U.A.E. Needs to Pare Energy Subsidies, Cut Demand, Minister Says - Bloomberg

U.A.E. Needs to Pare Energy Subsidies, Cut Demand, Minister Says - Bloomberg:



"The United Arab Emirates, OPEC’s fifth-largest oil producer, needs to roll back subsidies on fuel and power to help limit its energy consumption and imports of natural gas, the country’s energy minister said.



“You will never have a strong economy if you are subsidizing,” Suhail Al Mazrouei told reporters in his office in Abu Dhabi yesterday. “In consumption of electricity, we are two to three times the global average, and we are not happy about that level.” The government has yet to determine changes in prices and subsidy levels, he said.



Middle Eastern oil producers including the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia are consuming as much as 10 percent more electricity each year, governments in the region have said, as they diversify into power-dependent industries such as petrochemicals and steelmaking and as household demand rises. The amount of crude Saudi Arabia has available to export will fall to “unacceptably low levels” over the next two decades if the country doesn’t pare its fuel use, state-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. said in May."



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