KPMG's 2010 Energy Survey

The KPMG Global Energy Institute's annual energy survey provides quantitative findings on executives' outlook on the issues and challenges the industry faces. This survey report provides quantitative findings on executives' outlook on capital spending, M&A, the global workforce, industry challenges, alternative energy, commodity pricing, and operating costs.

Oil and gas executives said they expect capital spending and M&A activity to increase over the next 12 months, along with an expansion of their global workforce. Executives also said they expect the regulatory environment and commodity prices to pose the greatest challenges. Their outlook for the price of crude oil was mixed.

In the survey, which polled 780 senior executives from oil and gas companies during April 2010, 61 percent of respondents expect that total capital spending by their companies will increase in 2010; 34 percent anticipate capital spending to increase by more than 10 percent over 2009 levels. This represents a complete reversal from 2009, when 65 percent of respondents said capital spending would be down.