Oil, gas and petrochemical projects, valued at more than $859bn are either underway or planned in the Middle East and North Africa. Of these projects, $283bn are being implemented as the region prepares to meet the forecast increases in demand for energy over the next two decades.
According to industry forecasts, global oil demand will increase by at least 10mn barrels per day by 2040, while natural gas demand is set to grow by 40%, and petrochemicals by 60%. The expansion in demand for petroleum and petrochemicals in particular, says dmg, is driving downstream investment across the MENA region.
According to research by MEED, the business intelligence and analytics specialist, Saudi Aramco is the largest single spender in the region’s oil and gas sector, with more than $31bn worth of contracts under execution. The next three highest spenders are Kuwait’s three largest oil and gas companies with a combined $42.2bn worth of projects underway. Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has projects with a combined contract value of $16.7bn under execution across both its onshore and offshore upstream businesses. Outside the GCC, Iraq’s State Company for Oil Project and Algeria’s Sonatrach have $13.7bn worth of projects in progress.
Leading the way in terms of pre-execution contract values is Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, with projects worth $19.5bn in the pipeline, $13.7bn of which is in the bidding phase. Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum has plans for $12.3bn worth of projects; the Kuwait Oil Company has a $12.3bn project pipeline and Algeria’s Sonatrach has announced plans to go ahead with $10.8bn worth of projects, including a $2.5bn contract for the Hassi Messaoud refinery.
