Regional Gas Trade Projects in Arab Countries, Volumes 1 and 2
Arab countries hold about 29 percent of the world's proven gas reserves, but every country (except Qatar and Algeria) is short of the gas supply needed to meet its current and projected demand. The rapid growth in gas demand is mostly a conseq...
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| Format: | Mining/Oil and Gas |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/02/19062510/regional-gas-trade-projects-arab-countries-vol-1-2-main-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17366 |
| Summary: | Arab countries hold about 29 percent of
the world's proven gas reserves, but every country
(except Qatar and Algeria) is short of the gas supply needed
to meet its current and projected demand. The rapid growth
in gas demand is mostly a consequence of a sharp increase in
electricity consumption. Gas trade in the Arab world has
been dominated by the objective of exporting gas in the form
of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to points in Asia, Europe,
and North America. Gas trade within the region is limited to
rather small volumes, moved from Algeria to Tunisia and
Morocco; from Egypt to Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon; and from
Qatar to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - all through
pipelines. The shortage of gas in the Arab countries has
become more pronounced, justifying the higher gas prices
needed to secure imported gas or to encourage domestic gas
production. Such changes in the landscape provide an impetus
for the Arab world to optimize the region's gas
resources, at least partly on the basis of meeting growing
regional demand. The objective of this study is to assist
the attempt by: (i) identifying the opportunities for gas
trade through cross-border gas pipelines and LNG; (ii)
assessing the economic and political aspects of the
identified projects; (iii) presenting financing and
implementation schemes that utilize the synergy between the
public and private sector in project formulation and
development; and (iv) reviewing the legal, regulatory, and
contractual requirements conducive to regional gas trade.
The study focuses on 16 Arab countries situated in the
Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Although the MENA
region includes some high-income countries (Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, and others), the emphasis of the
study is on the low- and middle-income countries of the
region. The study draws upon publicly available information
on gas reserves, demand, and supply to carry out an economic
analysis of gas trade projects and identify the prospective
projects for implementation in the short to medium term. |
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