Onshore Energy Conference — Dubai Onshore Energy Conference — Dubai 02 | Page 17

ENERGY MATTERS
INTERDEPENDENCY
THE INCREASING
COMPLEXITY OF ONSHORE
BI ENERGY LOSSES
By Justin Crick and
Clive Burrows, RGL Forensics
With Forecasters predicting that the current price of oil is the
“new‑norm” for the short to mid-term, one strategy to offset
the lower crude prices for the regional market is the continued
investment in downstream refining and petrochemical facilities.
H
igher margins are often achieved on downstream
speciality products compared to unrefined / commodity
products. Some petrochemical and speciality
chemical companies have recently announced a
second year of record results, showing that there was value
in the plants that the oil majors sold off 5 to 10 years ago.
Therefore, a more vertically integrated structure
enables companies to retain a greater proportion of the
value chain and to help sustain profitability, despite
challenging market conditions for unrefined products.
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