The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has found a major natural gas reserve in the region between Saih Al Sidra in Abu Dhabi and Jebel Ali in Dubai, according to a statement by the country's vice president and prime minister on Monday. The new discovery is estimated to hold 80 trillion cubic feet (2.28 trillion cubic meters) of new gas reserves, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the ruler of the Emirate of Dubai, said on his personal Twitter account.
"A strategic cooperation agreement was signed between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Dubai Supply Authority in order to develop gas resources in the area between the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, as part of a joint project called Jebel Ali Project," he added.
ADNOC will invest and supply technology and expertise to develop and produce discovered gas resources, in addition to conducting new surveys and exploration in the region to assess more gas resources and conduct a final study of the cost of its production, according to the agreement. This marked the second major natural gas discovery in the UAE in the last three months.
Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) had announced on Nov. 5 it had discovered new hydrocarbon reserves that include 7 billion barrels of oil and 1.64 trillion cubic meters of conventional gas, and unconventional recoverable gas resources of 4.53 trillion cubic meters.
That had carried the UAE's total reserves to 105 billion barrels of oil and 7.73 trillion cubic meters of conventional gas that are recoverable, as the UAE had surpassed Kuwait in oil reserves and left Venezuela behind in gas reserves, according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2019.
The discovery had moved the UAE from seventh to the sixth position in the world's ranking of hydrocarbon reserves. With the recent discovery, the country has now increased it total gas reserves to 10.01 trillion cubic meters.
(10 trillion cubic feet = 286 billion cubic meters)
(Anadolu Agency)
