Oil and Gas Industry Earned $4 Trillion Last Year, Says IEA Chief

The global oil and gas industry profits in 2022 jumped to some $4 trillion. It is from an average of $1.5 trillion in recent years. This is what the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol said on Tuesday.

Despite those profits, countries depending on oil and gas revenue should prepare to reduce their reliance on petroleum. This is as demand is going to fall in the longer term, Birol told a conference in Oslo while speaking via video link.

“Especially the countries in the Middle East have to diversify their economies. In my view, the COP28 (climate summit) could be an excellent milestone. It will change the destiny of the Middle East countries” Birol said.

“You cannot anymore run a country whose economy is 90% reliant on oil and gas revenues. It is because oil demand will go down,” he added.

United Arab Emirates as an OPEC Member Oil and Gas Industry

This year’s United Nations climate talks will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates, a member of the OPEC group of oil-producing countries.

The United Arab Emirates comprises seven emirates – Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm Al-Quwain – located along the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The country covers an area of around 84 thousand square kilometers and has a population of around 9.5 million. More than one million people live in the capital, Abu Dhabi. Arabic is the country’s official language.

Since the discovery of oil in the UAE, the country has become a modern state with a high standard of living. The currency is the dirham.

The United Arab Emirates President is HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The country joined OPEC in 1967.

Did you know?

• Desert Park in the Sharjah Emirate is a center for the breeding of the endangered Arabian leopard. It is thought that very few of these cats exist in the wild.
• The first commercial oil was discovered in 1958 – onshore in the Bab-2 well and offshore at Umm Shaif.