The National: Gulf countries urged to allow natural gas prices to rise

Arabian Gulf countries should take advantage of current market conditions and allow natural gas prices to rise to attract investment that will be needed to meet sharply rising demand over the next couple of decades, industry experts say.

Several countries, including the UAE, have already started to roll back long-standing energy and other utility subsidies, but they have yet to address the supply side, where price caps on the amount producers receive for natural gas output has discouraged private sector investment.

The Middle East and North Africa is growing faster than any other region apart from Asia in terms of natural gas demand, Patrick Allman-Ward, chief executive of Dana Gas, the region’s largest independent oil and gas company, based in Sharjah, told the Gas Arabia Summit in Dubai.
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