JEDDAH: Natural gas resources in the Middle East and North African (MENA) exceeded 84 trillion cubic meters at the start of 2010. However, some producers could face shortages because of steady reservoir depletion, Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation (Apicorp), an affiliate of the 10-nation Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), said in its study Saturday. Its data showed heavyweights UAE, Qatar and Iran have enough gas resources to continue for at least 50 years, with Iran topping the list, with a reserve life of 61 years. The UAE and Qatar have a gas reserve life of around 58 years while Saudi Arabia's reserve could last 35 years. “At the start of 2010, MENA proved natural gas reserves were estimated at 84.5 trillion cu m, representing 45 percent of the world's total. In recent years the fall off of reserve replacement ratio (RPP) to less than 2x (200 percent), even though double the world average, may give the alarming impression that MENA is running out of reserves,” the study noted. In the past 10 years, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, have continued to replace a large portion of their extracted reserves. By contrast, Qatar, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Tunisia, Bahrain, Algeria, Oman and Syria, whose latest RRRs are less than 1x (100 percent), have failed to keep pace with production, said Apicorp senior economist Ali Aissaoui. Apart from Qatar, where the facts and circumstances should be considered in connection with the ongoing moratorium on further developments of the giant North Field, the situation appears unmistakably critical for other countries, the study added.
