JEDDAH: The total value of petroleum projects in the Gulf countries was estimated at $726 billion in February 2011, which represents an increase of about $10 billion from last January 2011, Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) said in its industry note for February. In contrast, it stood at $731 billion in Q1 2010. The number of planned major projects over the next decade in the GCC region's petroleum sector has significantly increased over the last year. The number stands at 684 projects compared to 637 projects during Q1 of 2010, it noted. Seventeen major projects in the petroleum sector are expected to be completed this quarter, Markaz added, valued at $11.4 billion. Two prominent projects are QP/ExxonMobile-Barzan Gas Development – Onshore (Phase 1) and Ofshore (Phase1) projects which have an estimated cost of $2.5 billion, the report said. Iran continues to lead the regional petroleum sector investment outlook, in terms of number and value of project, it said. The majority of the region's outlook is heavily skewed toward the upstream oil and gas segment, except for Saudi Arabia which is almost equally distributed between all segments, Markaz further said. There have been no major changes month-to-month in the number and value of projects for Saudi Arabia, it added. Saudi Arabia has around 133 upcoming projects in the petroleum sector with an estimated value of approximately $127.5 billion. Saudi Arabia projects are heavily focused on the petrochemicals segment. Saudi Arabia's largest ongoing project in the refining sector is Saudi Aramco's Yanbu Export Refinery, which currently is in the execution phase, Markaz report said. The project's cost stands at $10 billion and is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2014. The project consists of developing a 400,000 barrels a day full-conversion refinery in Yanbu. The refinery will be focused on processing Arabian Heavy Crude and produce high-quality, ultra-low sulfur refined products that meet international product specifications. Elsewhere in the region, state-owned Kuwait Gulf Oil Co. (KGOC) plans to tender a natural gas pipeline project at a total cost of more than KWD32 million, Kuwait-based An Nahar daily reports Wednesday citing an executive. The pipeline will carry natural gas from Al Khafji area (on the Saudi border with Kuwait) to Kuwait City to feed the power generation plants there, Bader Al Khashti, KGOC's chairman, said. Yemen signed an agreement Sunday to implement the second phase of the Marib Gas Power Plant Project with a capacity of 400 MW at a total cost of about $392.7 million. Baghdad is set to sign a long-awaited $12 billion JV contract with Royal Dutch Shell this month to harvest about 700 million cubic feet per day of gas that is being burnt at the cluster of super-giant oilfields near Basra. KBR Inc. said it has been awarded the contract to carry out early engineering and project management services for Aramco on a long-awaited grassroots refinery project in Jizan. Qatargas has produced the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its new train seven plant, the company said Wednesday. Royal Dutch Shell owns 30 percent of the 7.8 mtpa LNG plant in Qatar – already the world's biggest LNG exporter – with state-owned Qatar Petroleum holding 70 percent. A review of the petroleum sector's major project time frame underscores that the majority of these projects have a short-term horizon. In terms of timing, projects categorized as having a long-term horizon account for 32 percent of projects. Over the last month a marginal number of projects have been brought forward to the short time-frame which accounts for 56.3 percent of total projects.
