A report by a leading energy research company, featured in this edition, has said that drilling and workover expenditure in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has the potential to increase to US$27.9 billion per year
by 2014.
The oilfield services market report 2010-2014, which can be found on page 42, should make for cheery reading for upstream service providers. It says that despite the global recession, expenditure is still likely to rise by around a third.
The report rightly highlights Iraq as a major growth area in the region as the country, fingers crossed, will soon enter a hectic activity period as it finally begins to ramp up production. The Gulf state could be producing around 3.9 million barrels of oil per day by 2014.
Much of this regional increase will stem from the re-invigoration of major producing nations, coupled with emerging countries looking to accelerate production for both domestic consumption and export.
Gas production will undergo the biggest transformation. Natural gas production alone is expected to grow by 50% across the MENA region over the next five years. Last month Yemen made its first ever LNG export delivery to South Korea, and with Abu Dhabi’s mega sour gas EPC contracts out to tender, it is clear that gas will be taking a much more dominant role in the regional energy mix in the coming years.
This month sees Doha play host to the International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC), with an expected draw of over 3000 professionals. The programme will address upstream issues that challenge industry specialists and management around the world, with a strong focus on the gas business.
To complement this major event, we met with Lee Ramsey, Schlumberger’s tight gas expert and manager of the Tight Gas Center of Excellence in Saudi Arabia, to get a flavour of his presentation to the IPTC.
