Although Gulf economic development has drawn much attention from international banks and consultancies, there is limited integrated research into the region’s long-term institutional and sectoral development and hence its long term geoeconomic significance. The aim of this article, is to point out the limited diversification of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies. For this purpose, six indicators that quantify core concepts of GCC hydrocarbon-based economies have been integrated in a synthetic index that signalize the high concentration of GCC economies and compares them with the economies of Germany, France, and Norway.