European Energy Services: Best outlook in a decade? A look back over 15 years of conference feedback would suggest it's a bit longer than that

Barclays reviews 15 years of feedback from its Energy Conferences since 2012 and concludes that European Energy Services has been building an upcycle since 2021, supported by a more mature industry and rationalised behaviour. Early conferences (2012-2013), when enthusiasm was similar to today, were dominated by rising E&P expenditure and operational leverage, but the downturns of 2015-2016 and 2020 forced notable changes in costs, capacity, contracting and capital allocation. Subsequent conferences showed activity recovering against a smaller supply base, with energy security, international investment and technology progressively broadening the opportunity. The current cycle appears potentially better balanced than the previous peak, with quality of backlog key against growing demand, and re-emerging exploration likely to fuel workloads well into the 2030s. Key themes include offshore evolving from capacity expansion to capacity scarcity, a demand base broadening from upstream spending