According to a recent report by the Arab Petroleum Investments Corp. (Apicorp), Oil producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) plan to spend a combined $740 billion on energy projects in the next five years.
Saudi Arabia leads the group with their plans to spend $165 billion, followed by the United Arab Emirates and their plans to invest $107 billion. Algeria has pledged to use $71 billion to finance projects, and Iran, having had to scale back its investment plans, will only contribute $68 billion.
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Apicorp explained that "tighter international sanctions, and the retreat of foreign companies, have ended up taking a toll on Iran's elusive energy investment program."
Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, has also recently praised MENA exporters "for their stabilising role in the global economy because of the good monitoring and good management of oil prices."
Although some Western countries still complain that the price of oil is too high, and that their weak economies are struggling with that pressure. In fact the US, France, and Great Britain have considered releasing their emergency oil reserves to try and flood the market with supply and reduce the costs for consumers.
By. Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More