For decades, the issue of a GCC gas grid has periodically raised its head due to the region’s mix of gas exporters such as Qatar and gas-short members such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. But politics routinely obstructed progress, and the 2bn cfd Dolphin pipeline supplying Qatari gas to the UAE and Oman since 2007 remains the only cross-border gas pipeline in the GCC.
Despite this, talk of a GCC gas grid has never gone away, and in 2020 Bahrain’s oil minister called for the establishment of a regional network (MEES, 29 May 2020). More recently, a Bahraini delegation held discussions with Aramco in mid-2025 over building a pipeline link to import gas as its domestic output declines; the talks appear to have gone nowhere (MEES, 30 May 2025). (CONTINUED - 1195 WORDS)
