The Middle East is endowed with abundant gas resources, with estimates routinely putting the figure at around 40% of the global total. Yet regional production underperforms this reserve base, and while a number of high-profile LNG export projects are underway, there is also a growing trend of LNG imports amid scant investment in regional pipeline interconnections.
Kuwait and Dubai are long-term LNG importers, and were joined by Bahrain earlier this year (MEES, 30 May). Dogged by widespread blackouts and the increasingly unreliable nature of pipeline gas imports from Iran, Iraq also hopes to turn to LNG imports (MEES, 6 June). Expensive LNG imports add to the fiscal burden these buyers are typically already facing, and only Dubai has a realistic near-term pathway to ending the practice. (CONTINUED - 2218 WORDS)
