Arab countries produce 15.5 percent of world gas production

WAM -- The Arab region now produces 15.5 percent of the world gas production, an increase of 11.8 percent from the year 1980's levels, according to the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, (OAPEC).

Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, quoted Engineer Wael Abdul Mo'ti, gas industries expert at the Technical Affairs Department, OAPEC, as saying that Arab countries' natural gas production has significantly been growing since early 1980s through 2015, clocking an annual growth of 7 percent. The expert made the statements on the sidelines of the second day of the 24th Forum on Fundamentals of Oil and Gas Industry, organised by OAPEC in Kuwait.

The forum is organised every year to enhance perception of oil and gas industry fundamentals, and keep the participants abreast of relevant direct and indirect developments worldwide.

Yasser AL Baghdadi, an oil expert at OAPEC Technical Affairs Department, said during the conference that development of sophisticated logistics has boosted upstream operations, specially in areas previously thought unreachable for oil exploration activities. He highlighted in this regard the increasing reliance on pipelines in transporting oil and liquefied natural gas.

OAPEC has made impressive progress in expanding pipeline networks for transportation of oil and gas through establishing new pipelines across their territories or expanding already existing regional and international lines and overhauling old ones, he said, noting that huge investments will be needed over the coming 10 years to keep pace with the growing supply of gas through unconventional sources.