The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has found major oil and natural gas reserves taking the country to the sixth spot in both global oil and gas reserves ranking, a statement released by Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) said on Tuesday.
The SPC, the highest governing body of the oil and gas industry in Abu Dhabi, said new reserves include 7 billion barrels of oil and 58 trillion cubic feet (1.64 trillion cubic meters) of conventional gas.
The discovery moved the UAE from seventh to the sixth position in the world's ranking of hydrocarbon reserves, according to the statement.
The country now has a total of 105 billion barrels of oil and 273 trillion cubic feet (7.73 trillion cubic meters) of conventional gas that are recoverable.
With the discovery, the UAE surpassed Kuwait in oil reserves, and left Venezuela behind in gas reserves, according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2019.
Moreover, the SPC said it discovered unconventional recoverable gas resources of 160 trillion cubic feet (4.53 trillion cubic meters). Unconventional gas in the UAE is a first in the Middle East that could lead to unconventional hydrocarbon resources development on a large scale, the statement said.
'The increase in reserves and new discoveries follows ADNOC’s [Abu Dhabi National Oil Company] extensive drilling of dozens of new exploration and appraisal wells across Abu Dhabi’s conventional and unconventional oil and gas fields over the past few years,' the statement confirmed.
'In addition, the start of production in new fields, for example, SARB, Umm Lulu, Haliba, and Bu Haseer, has enabled ADNOC to verify and further upgrade the originally expected reserves’ volumes,' it added.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr