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Gas demand in the Middle East will remain strong for the foreseeable future, due to the needs of the power sector, according to an industry analyst.
While demand for gas in the rest of the world has fallen, domestic requirements have remained steady in the Middle East, and much of this due to the increasing amount of power needed in the region reported George Sarraf, principal at Booz and Company.
“If you look at most of the Middle East countries, the gas demand is pretty strong. In Abu Dhabi there is a strong demand for gas mainly due to the need of the power sector which has had to grow significantly,” said Sarraf.
“It is the same story for all the other countries, the demand for gas domestically is high and it’s primarily driven by the growth in the power sector. There is an over consumption of electricity so this is driving all these projects building big power plants which require gas as a feedstock,” Sarraf added.
Before the recession hit analysts were predicting world gas demand to rise 2% per annum for the foreseeable future, however due to gas demand correlating with industrial output, this has not been the case.
