The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will award a little over $50 billion worth of contracts in the market in 2013, almost double the $27 billion expected to be awarded this year, a report has said.

According to ‘MEED Insight’, two huge projects scheduled to get under way in Kuwait and Oman next year will help spur a major increase in the value of contracts awarded in the GCC’s oil, gas and petrochemical projects market in 2013.

The pick-up in activity will be good news to contractors which have suffered from a slowdown in activity since the market saw a record $52 billion worth of contracts awarded in 2009, said the report.

Since then, contract award levels have dropped as national oil companies evaluated their project plans; in 2010, some $40 billion worth of contracts were awarded, while this slipped to just $25 billion in 2011, it said.

However, while the market is expected to rebound next year, it will be dependent on two major projects proceeding.

“The forecast is predicated around the assumption that the $14 billion fourth refinery in Kuwait and BP’s $15 billion Khazzan tight gas scheme in Oman will go ahead,” said Ed James, Head of MEED Insight.

Developments in Kuwait and Oman are also likely to determine whether the $50 billion forecast for 2014 is met as the total includes awards on Kuwait’s $18 billion clean fuel programme and the proposed $6 billion Duqm refinery in the sultanate.

Nonetheless, there will still be a host of other major projects awarded over the next two years, including further contracts on Saudi Aramco’s Jizan refinery, major work offshore Abu Dhabi, and new world-scale petrochemical complexes in Qatar, the report said.

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