UAE oil income up 30% in 2010

Higher oil prices allied with an increase in supplies to boost the UAE’s crude export earnings by nearly 30 per cent to around $74 billion in 2010 while those of OPEC leaped by about $160 billion, according to official data.

From around $57.5 billion in 2009, the UAE’s oil export revenue surged to nearly $74.02 billion in 2010, their second highest level after the peak earnings of $102 billion in 2008, the 12-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its 2010-2011 annual report released recently.

The increase was a result of higher oil prices, which swelled by nearly $15 above their $60 a barrel level in 2009. The UAE’s crude production also rose to around 2.32 million barrels per day from 2.17 million bpd in the same period, allowing the UAE to maintain its position as the second largest earner in OPEC.

Higher oil prices and output also boosted Saudi Arabia’s income to $196.2 billion in 2010 from around $157.4 billion in 2009, also its second highest oil revenue after the peak income of $281 billion in 2008, when crude prices climbed to their highest annual average of around $95 a barrel.

Kuwait’s income also swelled to about $81.6 billion from $48.6 billion while that of Qatar soared to $29.2 billion from $19.1 billion.

Outside the Gulf, Algeria’s earnings grew to nearly $38.3 billion from $30.5 billion while those of Libya climbed to $41.8 billion from $32.8 billion.

Conflict-battered Iraq, which is outside OPEC’s quota system, earned around $51.1 billion in 2010 compared with $41.6 billion in 2009. Iran, the second largest oil producer in OPEC after Saudi Arabia, netted nearly $71.5 billion last year compared with about $56.3 billion in 2009.

The report showed the income of Venezuela increased to around $62.3 billion from $54.2 billion and that of Nigeria to $61.8 billion from $43.6 billion. The income of Angola also rose to $42.2 billion from $38.3 billion and that of Ecuador to $9.6 billion from around $6.9 billion.

OPEC’s total oil export earnings surged to around $745 billion in 2010 from $585 billion in 2009 to net the second highest income since 2008, when earnings hit an all time high of nearly $996 billion in current prices.

The surge in revenue allowed most OPEC members to have biggest current account surpluses and this was expected to have boosted their foreign assets.

The report showed the UAE’s current account surplus largely widened to around $23.2 billion in 2010 from $8.2 billion while the surplus surged to $38.7 billion from $22.7 billion in Saudi Arabia, to $43.1 billion from $28.6 billion in Kuwait and to around $21 billion from $6.68 billion in Qatar.

OPEC as a whole saw the current account surplus in its 12 members leap to $205 billion last year from $114 billion in 2009.

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