Where The Middle East’s Next 20 Billion Barrels Are Coming From

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Why it matters

Wood Mackenzie predicts that the Middle East and North Africa will add at least 20 billion barrels of new oil reserves, despite global upstream operators cutting investment in 2026 due to low oil prices.

Article tone

Neutral How the article is written, as reported by the source.

Expected market reaction

Bullish Confidence 80% How confidence is read Horizon: Short term Impact: Moderate

Market impact analysis based on bullish sentiment with 80% confidence.

Evidence trail

Evidence
Source OilPrice.com
Claim Where The Middle East’s Next 20 Billion Barrels Are Coming From
AI inference Bullish · 80%
Generated 2026-01-13 00:00

AI provenance

Analysed by Llama 3.1 8B Instant (Groq) Methodology v1.0 Generated
Technical identifiers
Provider tag
groq-llama-3.1-8b-instant
Analysis version
groq-llama-3.1-8b-instant
Article id
31748

Original source

Previously, we reported that global upstream operators will cut investment for a second consecutive year in 2026, with capital expenditure expected to fall by at least 2-3% year-on-year, and more than 5% compared to 2024 levels, as the industry navigates sub-$60/bbl oil prices while maintaining focus on long-term resilience. Still, Wood Mackenzie has predicted that operators will continue to add strategic, new growth opportunities in several regions across the globe. To wit, the Middle East and North Africa are slated to add at least 20 billion…

Read the full article on OilPrice.com

Original article published by OilPrice.com on January 13, 2026. Analysis and insights provided by AnalystMarkets AI.

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