The Iranian energy projects market represents a $167 billion opportunity for regional and international companies as the Islamic Republic prepares for the lifting of sanctions, a report said.
According to the latest data from Meed Projects, the Mena leading projects tracking service, there are 197 individual energy (oil, gas, petrochemical, industry and utilities) projects either planned or under way in Iran, a number that could well double as sanctions are gradually lifted.
According to Meed Projects data, the largest single future project in the Iranian energy sector is the estimated $4.5 billion Kish Gas Development, followed by the $3.2 billion Anahita oil refinery in Western Iran. Another major future projects include the $3 billion Nalco aluminium complex and the $2.5 billion Jask oil terminal project.
New capital intensive grassroots projects are not the only area of potential opportunity. Due to the embargo, much of Iran’s energy infrastructure requires upgrading and modernisation, particularly with technology that was previously unavailable.
Based on the Meed Projects installed asset database there are more than 200 individual facilities commissioned over the past 15 years in the country with an asset value in excess of $100 billion, and a further 250 projects built before 2000 that require substantial brownfield investment.
“With a GDP of some $400 billion, a population of close to 80 million, and the world’s third largest gas and fourth largest oil reserves, Iran has long represented an excellent projects opportunity,” said Ed James, director of Content & Analysis at Meed Projects.
“However, it is only now with the impending lifting of sanctions that international companies – for the first time in a decade – have the opportunity to invest in the local projects market.”
That Iran requires investment is not in doubt; the value of energy contracts awarded has declined substantially as the sanctions regime took its toll, James noted.
With the exception of 2010, the value of energy contracts has declined from a peak of $21.1 billion in 2005 to just $6.9 billion last year. As sanctions are lifted the value of work awarded in Iran is expected to return to levels last seen more than a decade ago.
In terms of the $167 billion of active energy projects either planned or under way, the largest single segment is gas at $88 billion followed by oil at $47 billion and then power at $10.6 billion. – TradeArabia News Service
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