Gas-fired plants accounted for 65% of Middle East power generating capacity in 2013, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts their share will fall to 56% by 2014. Yet the contribution of gas-fired plants to electricity generated will actually increase, from 64% in 2013 to 67% in 2020, according to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2015.

Launching WEO 2015 in London on 10 November, IEA executive director Fatih Birol said that in the Middle East power sector there will be “a big change: oil will go down, nuclear up, with gas growing as a baseload generation fuel and also as a support or back-up for renewables.” (CONTINUED - 644 WORDS)