By Richard Spears Three major factors define U.S. oil and gas drilling and completion activity in 2023: producers' spending discipline, continuing oil and gas demand growth, and the scarcity of capital for oil field service companies. If we reduce these to a single factor, it is continuing oil demand growth. Despite the massive political push across the globe to wish away hydrocarbons, people want more of what we make today than they did yesterday and tomorrow they will want more still. Want proof? Most years during the last three decades, global oil demand has risen one percent each year except for a few one-year hiccups that accompanied economic collapses. In 2022, oil demand climbed two percent. And we have a war. And we have stunning inflation. Our firm's forecast assumes one percent global oil demand growth in 2023. JANUARY 2023 39