Oil and Gas Industry Recap 2025: Slower Growth, New Strategies Ahead

Still Big, But No Longer Booming

Let’s be clear about one thing. The oil and gas industry isn’t collapsing. Far from it. The world still runs on oil, and global demand is enormous. But the pace of growth? That’s what’s slowing down.

According to the International Energy Agency’s Global Energy Review 2025, global oil demand grew by only about 0.8% in 2024. Compare that to 1.9% in 2023, and you can see the shift. The post-COVID rebound is over. Electric vehicles are taking up more space on the roads. Factories are becoming more efficient. All of that adds up to slower demand growth.

Now here’s the catch. For 2025, the IEA expects oil supply to grow much faster than demand. We’re talking about roughly 2.5 million barrels per day of new supply versus only 700,000 barrels per day of extra demand. When supply outruns demand, you don’t need an economics degree to know what happens next. Prices feel the pressure.

Gas isn’t booming either

If you were hoping gas would pick up the slack, the story isn’t much different there. The IEA’s latest gas report shows demand rising by just 0.5 to 1.5% in 2025, and even that’s being dragged down by weaker economies and high prices.

Asia, in particular, is struggling with this. Countries that once couldn’t get enough LNG are now cutting back because of tighter budgets and cheaper renewable alternatives. Some, like China, have seen almost flat consumption compared to 2024.

Prices are “OK,” not great

So where does that leave prices?

They’re fine. Not exciting, but fine.

Deloitte’s 2025 Oil and Gas Industry Outlook expects oil to stay around US$70 to 80 per barrel. That’s decent enough to keep the rigs running, but nowhere near the windfall years of 2022.

Reuters recently pointed out that Brent crude is down about 11 to 12% this year, thanks to higher OPEC+ production and weaker demand sentiment. In simple terms, there’s plenty of oil going around, and not enough momentum to push prices up.

So what does this all mean?

The industry is still moving massive volumes of oil and gas. Ships are sailing, refineries are busy, and pipelines are full. But the story underneath is different.

Growth has cooled. Supply is catching up. Prices are stable but not spectacular. And the focus has shifted from expansion to optimisation.

That’s why you’re hearing about companies cutting costs, trimming headcounts, and rethinking strategies. They’re chasing efficiency.

Why the Industry Doesn’t Feel Like It’s Doing Well

On paper, 2025 doesn’t look disastrous for oil and gas. Demand is still steady, prices are holding within a reasonable range, and global production remains strong. Yet despite those numbers, the atmosphere across the industry feels heavy. There’s a sense that the boom years are behind us, and what lies ahead is a long stretch of hard work, tighter margins, and slower gains.

Here’s why that feeling exists.

Supply is catching up and overtaking demand

After several years of restraint, OPEC+ and other major producers have started to bring production back online. The International Energy Agency expects oil supply to rise by around 3 million barrels per day in 2025, and warns that if this continues unchecked, the market could face a 4 million barrel per day surplus by 2026.

When supply runs ahead of demand, prices naturally soften. Refiners and producers see their margins narrow, especially those operating in higher-cost regions. This doesn’t create a crash, but it does squeeze profitability, forcing companies to focus more on efficiency and less on expansion.

The energy transition is slow, not stopped

Despite political debates and shifting targets, the energy transition is moving forward, just at a slower pace than expected.

Electric vehicles continue to grow their market share, industrial processes are becoming more energy-efficient, and renewable generation is slowly displacing gas in certain regions. In Asia, high gas prices have also prompted some countries to scale back consumption, substituting with coal or renewables to cut costs.

At the same time, companies like BP and ExxonMobil have revised their long-term projections upward, forecasting higher oil and gas demand than they did under their earlier “net-zero” scenarios. That might sound like good news, but it’s really a mixed signal: it means the world is missing its climate goals, yet it doesn’t guarantee endless profits. Demand may linger longer than expected, but competition and policy pressure will continue to limit growth.

So, the industry is being pulled in three directions at once:
• Investors want immediate returns
• Policymakers and society want decarbonisation
• Consumers still need oil and gas, but at the lowest possible price

That’s a difficult position for any business to be in.

How Companies Are Responding

The slowdown in 2025 has forced oil and gas companies to make some hard choices. Margins are thinner, investors are restless, and leadership teams are under pressure to show that they can adapt. Across the board, the big players are trimming costs, rethinking leadership, and searching for new profit streams that can survive a slower market.

Cutting costs and restructuring operations

Chevron has already announced plans to reduce its global workforce by up to 20 percent by 2026, starting with significant cuts in 2025. The move is part of a larger plan to save US$2–3 billion through structural cost reductions. Reports from California confirm hundreds of positions have already been eliminated as the company consolidates offices and centralises operations.

BP is doing something similar. It’s cutting around 4,700 jobs and 3,000 contractor roles, roughly 5 percent of its total workforce, as it pushes to save £1.6 billion by 2026. The company says it wants to focus on higher-value projects and invest more heavily in digital and AI-driven operations.

ExxonMobil has also trimmed headcount, combining smaller offices into regional hubs and automating administrative work wherever possible.

Put simply, these companies are getting lean. It’s about creating tighter, faster organisations that can stay profitable even when the market isn’t booming.

Betting on New Management Styles

Leadership changes aren’t just about replacing people anymore. They’re about rewriting direction.

Take ENOC, for example. In mid-2025, they appointed Hussain Sultan Lootah as Acting CEO, positioning it as the start of a new phase of strategic transformation. The focus? Growth, sustainability, and aligning the company with Dubai’s long-term diversification plans.

Moves like this tell you a lot about where the industry’s head is at. Companies are searching for leaders who can handle transition and diversification — people who get digitalisation and the new economics of energy. It’s not about taking big, risky bets. It’s about steering the ship differently. Changing culture, changing direction, but without burning through billions to do it.

Expanding into Trading and New Revenue Streams

When production margins start tightening, the smart players find new ways to make money. And right now, that means trading.

Saudi Aramco is one of the first movers here. Their trading arm has been expanding into metals, especially copper, and they’ve been hiring seasoned traders, including some who used to work at Trafigura, to build a new copper trading desk. Copper sits right at the heart of global electrification, and by stepping into that space, Aramco is finding a way to profit from the energy transition while sticking to what it already knows best: trading.

Other national oil companies are doing the same thing. ADNOC, for instance, is merging its petrochemical assets with OMV to form Borouge Group International, which aims to become a global leader in plastics and polyolefins. It’s also in the process of acquiring Covestro, a major chemicals player. Together, these moves push ADNOC further downstream into areas with stronger, longer-term profit potential.

If you zoom out, the pattern is clear. Companies are pivoting into becoming traders, chemical manufacturers, and now even metal merchants. They’re diversifying their portfolios to capture more value across the chain instead of relying purely on the barrel.

Turning to External Consultants

Another big shift we’re seeing in 2025 is how companies are handling expertise.

Instead of hiring huge in-house teams for every new project, many are keeping their internal teams lean and bringing in specialised consultants to do the heavy lifting. Think digital transformation, AI integration, climate strategy, and even organisational redesign.

According to EY’s Future of Energy 2025 survey, most energy firms are investing heavily in new digital tools but don’t actually have enough internal talent to make them work. So rather than spend years training teams, they’re calling in external experts who can deliver results faster.

BCG’s energy insights say the same thing, more oil and gas companies are outsourcing tasks like automation roadmaps, decarbonisation planning, and digital strategy to trusted partners.

A good example here is Woodside Energy. Their latest reports show tighter cost guidance, lower production costs, and stronger climate disclosures, all of which hint at serious external advisory work happening behind the scenes.

The reasoning is simple. Specialists can move faster and cost less than building permanent departments from scratch. In a market where agility is everything, that flexibility is worth gold.

So the new norm? Small core teams, big external partnerships. It’s efficient, scalable, and helps companies adapt without being weighed down by bureaucracy.

Creating New Roles for a New Kind of Business

Even as companies are cutting jobs overall, they’re still hiring. They’re just hiring differently.

The new focus is on roles that directly impact profits or transformation. The kind of jobs that move the needle.

Some of the fastest-growing areas right now are:
• Trading and commercial optimisation – hiring traders, risk managers, and data-driven quants who can extract more value from every deal.
• LNG and gas portfolio management – specialists who can handle complex cargo scheduling, pricing, and contract optimisation as LNG capacity expands.
• Low-carbon and transition roles – professionals focused on carbon capture, hydrogen, biofuels, and advanced chemicals. These are no longer “nice to have” projects; they’re now part of core business strategy.
• Digital and AI specialists – data engineers, automation experts, and machine learning professionals who are modernising operations from the ground up.

It’s a bit of a paradox. Traditional roles are disappearing, but highly skilled, high-impact positions are on the rise.

So, Is Business Booming or Not?

If you’ve been following the headlines this year, you’ll notice a strange contrast. On one hand, the numbers look huge. On the other, the industry feels like it’s holding its breath.

Let’s break it down.

Revenues are still massive. Global oil demand remains above 100 million barrels per day, and gas consumption reached record highs in 2024. Forecasts from ExxonMobil and BP still show fossil fuels making up more than half of the world’s energy mix all the way to 2050. The scale of this business hasn’t changed, it’s still one of the largest industries on Earth.

Profits, however, are a different story. The record-breaking windfalls of 2022 and 2023 are gone. Prices have stabilised at moderate levels, but costs are rising. Inflation, energy transition expenses, and higher financing costs have all eaten into margins. Companies are still making money, just not the kind that excites shareholders.

The mood across the market is cautious. There’s less appetite for risk, fewer giant projects, and much more focus on protecting balance sheets. The phrase you hear most often in boardrooms today isn’t “growth”. It’s “discipline.” Everyone wants to prove they can stay profitable without relying on another global shock to lift prices.

So, is business booming? Not really.
But it’s not collapsing either.

2025 is a restructuring year, not a recovery year. Companies are consolidating, slimming down, and strengthening their foundations. It’s about getting fit for the future, not chasing another oil-price miracle.

You can see this everywhere you look:
• Chevron tightening its structure and cutting costs
• ENOC bringing in new leadership to modernise management
• Aramco expanding trading desks and building new revenue streams in metals
• Woodside sharpening its cost controls and leaning on external consultants

Across the board, the same strategy is playing out: run lean, move smart, and prepare for what’s next.

Instead of building huge in-house departments, companies are working with external specialists. Instead of hiring by the hundreds, they’re bringing in a handful of experts who can make measurable impact. The mindset has shifted from growth at all costs to precision and profitability.

So no, business isn’t booming in the traditional sense. But it’s not a bust either. It’s a recalibration. A moment of realism after a decade of volatility.

Oil and gas are still the backbone of global energy, but the industry knows it can’t rely on price spikes forever. The companies that thrive from here on won’t be the loudest or the biggest. They’ll be the ones that adapt fastest and think strategically.

Conclusion

2025 isn’t the end of the oil and gas story. The industry isn’t booming, but it’s evolving. Companies are cutting back, restructuring, and learning to grow through efficiency instead of size. The focus has shifted from chasing barrels to building resilience, from volume to value.

And while the easy profits of the past may not return anytime soon, the foundations being built now, smarter management, diversified revenue, and disciplined capital, could define the next generation of energy giants. The companies that understand that shift will be the ones still standing strong when the next boom finally arrives.