Abstract of associated article: Previous studies of the relationship between crude oil and gasoline prices have often found “rockets and feathers” behavior: a scenario where gasoline prices increase more rapidly when crude oil prices rise than they fall when crude oil prices drop. While we find this behavior in times of generally rising crude oil prices, we find the opposite to be true during times of generally falling crude oil prices, a phenomenon we call “balloons and rocks” behavior. This result was obtained by testing for parameter stability in error-correction models which were estimated for periods of significant variability in both crude oil and gasoline prices. The data used to estimate these results is unique in the literature as it is comprised of daily U.S. retail gasoline prices and daily crude oil prices. The sample was taken during the Great Recession, an exceptional period of time that saw both sharp increases and decreases in gasoline and crude oil prices.

The annual price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is expected to reach an average of 63.58 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2025, according to an August 2025 forecast. This would be a decrease of roughly 13 U.S. dollar compared to the previous year. In the first eight months of 2025, weekly crude oil prices largely stayed below 70 U.S. dollars per barrel amid trade tariffs and an expected economic downturn. What are benchmark crudes? WTI is often used as a price reference point called a benchmark (or ”marker”) crude. This category includes Brent crude from the North Sea, Dubai Crude, as well as blends in the OPEC reference basket. WTI, Brent, and the OPEC basket have tended to trade closely, but since 2011, Brent has been selling at a higher annual spot price than WTI, largely due to increased oil production in the United States. What causes price volatility? Oil prices are historically volatile. While mostly shaped by demand and supply like all consumer goods, they may also be affected by production limits, a change in U.S. dollar value, and to an extent by market speculation. In 2022, the annual average price for WTI was close to the peak of nearly 100 U.S. dollars recorded in 2008. In the latter year, multiple factors, such as strikes in Nigeria, an oil sale stop in Venezuela, and the continuous increase in oil demand from China were partly responsible for the price surge. Higher oil prices allowed the pursuit of extraction methods previously deemed too expensive and risky, such as shale gas and tight oil production in the U.S. The widespread practice of fracturing source rocks for oil and gas extraction led to the oil glut in 2016 and made the U.S. the largest oil producer in the world.

According to Cognitive Market Research, the market for well-completion equipment and services is expected to reach USD 10.9 billion in 2022 and will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.50% from 2023 to 2030. How are the Key Trends Affecting the Well Completion Equipment and Services Market?

Rise in Demand for Oil & Gas to Drive Market

The energy demand has risen quickly during the last few decades globally. As a result, more oil and gas wells have been explored in various places of the world. The consumption of energy sources, including oil and gas, renewable energy, and nuclear energy, has significantly increased due to rising living standards and the world's population growth.

Global energy usage is predicted to be 580 million terajoules per year. This equates to 580 million trillion joules or approximately 13865 million tonnes of oil equivalent. (Mtoe).

(Source:www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/climate-change/energy/global-energy-consumption)

Additionally, because most nations are refocusing their attention on lowering carbon emissions and increasing their reliance on fossil fuels, the demand for natural gas is anticipated to boost the need for gas exploration globally during the upcoming forecast period. The demand for well-completion services and equipment across various gas rig locations is favorably impacted by the rising energy consumption in the world and the rising number of gas rig explorations, propelling the market internationally.

The Challenges Restraining Growth of the Well Completion Equipment and Services Market

Fluctuations in Foreign Currencies Continue its Influence to Impede Market Growth

The global economic downturn and rising property costs in industrialized economies substantially impacted the market in previous years. Thus, the market is still recovering from the recession and controlling inflation rates in developed economies. However, the ongoing changes in currency exchange rates continue to reduce market participants' profit margins. Additionally, the global economic environment impacts the extraction of metal needed to make oilfield equipment, which will restrain market expansion in the ensuing years. According to predictions, the industrialization and growth of the oil and gas industry will be propelled by fast-rising economies in the next years, balancing these price considerations and providing stable profit margins for market participants.

Impact of COVID–19 on the Well Completion Services and Equipment Market

The global market for well-completion equipment and services is anticipated to slow down during the next few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdown measures undertaken by various governments have caused factory closures in several towns and provinces worldwide, prompting forecasts of a dramatic slowdown in the output of everything from the oil and gas industry to the industrial sector. The recent decrease in oil exploration operations is one of the primary factors projected to impact the market well-completion equipment and services adversely. Moreover, once production activities are suspended, businesses must deal with lost revenues and damaged supply chains. Introduction of Well Completion Equipment and Services

"Well-completion equipment and services" relates to wellbore consultancy, architectural design, and downhole equipment for oil and gas wells in offshore and onshore areas. They cover whole completion procedures like operating the production tube, establishing the downhole tools, and carrying out numerous additional operations to get well ready for use. Due to the rising need for global oil and gas exploration, the market for well-completion equipment and services is projected to expand. The installation of machinery to extract crude oil from the earth's crust to meet the demand for oil and gas globally is made possible by well-completion tools and services. Another factor that is predicted to support market expansion is increased investment in various exploration and production activities. However, the challenges limiting the growth of the global market for well-completion equipment and services are the inability to improve the separate areas within productive zones and block off gas or water zones.

For instance, in 2021, the United States petroleum consumption will average about 19.78 million barrels per day (b/d), including roughly a million b/d of bi...

In 2025, it was estimated that over 163 million Americans were in some form of employment, while 4.16 percent of the total workforce was unemployed. This was the lowest unemployment rate since the 1950s, although these figures are expected to rise in 2023 and beyond. 1980s-2010s Since the 1980s, the total United States labor force has generally risen as the population has grown, however, the annual average unemployment rate has fluctuated significantly, usually increasing in times of crisis, before falling more slowly during periods of recovery and economic stability. For example, unemployment peaked at 9.7 percent during the early 1980s recession, which was largely caused by the ripple effects of the Iranian Revolution on global oil prices and inflation. Other notable spikes came during the early 1990s; again, largely due to inflation caused by another oil shock, and during the early 2000s recession. The Great Recession then saw the U.S. unemployment rate soar to 9.6 percent, following the collapse of the U.S. housing market and its impact on the banking sector, and it was not until 2016 that unemployment returned to pre-recession levels. 2020s 2019 had marked a decade-long low in unemployment, before the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic saw the sharpest year-on-year increase in unemployment since the Great Depression, and the total number of workers fell by almost 10 million people. Despite the continuation of the pandemic in the years that followed, alongside the associated supply-chain issues and onset of the inflation crisis, unemployment reached just 3.67 percent in 2022 - current projections are for this figure to rise in 2023 and the years that follow, although these forecasts are subject to change if recent years are anything to go by.

The Motor Vehicle Fuel Retailing industry has undergone a seismic shift over recent years, driven by regulatory changes and evolving consumer preferences. Revenue is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 10.7% over the five years through 2025 to €30.2 billion, including estimated growth of 2.7% in 2025. French fuel retailers have seen hefty rises in revenue, particularly in 2022, when fuel prices skyrocketed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Although prices have trended downwards in the years following due to slowing economic growth and fears of a recession in 2023, they remain volatile and higher than pre-pandemic levels. Supply concerns continue to place upward pressure on prices, stemming from the escalating conflict in the Middle East. After Donald Trump’s victory in the US election in November 2024, tax cuts and a boost to fiscal spending will likely drive oil prices in 2025, forcing retailers to pass on these elevated costs to consumers through higher prices. Retailers are adapting their infrastructure to store biofuels following stringent mandates imposed by the French government calling for minimum percentages of biofuels to be included in petrol and diesel. Motor Vehicle Fuel Retailing revenue is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 0.9% over the five years through 2030 to €31.6 billion. The shift towards sustainability shows no signs of slowing as France seeks to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. This encourages a continued rise in electric vehicle production, posing a threat to fuel retailers in the coming years. The move to electric vehicles will be exacerbated by improved production processes by EV manufacturers, leading to lower prices and healthier demand for EVs. However, retailers looking to navigate the evolving landscape will need to invest heavily in improving their biofuel offerings to remain competitive. This will also prompt new entrants as they explore renewable energy opportunities, driving consolidation activity as larger retailers scoop them up in the coming years.

For most of the past two decades, China had the highest GDP growth of any of the BRICS countries, although it was overtaken by India in the mid-2010s, and India is predicted to have the highest growth in the 2020s. All five countries saw their GDP growth fall during the global financial crisis in 2008, and again during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020; China was the only economy that continued to grow during both crises, although India's economy also grew during the Great Recession. In 2014, Brazil experienced its own recession due to a combination of economic and political instability, while Russia also went into recession due to the drop in oil prices and the economic sanctions imposed following its annexation of Crimea.

The oil production in Angola was measured at 1.32 million barrels per day in January 2022, improving from 1.29 million barrels in the previous month. During the period observed, the output reached the highest in the first quarter of 2020. After that, it started an overall downward trend. In 2021, the country produced on average 1.2 million barrels of oil daily, the lowest level in the last fifteen years. Currently, Angola’s challenge lies in reversing this decline in production, as the activity has an enormous influence on the country’s economy.

Angolan economic growth relies on the oil industry

Angola’s GDP is forecast to increase by three percent in 2022, showing signs of recovery after years of recession. Higher global oil prices, combined with the relaxation of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic restrictions, are likely to drive the Angolan economic growth. Being the second largest oil producer in Africa, Angola relies strongly on this resource. Around one-third of the country’s GDP is rooted in the oil industry. Moreover, crude oil, natural gas, and refined oil account for almost all national exports.

Oil sector lacks investment

Despite vast oil reserves, Angola’s oil sector struggles with a lack of investment. For instance, capital expenditure, often used for new projects and investments, declined to three billion U.S. dollars in 2021, against 15 billion U.S. dollars in 2014. To face such issues and revitalize the sector, the Angolan government released a strategic plan for the exploration of hydrocarbons between 2020 and 2025 and approved new tax incentives to boost the oil industry. Furthermore, investment to increase the national oil refining capacity is also planned, with new refineries expected to start operations by 2025.

According to quarterly pulse monitors, the Dutch economy will face a recession in 2020 due to the coronavirus and geopolitical events. This according to one of five sources in the Netherlands that presented an economic outlook for 2020. From 2018 to 2019, GDP in the Netherlands showed a *** percent growth. On March 9, 2020, Rabobank economists calculated that a *** percent of GDP growth was expected for 2020. The source originally noted, however, that this is not only due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Netherlands also was going to feel the future effects of the United Kingdom leaving the EU, as the UK was one of the Netherlands’ biggest trading partners. During March 2020, the Dutch economy was also negatively impacted by events such as the U.S. -China trade war or the sudden drop in oil prices. By June 2020, the *** percent GDP growth forecast was revised to minus *** percent.

Is COVID-19 going to have a bigger impact in the Netherlands than in other European countries?

According to a forecast from the European Commission conducted in July 2020, the Dutch economy suffered a GDP hit of *** percent quarter-to-quarter in Q1 2020. In addition, a projected quarterly GDP decline of **** percent was estimated in Q2 2020. Real GDP for the year 2020 was predicted to decline by **** percent, a figure that was lower than real GDP losses predicted for other European countries. While the Netherlands successfully adopted emergency measures to protect employment, it was expected that the Dutch economy would be affected by lower private consumption and exports. Economic consequences in the Netherlands were predicted to be not as negative as in other countries. Belgium, for instance, was expected to face a GDP loss of **** percent.

Back to reality: Dutch economic consequences so far

The coronavirus and its resulting quarantine measures caused, the largest decrease in domestic household consumption in the Netherlands in over 20 years. Restaurants were believed to be especially hit by the pandemic, whereas expenditure on food, beverages, and tobacco went up. Furthermore, between May and June 2020, the monthly unemployment rate of the Netherlands increased greatly. In January 2020, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for ages 15 until 75 years stood at ***** percent, whereas by July it had increased to *** percent.

In terms of net material product* (the Soviet version of GDP), industrial growth rates in the Eastern Bloc in the early 1970s were fairly consistent, before a series of conflicts in the Middle East saw oil prices soar and sporadic recessions spread across Europe in the subsequent decade. Poland and Romania experienced the highest growth rates in the early years due to their reliance on Western investment; however, this would prove detrimental in the years to come. Other nations such as East Germany and Bulgaria saw more modest and consistent growth throughout these two decades, although all countries experienced recession with the collapse of European communism in the late 1980s Poland The reason for Poland's dramatic decline between 1978 and 1981 was due to the foreign debt accumulated by Poland under the Gierek regime (1970-1980), as the government attempted to modernize Poland's industry and establish trade links outside of the COMECON. As the West prospered, so too did Poland. However, the Recession of 1973-1975 hit the West much harder than the Eastern Bloc. This recession had a knock-on effect on Poland, causing the price of western imports to increase, the demand for Polish exports to drop, and creditors began to demand repayment, which led to further borrowing.

Economic hardship then exposed the instability and ineffectiveness of Poland's industrial sector, and the relatively progressive policies of the Gierek administration allowed trade unions to emerge in ways that were not possible in other Eastern Bloc countries. Solidarity emerged as the most powerful of these trade unions in 1980, with ten million members (of a total population of 35 million) at its peak; the government's implementation of martial law in an attempt to subdue Solidarity's influence then led to further sanctions from the West. As restrictions eased and economic aid arrived from the Soviet Union, Poland's net material product then grew from 1983 onwards. However, it fluctuated on a downward trend until communism's end in June 1989.