Dubai and Abu Dhabi made what could be the world’s largest natural gas discovery since 2005 as the two biggest sheikhdoms in the United Arab Emirates aim to push the country to energy self sufficiency.
The Jebel Ali reservoir located between the two emirates has 80 trillion cubic feet of gas resources, according to tweets by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the U.A.E.’s prime minister and Dubai’s ruler. The country is seeking to become self-sufficiency in gas supply by 2030, a step that would allow it to break its reliance on imports from Qatar, with which it has been locked in a 2 1/2-year diplomatic dispute.
“This is an enormous discovery for the U.A.E.,” said Liam Yates, an analyst at consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. The deposit could meet the country’s entire gas demand for nearly three decades, depending on the amount of gas that can be recovered from the reservoir, he said.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the government-owned energy giant known as Adnoc, will jointly develop the reservoir with distributor the Dubai Supply Authority.
