Electricity investment overtakes oil and gas for the first time ever, IEA says

Fossils fuels are no longer the largest recipient of investment in the energy sector, the latest report from the International Energy Agency said Tuesday.

Investment in the electricity sector received the largest level of investment for the first time ever, growing its share by 12 percentage points to 43 percent between 2014 and 2016. In comparison, over the same period, investments in upstream (exploration and production) oil and gas fell 44 percent.

Geographically, China continued to be the largest recipient of energy investment, representing 21 percent of the global share. However, according to Birol from the IEA, the surprising story was India, jumping 7 percent from 2015 to 2016 in terms of energy investment.

Despite the current drags on investment, the IEA is confident that global oil and gas upstream investment will come back to growth this year, by about 6 percent. This is due to the current OPEC-led deal to freeze production until March 2018, which should revamp prices and boost investment, as well as a 53 percent upswing in U.S. shale investment.

Source: Bloomberg Pro Terminal

Junior Trader Stefan Panteleev