The headlines have been pretty negative of late, I think you’ll agree. A glance at the day’s news before I wrote this column found content including “oil price crash,” “no sunshine for drillers,” “job cuts,” “spending plunge,” and so on.

But there are bright spots out there to give encouragement as we get into the meat of a year that will be hard for many involved in this global business. As the industry slowdown in terms of spending on projects and developments bites, there are sectors of the upstream industry that look set to buck the trend.

One I can highlight is the emerging floating LNG (FLNG) market. Despite being a relatively new segment associated with the spending of multiple billions of dollars up front before any revenue is made, this is a sector that is likely to benefit from the downturn.

The floating production business overall is expected to suffer a pause in its growth as projects are delayed (although few will actually be cancelled). It had a strong 2014, with more than 30 contracts awarded worth more than $18 billion, according to a report by Energy Maritime Associates (EMA). EMA is forecasting that there will be around 142 orders for new floating systems over the 2015-19 period, representing $118.5 billion of investment.

The expectation of a continued lower oil price this year has reduced its forecasts, it admitted. “However, given the apparent ability to finance small/mid-size LNG-related projects, we have increased the number of FLNG and FSRU [floating storage and regasification units] orders, which are expected to account for 25% of the capex over the next five years,” it continued.

There are already clear signs that EMA’s optimism for the smaller-scale FLNG business is based on solid ground. Pioneers such as Exmar and Golar LNG have both placed speculative orders for FLNG units in recent times despite collapsing prices. These companies are basing their decisions on the long-term certainty that the global energy market needs more oil and gas (increasingly the latter) and that prices will not stay low for too long.

Exmar ordered what will be its second FLNG facility to be built in China by Wison Offshore & Marine and complete by 2017 (with options for two further units). The company is “actively working” on seven FLNG projects, it said.

Golar LNG, meanwhile, signed an agreement with Societe Nationale de Hydrocarbures and Perenco to develop an FLNG project offshore Cameroon using its GoFLNG technology on the Golar Hilli facility.

It also has lined up the $705 million conversion of an LNG tanker into a second FLNG unit, the Golar Gimi, at Keppel. Both will use Black & Veatch’s PRICO topsides liquefaction technology.

This is innovative work being planned and implemented in a market that didn’t exist a few years ago. Often from the uncertainty of low price environments transformative technologies emerge. We may well be witnessing the coming of age of another evolutionary industry segment right in front of our eyes.

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