The UAE’s oil reserves are set to fall by 5.8bn barrels over the coming four years, according to a report published by Business Monitor International (BMI).
According to the group’s UAE Oil and Gas Report, oil reserves in the Gulf state will fall from an estimated 96.8bn in 2011 to 91bn barrels in 2016.
The BMI report also forecast that the country’s oil production would rise from more than 3.2m barrels per day in 2016 to almost 3.5m barrels per day in 2021, a significant increase but somewhat below official production capacity targets.
This increase will be backed by re-development of mature oil fields, deployment of enhanced oil recovery and investment from both international and national oil companies. BMI accounts for these in production figures but not in increase proven or probable reserves figures. As such, it provides a predicted ‘burn rate’ only.