Northern Africa bucks the trend with record gas spend

Global near term investment has been cut by US$370 billion, or 30%, since oil prices began to fall in 2014, and Northern Africa is no exception. However, thanks to a number of ongoing developments and major recent discoveries, investment on gas projects in the region will push capex to record levels in 2018 and 2019. The up-tick is being driven by a crop of key developments across the region from Morocco in the west to Egypt in the east, fuelled in most cases by rising domestic demand. Multi billion dollar developments in Egypt such as Eni's Zohr and BP's West Nile Delta account for over US$23 billion between them, but many other projects are adding to the trend. We review the key drivers for this shift to gas and the risks and rewards for the companies making the investments.