Certainly the high oil price has lead to a significant rise in project activity in the region “ especially related to petrochemicals.
So what is attractive about the region “ particularly when in the past it has been mainly ignored by the major international industrial gas suppliers, apart from plant and equipment sales? The answer is oil and gas and the opportunities for a huge expansion in the use of industrial gases as the oil rich nations cash-in on the high oil prices to invest in downstream activities other than oil production.
According to Spiritus Consulting the market size has reached $865m in 2005, growing from a level of $510m in 1997 “ representing a average annual growth rate of seven per cent over the period.
The largest markets are those in Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Figure 1 graphically represents the split by country of the market in the Middle East “ which includes Turkey, the East Mediterranean zone (excluding Egypt), the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Growth is expected to accelerate to above 14 per cent per year over the next fi ve years as new projects come on-stream and the activities of some of the major international gas companies such as Air Liquide and Linde drive application know-how in the region.
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