Christophe de Mahieu, a partner in Dubai-based Bain and Company, told Gulf News that many oil companies are postponing or cancelling plans due to the low price for their products.
Oil prices have been falling for the past six months, from a peak of $115 a barrel in June 2014 to under $50 last month.
The amount of drilling in the US is "dropping like a stone", de Mahieu said, due to difficult cash flow situations in many companies.
In the Gulf, too, Qatar Petroleum and Shell have cancelled a major petrochemical project and Aramco has postponed or cancelled projects to cut its capital expenditure program, de Mahieu told Gulf News.
De Mahieu said that it is difficult to predict what the next six months will bring, but that he expects to see increased cuts in spending, Gulf News said. Smaller and midsize companies are likely to consider mergers, and many companies are looking to reduce operating expenditure by 10 to 15 percent through laying off staff, de Mahieu said, according to Gulf News.
Opec countries have refused to cut oil output to control the fall in oil price. De Mahieu said he can understand the logic of this, as Opec aims to protect its market share and to leave the market to balance itself through supply and demand, Gulf News said.
