A new level of intelligence, developed with leading analysts and industry experts
Visit Now
Take out a print and online or online only subscription to get immediate access to:
Alternatively REGISTER for an additional 2 free accesses and sign up for email alerts
Tertiary recovery techniques are being seriously considered by Middle East oil producers with heavy investment earmarked for the technology
Upstream spending in the Middle East is increasingly being directed towards enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects to boost the performance of long-serving mature fields, rather than exploring new discoveries.
Oman was the first in the region to adopt EOR techniques and successfully arrested the decline in its output from 2007. Now, other countries are also looking to the technology to get more from their ageing workhorses. Kuwait and the UAE are already executing schemes and international oil companies in Iraq are studying how EOR may benefit its oil sector.
The biggest future market, however, is Saudi Arabia, which is home to both the world’s largest onshore oil field and biggest offshore asset.
Long-running maintenance programmes have proved effective so far in sustaining production levels in the kingdom, but the time is approaching when all Aramco’s mature fields will require extensive EOR techniques.
These projects will be crucial to ensuring Saudi Aramco is able to continue in its role as the world’s swing oil producer. It is this that gives Riyadh its powerful position in the global economy and makes US and Western governments court its political allegiances. For that reason, Aramco is already preparing the groundwork and expanding its Maintain Potential Programme.
Governments across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region are beginning to boost the amount of time and money they put into researching and implementing renewable energy projects to assist efforts to meet growing demand for electricity.
Projects spending in MEED’s Top 100 Construction Index grew during 2013 and with economies around the region improving, this is expected to continue. This webinar examined projects market trends in the Middle East and forecasts which areas will grow in 2014.
It was the hardship posting to end all hardship postings. British officers went quite literally round the bend to get there, writes Matthew Teller, and perhaps sometimes metaphorically too. In 1863 Britain was looking to strengthen its control over the Gulf. The eager new ambassador to the region, Political Resident ...
The India Office exercised colonial rule over an area stretching west as far as Aden. Stories are being brought to light in a £8.7m project for nearly half a million documents relating to the Gulf to be digitised.
