FOSSIL FUEL HUNGRY

Fossil fuels supply 98 per cent of the Middle East’s region’s primary energy mix. Iran is the world’s tenth most energyhungry nation, using 285 million tonnes of oil equivalent in 2018, according to the BP Statistical Review, with the energy sector responsible for more than 90 per cent of

Iran’s greenhouse gas emissions. Saudi Arabia was not far behind, guzzling 259Mtoe. Lower down the scale, but still high on a per capita consumption, were UAE (112Mtoe); Qatar (48Mtoe); Kuwait (39Mtoe); Oman (30Mtoe).

On a per capita basis, energy consumption is calculated by the BP Statistical review in gigajoules (GJ). Qatar’s consumption in 2018 was 750GJ, followed by the UAE (492GJ), Kuwait (389GJ) and Saudi Arabia (323GJ), although growth in consumption has slowed significantly over the past decade. Comparative figures for the UK were 121GJ, United States (295GJ) and China (97GJ).

Yet since the 1970s, energy consumption has historically grown faster than most other regions. Oxford Energy forecasts that the Middle East, alongside Asia, will account for the majority of the world’s energy demand growth well into the 2030s. The OECD puts the growth in energy demand in the Middle East at three per cent per year, every year, well into the 2030s, with electricity demand growing at a rate of six per cent per year over the same period.

Population growth is behind much of this increase. Between 1990 and 2016, the Saudi population doubled from 16.3m to 32.3m; the UAE expanded from 1.26m to 9.27m; Qatar from 487,000 to 2.57m; Kuwait from 2.10m to 4m; Iran from 56.2m to 80.2m; and Iraq from 17.4m to 37m.

In 2018, Saudi Arabia, with a total of 12.3m barrels a day, was by far the largest producer of crude oil in the region, followed by Iran (4.7m b/d), Iraq (4.6M b/d), the UAE (3.9m b/d), Kuwait (3m b/d) and Qatar (1.9m b/d).

When it comes to natural gas, Iran produced 239 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2018; Qatar 175bcm, Saudi Arabia 112bcm, the UAE 35.4bcm.