Article source: ConstructConnect
The current year, 2022, is shaping up to be the best ever for mega project initiations. ‘Megas’ are projects carrying an estimated construction value of a billion dollars or more each. For many of these projects, there’s also a machinery and equipment component in the total capital spending or investment figure that is often roughly equivalent to the construction cost.
In ConstructConnect’s ‘starts’ statistics, through October of this year, there are 25 mega project starts for a combined dollar value of $83.8 billion. 2019 was the previous best period, when there were 35 megas through the full year, adding to $79.1 billion.
A key factor inspiring owners to proceed with many of the nation’s largest construction projects is the opportunity for export sales. This is particularly true in the sphere of natural resources. To go a step further, while those opportunities exist in some other areas, such as agriculture (with the building of immense soybean processing plants, as just one example), they have especially come to the fore in the field of energy products.
Due to hydraulic fracturing, the U.S. is no longer as dependent on the rest of the world for oil and natural gas as it once way. In fact, the U.S. is back in the game of exporting energy products.
Deprived of Russian energy supplies, as a fallout of the Ukraine conflict, Europe is desperate for oil and gas from alternative suppliers. A huge differential in price has opened between natural gas extracted in North America, at around $6 USD per mcf (or MMBtu), and deliveries made to Europe, or Asia for that matter, beginning at $30 USD/mcf and going skyward from there.
