Muscat: Qatar looks to implement with the GCC countries an ambitious energy policy associating economic growth and sustainable development, the Chairman of Administrative Control and Transparency Authority H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah said here yesterday.
Abdullah bin Hamad was speaking at the opening session of the Gulf Intelligence Oman Energy Forum currently under way in Muscat. “Most of countries in the Middle East have a double-digit economic growth, the energy demand increased as well but not proportionally. Nowadays, economies use much less energy to develop one dollar of GDP than a decade. This technological trajectory will continue. Such an energy saving pattern is already observed in the developed countries,” he explained.
He said: “Altogether, the trend in the Middle East in similar to the paradigm shift in energy demand that has been observed and largely commended in emerging countries. This group of countries has become the engine of energy demand growth to fulfill the need for energy of increasingly wealthy population. Consequently, the trend calls for investment in energy infrastructure in the Gulf and the rest of the world to boost overall oil and gas production capacity.”
“The unwavering support of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Than has enabled QP group to launch ambitions projects in energy conservation. As such, Qatar Petroleum has launched energy saving projects representing close to 5 percent of its energy consumption,” he added.
Responding to a question on the obstacles on the way of raising energy prices, which are heavily subsidised in the Gulf countries, Abdullah bin Hamad said energy prices in the Gulf are low not because they are subsidised, but because they reflect the low production cost that these countries enjoy. “In June 2010, the IEA, Opec, OECD and World Bank celebrated the first joint report on fuel subsidies. Last September, the G20 reaffirmed its commitment to reform fossil fuel subsidies,” he said.
He added: “Today, G20 countries are discussing the methodologies to create peer reviews. It is a long process, but it will enable to compare and contrast the effectiveness of policy approaches for fossil fuel subsidy reform over time and across a wide scope of economic and geographical situations. “In the joint report, the IEA estimates that over 1.3 billion people are still without access to electricity and 2.7 billion are without clean cooking facilities. Fuel subsidies should target those people the most efficiently as possible.” QNA
