simulation data mines information from geologic models.