MENA Gas Wealth to Last 30 Years

Gulf and the Middle East and North Africa nations have around 88 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of proven natural gas deposits which can last more than 30 years at current production growth rates, Emirate24/7 has reported.

According to the Saudi-based Arab Petroleum Investment Corp (Apicorp), an affiliate of the 10-nation Organization of Arab petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), the undiscoverable gas deposits in the region are estimated at 26.6 tcm.

The proven reserves account for nearly 42 per cent of the world’s total gas wealth and most of them are based in the UAE, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

“For a production growth of 6.9 per cent a year, which corresponds to the last 10‐year average, future volumes from remaining reserves would last 33 years….this is just above the conventional 30‐year time horizon for strategic planning in the field of exploration and development (E&D),” Apicorp’s senior consultant Ali Aissaoui said in a five-page study sent to Emirates 24/7.

Aissaoui’s figures showed Iran had around 33.1 tcm of recoverable gas deposits at the start of 2012 while they were estimated at 25 tcm in Qatar, 8.2 tcm in Saudi Arabia, 6.1 tcm in the UAE, 4.5 tcm in Algeria, 3.6 tcm in Iraq, 2.2 tcm in Egypt, 1.8 tcm in Kuwait, 1.5 tcm in Libya and around 0.9 tcm in Oman.

Undiscovered deposits were put at 12.8 tcm in Saudi Arabia, 5.9 tcm in Iran, 0/92 tcm in Algeria, 0.81 tcm in the UAE, 0.77 tcm in Qatar, 0.63 tcm in Oman, around 0.39 tcm in Libya and 0.38 tcm in Egypt.