Middle East Hydrogen Investment Just Hit $130 Billion — Are You Fluent in the Deals Behind It?
On 10 September 2026, the Hydrogen Council reported that committed global investment in clean hydrogen has topped $130 billion across more than 570 projects, with the oil and gas supply shock from the Middle East conflict accelerating uptake as energy security joins decarbonisation as a core driver. Saudi Arabia's $925 billion Public Investment Fund has formally approved its 2026-2030 strategy, naming clean energy a primary pillar of industrial policy, while NEOM Green Hydrogen Company moves toward completing 4 gigawatts of dedicated solar and wind capacity to power its electrolysers. Wood Mackenzie now puts the region's total energy-transition investment opportunity at $5.3 trillion through 2060.
None of that capital moves through hydrocarbon contracts anymore. It moves through project finance term sheets, IPO prospectuses, ESG disclosure frameworks and offtake structures that most energy practitioners were never trained on systematically — because until recently, there was no single text that treated the region's upstream oil and gas practice and its low-carbon pivot as one coherent subject.
Energy in the Middle East: From Black Gold to Green Horizons, edited by Samuel Ogunlaja with specialists from Gibson Dunn's global energy practice, is built for exactly that gap. It moves from comparative upstream exploration and production contracting models, through oil and gas M&A and mega-project financing, to the mechanics of low-carbon hydrogen export, AI-driven innovation across the energy value chain, and the disputes the energy transition itself is now generating.
In practice, that range earns its place on three different desks: project finance counsel structuring a hydrogen offtake or an IPO for a national oil company; ESG and compliance teams needing a working account of how ESG considerations are actually shaping deals in the region, not a generic global framework; and dispute resolution practitioners who increasingly find energy transition disagreements — not traditional upstream disputes — landing on their desks.
For academic law and business libraries building out Middle East energy coverage, it is a rare single volume that treats the region's hydrocarbon base and its clean-energy pivot as one continuous story rather than two separate reading lists — useful for energy law, project finance and comparative Gulf-economics courses alike.
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Q&A
What does Energy in the Middle East: From Black Gold to Green Horizons cover?
Upstream E&P contracting models, oil and gas M&A and mega-project financing, oil and gas IPOs, private equity in the energy transition, solar power, CCUS, low-carbon hydrogen export, ESG, energy arbitration and disputes, AI-driven innovation, Islamic project finance, and construction.
Who is this book written for?
Energy lawyers, in-house counsel, investment bankers, project finance professionals, ESG and policy analysts, academics, and law libraries working on or studying Middle Eastern energy markets.
Does it cover hydrogen and the energy transition, or only traditional oil and gas?
Both — it treats the region's hydrocarbon base and its low-carbon hydrogen, solar and CCUS pivot as one continuous subject, including the disputes the transition is generating.
Who are the contributors?
Specialists from Gibson Dunn's global energy practice, led by Samuel Ogunlaja, with an additional chapter on Islamic project finance by Shibeer Ahmed of Greenberg Traurig.
Where can I buy Energy in the Middle East: From Black Gold to Green Horizons?
Directly from CLNZ Books, with worldwide shipping and secure payment by credit card or PayPal.