JANUARY 12, 2013
Muscat: The Middle East and North African (Mena) countries are expected to pump nearly $250 billion into power projects over the next five years to expand generation capacity and meet the growing domestic demand.
The projects will be one of the main topics of discussion at the 11th Power-Gen Middle East conference which will be held in Doha, Qatar, early this month. Organisers said nearly 200 power projects are on the agenda of the February 4-6 conference which will also discuss new technologies and other power-related issues.
"Significant energy-related projects as part of the 200 planned and announced ventures valued between $100 million and $20 billion will be major points of discussion at Power-Gen in Doha," said the British PennWell Corporation, which is organising the event. "A total of $250 billion is expected to be pumped into the power sector in the Mena region over the next five years to meet regional electricity demand growth."
The statement gave no breakdown for the investments but according to an official Arab group, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are expected to pump more than $63 billion into electricity projects over the next five years to expand their power generation capacity to meet growing domestic demand.
The six countries, which control 40 per cent of the world's recoverable oil resources, will add nearly half the expected additional power generation capacity in the region, said a study by the Dammam-based Arab Petroleum Investment Corp (Apicorp). It estimated the total capital in power generation in Mena at $147.5 billion during 2013-2017 to add about 123.9 GW of electricity while the rest could cover water projects.
"A regional breakdown shows that about 43 per cent of that expansion in Mena is expected in the GCC, which remains the fastest growing area. This should come as no surprise, taking into account its record rates of urbanisation and the massive requirements for water desalination and air conditioning."
© Times of Oman 2013
