The Middle East is home to some of the world’s largest conventional onshore and offshore oil and gas fields. The most prominent fields in the region include Ghawar and the Safaniya oil fields in Saudi Arabia, the Burgan oil field in Kuwait, the Rumaila oil fields in Iraq.
According to APIOCRP, MENA’s five-year energy investment portfolio in the next five years comprises a total investment of $879 billion, which is a 9% increase over the investment projection for 2021 – 2025.
Of all the projects in the pipeline for implementation, about 30% are in the execution phase, while the remaining 70% are in the planning stage. The increase in project expenditure is spearheaded by the GCC, with committed projects making up more than 45% of the Gulf States’ total energy investments, according to a recent report by Oilfield Technology.
National oil companies in the region have committed investments in the upstream sector to increase the country’s oil and natural gas production in the coming years:
Saudi Aramco targets to increase its sustainable production capacity to 12.3 million bpd by 2025, thereby bringing additional output to meet global energy requirements. The plan is to further raise the production capacity to 12.7 million bpd by 2026 before reaching 13 million bpd by 2027.
The kingdom plans phase-wise expansion of the nation’s production capacity – The Dammam field is forecasted to yield an additional 75,000 bpd by 2024, and the offshore Marjan and Berri fields are set to provide another 300,000 bpd and 250,000 bpd, respectively by 2025. The Zuluf field expansion is projected to add 600,000 bpd by 2026 and the Safaniyah development is set to increase production by 700,000 bpd by late 2027.
The ADNOC board recently endorsed plans to bring forward the company’s 5 million bpd oil production capacity expansion to 2027 from a previous target of 2030 to meet rising global energy demand.
Qatar Energy has planned expansion of the North Field to ramp up its liquefaction capacity from 77 mtpa to 126 million mtpa by 2027. The project will boost Qatar’s position as the world’s top LNG exporter and help guarantee long-term supplies of gas to Europe as the continent seeks alternatives to Russian flows.