UAE has 14.6% of proven Arab oil reserves
The UAE has the fourth-largest proven reserves of crude oil among Arab countries, accounting for 14.6 per cent of the Arab World's total, the Unified Arab Economic Report for 2009 said.
Saudi Arabia tops with 39.3 per cent of the total, followed by Iraq with 17.1 per cent and Kuwait with 15.1 per cent.
Libya is fifth with a share of 6.5 per cent.
The five countries combined, therefore, have 92.6 per cent of the confirmed reserves of crude oil in all Arab countries, said the annual report issued by the Arab Monetary Fund on the Arab economy in 2008.
The year 2008 witnessed wide exploration activity, which led to 101 new oil and gas discoveries, the report highlights.
This contributed to an increase in the estimates of proven oil reserves in Arab countries by 0.4 per cent to reach 672.1 billion barrels, which is 57.7 per cent of total global reserves.
In addition, the increase in the proven reserves of natural gas was estimated at 0.2 per cent, reaching a total of 53.7 trillion cubic metres at the end of 2008, accounting for 30.3 per cent of the global total.
Budgets allocated to petroleum exploration and production in some Arab countries also saw an increase in 2008 compared to 2007.
The budget of the UAE's Adnoc, for instance, went up by 15 per cent to reach $2.25 billion (Dh8.2bn). Saudi Arabian Aramco's budget rose by 31 per cent to $11.8bn. Also, several Arab countries signed exploration and production deals, the most prominent of which was a $120 million deal signed between Dana Gas and the emirate of Sharjah to discover and develop oil and gas.
Oil production by Arab countries in 2008 totalled 23.7 million barrels daily, an increase of 1.4 million barrels (6.2 per cent), which accounts for 27.5 per cent of total global production.
Arab countries' marketed natural gas formed 13.4 per cent of the global marketed quantities, and reached 392.6 billion cubic metres.
On the improvement of banking conditions in Arab countries last year, the report said the UAE's commercial banks had the biggest share of banking deposits valued in US dollars at Arab commercial banks, with a 20.6 per cent share of the Arab total.
Saudi Arabian banks came second with 20.4 per cent and Egyptian banks third with 9.4 per cent.
Total banking deposits valued in dollars at Arab commercial banks rose by more than 20 per cent last year to reach $1.104 trillion, compared to $919bn in 2007.
The report attributed the increase of banking deposits to the economic boom in 2007-2008 supported by the increase in oil revenues and financial remittances.
The report said GDP of Arab countries as a group rose from about $1.505bn in 2007 to about $1.899bn in 2008, a 26 per cent year-on-year growth.
The contribution of the extractive industries sector to GDP in Arab countries rose last year, as the sector took the biggest share of the GDP with 43.4 per cent. Meanwhile, the contribution of the remaining sectors fell – the services sector came second with a 36 per cent contribution to GDP, followed by the transformational industries sector with 8.9 per cent and the agricultural sector with 5.4 per cent.
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