The Platts Global Petrochemical Price Index has tracked the Brent crude oil price downwards. After peaking at 1,463 points in July 2014, the Index has since declined by 47 per cent, hitting a low of 769 points at the end of September 2015

US consultancy McKinsey identified 2015 as a pivotal year that would see demand for gas start to outstrip domestic production, due to the rapid expansion of the power sector and energy intensive industry

Ethane and propane production in the Middle East is expected to make up a smaller portion of total feedstock used in ehylene production. New petrochemical complexes in the Middle East are expected to use increasing amounts of naphtha and other liquid feedstocks as gas is in shorter supply

Polyethylene is the highest volume commodity plastic produced by Middle Eastern petrochemicals companies. GCC producers have a competitive advantage in using low-cost ethane feedstock

Polypropylene is a thermoplastic polymer used in products such as packaging, labeling and textiles

Polyolefins is the basis for many large capacity expansions in the Middle East. They are produced using feedstock from high volume steam crackers

There are an estimated $30.1bn-worth of petrochemicals plants in the Middle East under construction

There are an estimated $109bn-worth of petrochemicals projects due for award between 2015 and 2020. However, with the fall in the oil price and governments tightening their spending, it is unlikely all planned projects will move ahead

2017 is slated to be a key year for contract awards in the petrochemicals sector. Again though, it is unlikely that all projects will move ahead to schedule