The oil and gas sector
provides around a third of the UAE's Gross National Product and remains the
dominant contributor of Government revenues.
Oil production in Abu Dhabi
is around 2 million barrels a day. Gas is increasingly important, both for
export, and for meeting local demand, from domestic and industrial consumers
and from power generation and water desalination plants.
Dubai produces around 240,000
barrels a day of oil and substantial quantities of gas from offshore fields,
with a major condensate field onshore, while Sharjah has smaller oil and gas
fields.
On the East
Coast, Fujairah is the third largest bunkering port in the world, although
all of the fuel is imported. Downstream development of refineries,
petrochemical plants and other related industries is increasingly creating
an integrated oil and gas sector, equivalent to that of industrialized
nations.
Oil and gas production has
been the mainstay of the economy in the UAE and will remain a major revenue
earner long into the future, due to the vast hydrocarbon reserves at the
country’s disposal. Proven recoverable oil reserves are currently put at
98.2 billion barrels or 9.5 percent of the global crude oil proven reserves.
As for natural gas, the proven recoverable reserves are estimated currently
at 5.8 billion cubic meters or 4 percent of the world total. This means that
the UAE possesses the third largest natural gas reserves in the region and
the fourth largest in the world. At the current rate of utilization, and
excluding any new discoveries, these reserves will last for over 150 years.
The UA E ’s oil production is limited by quotas agreed within the framework
of OPE C to 2 million barrels per day (mbd). Production capacity, however,
will rise to around 3 mbd in the year 2000. There are plans to boost that
level to 3.6 mbd in the year 2005 and 4 mbd in the year 2010. Gas production
is being expanded to meet a forecast doubling of demand to 3.7 billion cubic
feet per day (bn cfd) by the year 2000. Domestic demand is expected to
increase from 813 million cubic feet per day (mn cfd) in 1996 to 1.137 bn
cfd by the year 2000, while gas used for reinjection is projected to double
to 1.8 bn cfd. The value of oil exports dropped from Dh 49.1 billion in 1997
to Dh 35.7 billion in 1998 (-27.3 per cent) due to the deterioration in oil
prices which fell by 34 per cent during 1998 compared with 1997 levels, to
reach US $12.4 a barrel. The value of liquefied gas exports also dropped
from Dh 8.5 billion in 1997 to Dh 6.5 billion in 1998, due to the fall in
its prices which are closely linked with oil prices and owing to the fact
that the value of gas exports in 1997 included a one-time payment of Dh 1.5
billion made to ADGAS by its main importer Tokyo Electricity Power Company.
The UAE exports 62 per cent of its crude oil to Japan making it the UAE’s
largest customer. Gas exports are almost entirely to Japan, the world's
largest buyer of liquefied gas, with the UAE supplying almost one-eighth of
Japan's entire requirements.
Source: U.A.E. government
 |
The story of oil - a drama that
involved Alexander The Great, Greek Kings, Cleopatra and Mark Antony, the embalming of the
dead and the birth of the Egyptian "mummy" industry ........read on....... |
