Abu Dhabi’s various state-owned oil and gas companies are all singing from the same sheet when it comes to the future of oil and gas. They are banking on petrochemicals as the key growth market and plan on investing accordingly. This is a tune that resonates elsewhere in the Gulf, with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar also all betting on petrochemicals.
The only dissenter is Bahrain which is adamantly relying on continued strong demand for transportation fuels. It plans to benefit from the looming IMO regulations which will ban high sulfur shipping fuel from 2020. Bapco’s Dawood Nassif told MPGC this week that he expects diesel to emerge as the key maritime bunkering fuel and that its downstream focus therefore remains firmly on middle distillates diesel and kerosene. (CONTINUED - 1018 WORDS)
