Arab Gulf Countries Announced $10 Billion In New Oil And Gas Projects In Q1

The Arab Gulf countries announced as much as US$10 billion worth of new projects in the oil and gas sector during the first quarter of 2021, out of the total US$32.3 billion projects in all sectors, a new report showed this week.

The oil and gas industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—added the second-largest value of projects in Q1 after the utility sector, according to the Projects Journal of construction intelligence provider BNC Network, cited by Tradearabia.

The announced projects in utilities were worth a total of US$14.5 billion, according to BNC Network’s estimates.

In all sectors, Saudi Arabia accounted for 54 percent of the Q1 announcements with projects worth US$19 billion, followed by Qatar with 21 percent of the value of Q1 announcements.  

In the oil and gas sector, it was Qatar that contributed the most to the US$10 billion worth of projects in the GCC in the first quarter, with the announcement of the expansion of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity.

Qatar approved in February 2021 the world’s LNG project in terms of capacity, when Qatar Petroleum took the final investment decision to build the North Field East Project (NFE), which is set to raise Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 million tons per annum (mmtpa) to 110 mmtpa by 2025. The project, expected to start production in the fourth quarter of 2025, will cost US$28.75 billion, which would make it one of the industry’s largest investments in recent years.

Qatar also plans another expansion phase at the North Field, the world’s largest natural gas field, which it shares with Iran. The second expansion phase will be the North Field South Project (NFS), set to further increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 110 mmtpa to 126 mmtpa, with an expected production start date in 2027.