Abu Dhabi: The UAE is set to develop an efficient energy portfolio that will sustain future economic growth and extend the country’s position as a reliable supplier of crude oil to global markets, Suhail Al Mazroui, UAE’s Energy Minister, said on Wednesday.
“The status quo of high income and low energy prices has created some in-efficiencies, adding pressures on hydrocarbon resources and the environment,” Al Mazroui said in a statement.
Speaking ahead of the fifth UAE Energy Forum, which will be held in Abu Dhabi on January 13, the minister said that a change in habits would help improve the region’s competitiveness and increase efficiency.
The forum will bring together local and international energy industry operating in Abu Dhabi to discuss a range of topics. These include the shale oil revolution, meeting Asian demand, and the role women can play in solving talent shortage in the energy industry.
While Gulf countries, including the UAE, are among the world’s largest exporters of crude oil and natural gas, they are also considered major energy consumers. With Saudi Arabia already consuming a quarter of its oil output, Asian countries may worry that domestic consumption in Opec states is eating into export capacities.
In fact, the electricity demand in the UAE, which is almost exclusively generated from natural gas-fired power plants, is expected to rise at a rate of almost nine per cent per year till 2020.
Such an increase in demand for natural gas from power plants and industrial users has turned the UAE into a net gas importer in the past decade.
