Leading Gulf petroleum-producing countries will have to invest up to $500bn in the region’s oil and gas industry by 2020 to meet growing global and domestic demand, MEED’s Hydrocarbons EPC Projects 2010 Conference in Abu Dhabi was told on 22 November.

“The International Energy Agency forecasts that Gulf oil output will grow by more than 80 per cent by 2035 and this will mean that the high levels of investment in Gulf production capacity seen in the past decade will continue and even increase in the years to come,” chairman of MEED Events Edmund O’Sullivan said. “Gulf oil and gas projects will also be larger and more complex than ever before.”

The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast earlier in November that world oil production will rise to 96 million barrels a day (b/d) in 2035 and that Opec’s output will increase by 30 per cent in this period to 44 million b/d.

The IEA forecasts oil prices will rise to $130 barrel in inflation-adjusted terms in 2035 unless there was concerted action to contain global energy consumption.

The MEED Hydrocarbons EPC Projects 2010 Conference is sponsored by Essar Projects and Huawei.