Regional LNG: Liquefied gas export capacity in Middle East expected to increase

The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) said that the exporting capacity of liquefied natural gas in the Middle East is expected to increase to more than 110 billion square meters by 2010, Kuwait News Agency reported Sunday.

OAPEC said in the editorial of its July oil bulletin that this will account for 35 to 40 percent of world demand on liquefied gas by the end of the decade, compared to the current quota of the region's exports which stands at 22 percent.

It noted that this increase in export volume will take place with the completion of gas projects in Qatar, the UAE, Oman and Egypt.

The editorial added that gas exporters in eastern Arab countries will face great challenges to find guaranteed markets for their large productions of their liquefied gas, thus they must develop flexible marketing strategies and to reduce production and manufacture costs, as well as using new and large developed tankers in transportation to avoid high shipping costs.

On the internal Arab front, OAPEC said that the local consumption of gas is also expected to rise to accommodate escalating demands in the operation of electrical and water desalination plants or for use as a feed in petrochemical industries, as well as in commercial and residential consumption. (*)