Oil, gas projects take 15 years to take off now: Report

Global oil and gas prices continue to rise as the war between US-Israel and Iran continues. With energy exports from West Asia on pause, and oil ships and energy facilities being attacked, production and transportation of oil and gas has stopped across the Gulf. 

With this global oil crisis unfolding, a new report by Global Energy Monitor raises more alarms. According to it, oil and gas projects now take fifteen years to move from discovery to production. This is three times more than the time required between 1960-1980 — the sector’s booming era. Back then, it took just 4.9 years. 

This increases the risk of having stranded energy assets at a time when energy sources are becoming more diverse. The prolonged timelines reflect a shift toward deeper, higher-pressure and more technically-complex reservoirs, according to the report, which draws on data from the Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker (GOGET).

The report found that offshore projects take three years longer than onshore projects. A major factor contributing to the delay includes depletion of easily accessible reservoirs have been depleted, leaving smaller, deeper, and more technically-challenging fields for exploration.

Also, increased environmental regulations and community opposition (exemplified by projects like the East African Crude Oil Pipeline) have extended permitting and construction phases.

Lengthening process

According to the report, the longest average lead times occurred between 2010 and 2020, when projects took nearly sixteen years to reach production. In 2019, the average stretched to 20.7 years, with several delayed Russian projects contributing to the spike.

Challenges faced by new oil and gas projects include technical and regulatory complexity, sub-optimum reservoir characteristics, heightened ecological impacts, lower investor confidence, higher costs, and infrastructure scarcity.

“Fifteen-year development cycles mean companies are making long-dated bets on a very uncertain future. At a time when carbon majors face tighter margins and oil prices slump, chasing expensive white elephants seems destined to fail. Spending should be directed toward demand reduction and renewable energy, which have the potential to bring in genuine energy security,” said Scott Zimmerman, GOGET project manager and co-author of the report. 

The delaying trend highlights growing exposure for companies committing billions of dollars to projects that may not begin generating revenue until the late 2030s or beyond. In a gradually warming world, the consequences of such huge investments can be quite telling.

The report highlights specific frontier projects as cautionary tales. For instance, the Tilenga and Kingfisher fields in Uganda are expected to start production in 2026—nearly 20 years after their initial discovery. Similarly, the Rosebank field in the UK, discovered in 2004, has faced a two-decade gauntlet of legal and environmental hurdles.

Climate footprint

GEM’s analysis also reveals a concerning overlap between fossil fuel expansion and conservation. The report cites data showing that active exploration and production licenses now exist in over 7,000 protected areas across 99 countries, including UNESCO and Ramsar sites. This expansion into sensitive ecosystems not only threatens biodiversity but also contradicts scientific warnings from the IEA that no new oil and gas fields should be approved if the world is to limit warming to 1.5°C.

The report’s findings call for strategic pivot. Given the increasing costs, technical risks, and decade-long lead times of new extraction, capital should be redirected toward demand reduction and renewable energy. Unlike 15-year oil projects, renewable infrastructure can often be deployed in a fraction of the time, offering a more agile and secure pathway to energy independence in an increasingly volatile climate.