Refining capacity-expansion plans feel the heat

As refining projects across much of the Middle East come under threat from cost inflation, Saudi Arabia seems determined to push ahead with large capacity additions, writes James Gavin

THE MIDDLE East's biggest oil producers are planning a series of ambitious refining projects to add value to their crude streams and to rebut accusations that they are not doing enough to address the global oil-supply shortage. Schemes proposed and planned would add some 9m barrels a day (b/d) of refining capacity, through a combination of plant expansions and new projects. But severe cost inflation means that not all of them will go ahead. Across the region, expenditure planned for refining projects dwarfs upstream spending budgets. According to estimates by Saudi Arabia-based energy finance group Apicorp, total investments in the oil downstream for the 2008-12 period amount to $105bn, comp