Middle East Projects Outlook

The Middle East expects strong growth this year, supported by mega-development projects and booming energy sector.

The World Bank forecasts economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa region to be 3.6% in 2026 before accelerating to 3.9% in 2027. In Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the growth projection is 4.4% in 2026 and 4.6% in 2027, driven by rising oil production and private sector dynamism.

The Middle East has maintained its 30% share of global oil production and 17–18% of gas output, underscoring its role in energy dominance globally. Mena region has over $640bn worth of oil, gas and petrochemicals projects currently in the pipeline.

The GCC market has a strong pipeline of planned projects valued at $3.2tn in construction, oil and gas, petrochemicals, power and utilities and transport sectors. Saudi Arabia is the leading regional projects market with $1.65tn of planned projects, while UAE has over $875bn projects pipeline. Saudi Arabia’s Gigaproject programme has enormous investment opportunities with approximately $55bn worth of contracts tendered.

Qatar’s gas sector marked a significant surge in contracts on yearly basis reaching $12.3bn in 2025. The country is substantially increasing its gas production capacity from the North Field to 142 million tonnes by 2030. This is almost 85% increase from current gas production levels.

Digital platform is increasingly becoming a part of operational strategy in the oil and gas companies. The adoption of digital technologies and AI would help to advance sustainability, reduce emissions, streamline operations and integrate renewable energy sources.

Across the Mena region, population growth, desalination needs, and industrial expansion pushed electricity demand higher. The region is seeing massive investment in power generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Renewables are expanding significantly across the Gulf to achieve long-term goals for the sustainability and diversification of the energy sector and to accelerate the transition to clean energy sources.

UAE is the fastest-growing market for renewable energy in the region. It recorded a growth of 117% between 2022 and 2025 in the installed renewable energy capacity. The investments in the renewable sector have surpassed $51 billion and the projects currently under development would raise total capacity to more than 23 GW by 2031 that would be 35% of total energy mix.

Saudi Arabia outlines renewables to comprise 50% of output by 2030, which is about 130 GW, with about 60% of new capacity coming from solar and 40% from wind. The kingdom has nearly doubled its installed renewable capacity to 12.7 GW, driven by large-scale solar projects under the National Renewable Energy Program. A total of 64 GW of renewable energy capacity has been tendered until the end of 2025, according to the Kingdom’s Ministry of Energy.

Battery storage is also gaining momentum as a core element of grid upgrades and operational reliability, particularly to stabilize renewable-heavy networks. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are mandating storage alongside new solar and wind builds. 30 GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) projects have been tendered till date in Saudi Arabia, with 8 GWh connected to the grid.

The Middle East is rapidly emerging as a global powerhouse for green hydrogen. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have projects worth $10.5bn and $10.28bn respectively.

The projects at the forefront in the Middle East’s hydrogen economy are NEOM Green Hydrogen Company project, which is the world’s largest and most advanced green hydrogen development, Oman’s 25 GW Intercontinental Energy complex and Egypt’s $10bn+ ACME hydrogen hub.

The project trajectory seems positive as the region is moving towards balanced diversification by maximizing hydrocarbon value while investing in clean energy.  

Editor