Got money?
The Russians do. Lots of it. And not a single American firm comes even close to them.
Call it a fit of desperation to counter their new American rivals, but when it comes to capital expenditure on big energy projects no one spends like Gazprom spends.
Gazprom is the sanctioned, state-controlled natural gas giant that is busy building two new pipelines into Europe: Turkish Stream and Nord Stream II. As a result of these endeavors and more, Gazprom leads a ranking of oil and gas big spenders with an estimated capex of $160 billion to be spent on 84 oil and gas projects worldwide. That is almost double the $87 billion being spent by China’s Sinopec on 74 projects, and $86 billion on 91 projects by Royal Dutch Shell, according to GlobalData, a market analytics company. The data includes both projects in the works and projects on paper until 2025.
Exxon ranks fourth with around $77 billion in capex between now and 2025. They also have about 58 projects in the works, far less than their Russian counterpart.
Exxon is the only U.S. company mentioned in the GlobalData report, released on Tuesday.
When Russian oil firm Rosneft is added to the mix, Russia adds another $50 billion on around 50 projects across the oil and gas value chain.
Gazprom is not only the overall spending leader but is the leader in midstream oil and gas development, too. They are expected to lead both in pipeline projects and in the natural gas processing segments. In the pipeline segment, Gazprom is estimated to spend $71 billion on 18 planned and announced pipelines over the next seven years.
