OAPEC to spend $133bn on boosting refinery output

A study by the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) has said that Arab countries will invest over US$133 billion in boosting existing refinery capacity in the next six years.

The massive outlay will increase output to around 12.5 million barrels per day (bpd) from the present figure of around 7.5 million bpd. Most of the extra output is expected from Gulf oil producing states, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The report, published in Emirates 24/7, stated that  $96.4 billion would be spent on new facilities while the remainder would go on expansion capacity of existing refineries.

The report also said that considering the massive amounts of oil Arab states actually produce, the joint refining capacity was very low. Arab countries operate less than 10% of the world’s refineries – 64 out of a total 655 – which produce 9% of global capacity – 7.55 million bpd out of a total of 82.5 million bpd.

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FEATURED COMMENT Given that OAPEC has many wealthy member states, they should invest in changing their confusing website address of oapec   1 Comments Read more comments »

Saudi Arabia is investing massively in its refining capacity with multi-billion dollar projects at Jubail, Yanbu, Ras Tanura and Jizan. The projects will increase KSA’s capacity by 1.6 million bpd to 3.695 million bpd. Kuwait came after Saudi Arabia with planned extra capacity of 615,000 bpd, followed by Algeria with 560,000 bpd, the UAE with 500,000 bpd, Syria with 350,000 bpd, Qatar with 250,000 bpd, Libya with 200,000 bpd, Egypt with 180,000 bpd, Iraq with 170,000 bpd and Tunisia with 120,000 bpd.

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