GCC countries support energy by more than $100bn

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries supported energy and electricity prices by more than USD 100 billion only in 2011, a specialized economic report issued by Kuwait-based Diplomatic Center For Strategic Studies said. Saudi Arabia supported energy prices in 2011 by USD 61 billion, UAE by USD 22 billion, Kuwait by USD 13 billion, and Qatar by USD 6 billion. Gulf countries are not capable of continuing to apply the old policies of prices that do not cope with the escalating growth in consumption, it said. The GCC countries should follow more feasible pricing policies to contribute in rationalizing consumption and mending prices to allow them to serve the immense increase in demand on gas by additional exploring and investing in renewable energy it added. The Gulf counties exerted great efforts during the past years to reduce growing consumption witnessed in various fields, and they must benefit from the expertise of developed foreign countries in the matter, the report said. The policies and programs of raising the efficiency of energy consumption in industrial countries during the last three decades led to decreasing the intensity of energy consumption by 51 percent, it mentioned. GCC countries are facing a critical problem in exploitation of renewable energy in matters of the high production cost of electricity from clear energy, it added. Traditional energy sources are still being the best choice in the meantime; regarding that means of exploiting clean energy sources like (sun and wounds) require immense efforts, it said. Generating electricity from traditional energy sources like (diesel and gas) is way less expensive from doing the same from clear energy sources, the report added. The rate of produced electricity through renewable energy in Saudi Arabia will reach 27 percent of the total energy production by 2020, it said. The consumption supported with billions of dollars is causing headache to the Gulf countries, which can use this money in producing various sources of energy, it added. The large amount of money spent by such countries in supporting energy caused a number of negative phenomena like high rate of energy consumption, smuggling of fuel, the report said.