Lowering Consumption, Boosting Exports
In 2005 the UAE became the one of the first major oil-producing countries to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Convention on Climate Change. As part of its energy diversification strategy, the UAE is working in a variety of ways to reduce its carbon footprint, meet its own domestic energy needs and expand exports:- Abu Dhabi is investing more than $20 billion in Masdar, the world’s largest and most comprehensive alternative energy program. US partners include MIT, Columbia University, Colorado-based CH2MHill, Chicago-based Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture and other institutions worldwide, such as WWF, Imperial College of London and Tokyo Institute of Technology.
- The UAE is exploring nuclear energy to meet rapidly growing demand for electricity, due to tremendous growth as well as intense water desalination requirements. This reduces domestic demand for natural gas and the need for dirty, oil-burning power plants used to meet peak demand during hot summer months.
- In the first major cross-border energy deal between Gulf countries, the UAE is importing natural gas by pipeline from Qatar. The gas supports domestic electricity demands and frees Abu Dhabi’s natural gas supply for crude oil recovery. The project began delivering gas to power companies in the second quarter of 2007.
- Among other energy efficiency and environmental projects, Dubai is developing the region’s most extensive light rail system, to move cars off the road, reduce pollution and ease traffic congestion.
Working with Global Partners
The UAE has a history of welcoming private-sector investment into its upstream oil and gas exploration and production sector. Abu Dhabi was the only OPEC member not to nationalize the holdings of foreign investors during the wave of nationalization that swept the global oil and gas industry in the mid-1970s, and it continues to benefit from high levels of private-sector investment. Today international oil companies from the United States, Japan, France, Britain and other countries continue to hold combined equity stakes of between 40 and 100 percent in Abu Dhabi’s vast oil concessions.Occidental Petroleum of the US and Total of France each has a 24.5 percent equity stake in the Dolphin gas pipeline project. ExxonMobil recently won a tender for the redevelopment of the Upper Zakum field, which will ultimately increase oil production by more than 220,000 barrels per day. Most recently, ConocoPhillips won a multi-billion dollar competition for the development of significant natural gas reserves in Abu Dhabi, further limiting the amount of crude oil that would need to be burned domestically for internal electricity generation.
Source : http://www.uae-embassy.org/uae/energy/global-oil-supply
