Saudi Arabia accounted for over 260,000 million barrels of the total world oil reserves of 975,148 million barrels of oil, reported industry estimates in early 2002. Iraq was estimated to have about 112,500 million barrels of reserve oil while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait followed closely with 97,800 and 96,500 million barrels respectively.
Other Gulf countries like, Qatar and Oman were estimated as having 15,207 and 5,506 million barrels respectively. In addition, it is well known that the Gulf Arab states and neighboring Iraq and Iran control nearly 35 percent of the world’s total recoverable natural gas resources. Their reserves are expected to surge by more than 50 percent with expected new discoveries, according to a UAE study.
The UAE, its five partners in the GCC, and Iraq and Iran have over 52,230 billion cubic meters of associated and non-associated gas. According to recent US projections, undiscovered gas reserves in the Gulf are estimated at 36,969 billion cubic metres, nearly 25 percent of the world’s total gas wealth. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
