Dubai set to launch gas strategy

Dubai will launch a gas strategy next year aimed at reducing rising energy demand in the emirate and will tender to appoint a specialist consultant for the plan by year-end, its top energy council said on Tuesday.The emirate's Integrated Gas Strategy 2030 will start in the second quarter of 2012, and "deals with pipelines of liquefied and natural gas combined with underground storage," Saeed Mohammed al-Tayer, vice chairman of Dubai's Supreme Council of Energy (SCE) said in a statement.The plan is part of Dubai's Integrated Energy Strategy 2030 which aims to reduce energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions to 30 percent by 2030.The SCE is responsible for ensuring energy supplies in the emirate where increasing demand for cooling and desalinated water are major drivers for rapidly rising electricity use.Dubai is home to nearly 2 million people and used around 33,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity in 2010. Tayer, who is also chief executive of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), said in June demand could increase by 7 percent this year. Rising demand for electricity in Dubai, where soaring summer temperatures drive up air conditioning use, has forced the energy-hungry emirate to buy more natural gas on an increasingly tight global market to feed its power stations.The UAE, which has seven percent of the world's known oil reserves, is one of the highest per capita of consumers of water and electricity in the world.Power demand in the Gulf region is rising rapidly as economies and populations boom, forcing governments to diversify their energy mix to secure supplies. From / Arabian Business News