26/09/2022
19079 times read
26/09/2022
19079 times read
Oil and gas boom occurring alongside deeper market trends
KUWAIT CITY, Sept 26: The indications are clear and strong that the Gulf states will likely remain as important in global affairs in the coming decades as they were in the twentieth century, this is what a report prepared by The Economist concluded on the global energy crisis and geopolitics, and how the war in Ukraine reshaped the oil and gas market in the world, so that the countries of the region will be the most prominent player in this scenario, adding that a new Gulf is emerging on the global scene, reports Al-Qabas daily. For this reason, politicians in Western countries, who are facing an energy crisis and high costs of living, are flocking to the Gulf states, the last of whom is Olaf Schulz, the German chancellor, as Germany has been searching since Russia cut off gas from it for alternative markets that it can import energy from.
Gas boom
The latest oil and gas boom is occurring alongside deeper market trends: re-engineering global energy flows in response to Western sanctions and climate change, and reshaping geopolitical alliances in the Middle East as countries in the region adapt to a multipolar world, where America is no longer a reliable guarantor to achieve security.
The result is a new bay destined to remain pivotal for decades to come. The Gulf states belong to a region that has gone through two difficult decades. Amid wars and uprisings, one million people have died as a result of violence in the Middle East, and its share of global GDP has fallen from 4% in 2012 to 3%. America has reduced its military presence in the wake of the disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving old allies, including the Gulf states, suspicious of the security vacuum that Iran and its proxies are filling.
While the Gulf countries have faced a long-term decline in global demand for fossil fuels, even as the countries of the world suffer from reduced rainfall and rising temperatures due to climate change. It’s a daunting starting point, but two new forces are at play. The first are changes in energy markets. At current prices, the Gulf states could earn $3.5 trillion over the next five years. Western sanctions against Russia are reorienting how energy is traded around the world. With Russian production flow-