The UAE and four other Arab oil producers are planning to pump nearly US$470 billion into projects to expand their hydrocarbon output capacity to meet domestic and external demand, their oil group said recently.
p>The UAE and four other Arab oil producers are planning to pump nearly US$470 billion into projects to expand their hydrocarbon output capacity to meet domestic and external demand, their oil group said recently.
But the region, which controls over half the world's extractable oil deposits, needs to be reassured by industrial nations that demand would grow and such investments would not be wasted in idle capacity, the 10-nation Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (Oapec) said in its monthly bulletin. Over the next five years, investments in oil, gas and other energy development ventures by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Algeria are estimated at about US$470 billionn, nearly 70 per cent of the total Arab energy projects, it said.
Upstream, midstream and downstream gas projects are expected to get the lion's share of those investments, accounting for nearly 36 per cent, the report said. A breakdown showed Saudi Arabia, the world's oil superpower which controls over 20 per cent of global crude resources, could invest nearly US$170 billion in the coming five years while investments by Algeria are estimated at US$69 billion. Kuwait has also announced it would pump nearly US$87 billion into its oil sector while Qatar is projected to channel in excess of US$70 billion, mostly in its liquefied natural gas to maintain its position as the world's top LNG supplier.
Oapec's figures showed the Arab region's proven oil reserves stood at 667.4 billion barrels at the end of 2009.
