Planned energy investments in Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries are set to reach $272 billion by 2015, the chairman of the GCC Energy Working Group told a conference on Monday.

Of the total, $111 billion of those investments are planned in the upstream and downstream oil sectors and $108 billion for the gas value chain, Majid Abdullah Al-Moneef said.

The remaining $53 billion will be invested in water and power in the region, said Al-Moneef, who is also a member of the economic and energy committee of the consultative assembly of Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.

'These investments are to meet the world demand, domestic consumption and (energy) diversification drive,' he said.

The current oil production of GCC countries is going to rise to 1.6 million barrels per day by 2015, and the excess capacity of the region, estimated at 5 million barrels per day, is to remain at that level until then, he said.

'But thereafter by 2030, it would decline to 2-2.5 million barrels per day,' he said.-Reuters