Comment: Gulf can bridge gas shortages

One might imagine that the countries of the resource-rich Arabian peninsula, with 23 per cent of the world’s gas reserves, would have an adequate supply of the fuel to meet their needs.

Yet in 2009, more than 30 years after the United Arab Emirates began exporting liquefied natural gas to Japan, the Gulf Co-operation Council countries (Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE) began to become importers. Kuwait received its first shipment of LNG from Russia last August, with the emirate of Dubai expected to follow this year and other countries not far behind.

For these nations, this reversal of a decades-old status quo will mean greater integration with global gas markets, accompanied by changes in their relationships with companies in other regions. For the rest of the world, this could mean a significant shift in the way gas flows around the globe.