Increased production is set to bring decline to the UAE’s proven oil and gas reserves over the next few years, a recent report revealed.
Business Monitor International’s (BMI) United Arab Emirates Oil and Gas Report projected that proven oil reserves will fall by 5.8 billion barrels from 96.8 billion barrels in 2011 to just over 91 billion barrels by 2016.
BMI, an independent information provider in country risk and industry research, also forecasted a rise in oil production to over 3.2 million barrels per day by 2016 and nearly 3.5 million barrels per day by 2021. The increase in output would be supported by re-development of mature fields, the deployment of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and investment from international oil companies and national oil companies, the report added.
Prices
BMI report also suggested that the UAE’s gas reserves will be down from six trillion cubic metres (tcm) in 2011 to around 5.8 tcm by 2016. By 2016, BMI sees output of around 66bcm, rising to 74bcm by 2021 thanks to the boost gas production will receive from the start-up of the Shah sour gas project.
The UAE will continue to export modest volumes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) while importing pipeline gas via Dolphin from Qatar, the report added. It did not factor a volume rise for either flow into its forecasts.
Global oil consumption has registered a sharp decline over the past few months due to a record surge in prices. World oil demand in the Q4 of 2011 plummeted due to poor economic activities in Europe and North America. Many analysts believe that oil prices will come down due to high liquidity and boosting of inventories as supply remains very volatile.
