How necessity is driving innovation in Gulf gas sector

The Gulf’s gas megaprojects in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi often make the headline but innovation in the sector often takes place in smaller test-tubes. At the Middle East Gas Conference in Dubai last week, I had the chance to test this theory.

My panel featured representatives of four smaller Middle Eastern jurisdictions, facing their own special gas challenges and pioneering their own paths: Sharjah National Oil Company (SNOC), RAK Gas of Ras Al Khaimah, Bapco Energies of Bahrain, and Sharjah-based Dana Gas, which operates in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and in Egypt.

What do these localities have in common? They are all dynamic jurisdictions with considerable growth in population and economy. They are highly dependent on gas, for power generation and industry. They have some gas resources of their own, but are all net gas importers, with the exception of the Kurdistan region, which is now inching towards becoming a significant gas exporter.

Three of the companies are state-owned, with a primary mandate of serving their domestic markets. They supply vital industrial sectors, such as Bapco serving Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the world’s biggest aluminium smelter outside China, and RAK Gas feeding into the cement, ceramics and glassworks sectors in the northern UAE emirate of Ras Al Khaimah

Masoud Al Hamadi, SNOC’s execut