UAE oil income dips in first half

A sharp decline in crude prices allied with output cuts to reduce the UAE's oil export revenues by nearly $40 billion (Dh146.8bn) in the first half of 2009 while Opec lost a whopping $415bn, official US figures showed yesterday.

From nearly $61bn in the first half of 2008, the UAE's oil export income plunged to about $21bn in the first half of 2009, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.

EIA, an affiliate of the US Department of Energy, also expected the combined oil earnings of the 12-nation Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to dive by around 43 per cent to $530bn in 2009 from a record $968bn in 2008.

The agency gave no figures on prices and production but crude prices averaged around $50 in the first half of 2009 compared to more than $80 in the same period of 2008.

The UAE's oil production was also expected to be lower by nearly 200,000-300,000 bpd in the first half of this year in line with a collective Opec agreement to trim supplies by up to 4.2 million bpd to prevent a price collapse.

The report showed Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, earned only around $61 billion in the first half of 2009, below a third of its $192 billion income in the same period of last year.

Kuwait's income was put at $20bn while it was estimated at nearly $10bn for Qatar, $22bn for Iran and $16bn for Iraq.

Opec as a whole earned about $230bn in the first six months of this year, below half its revenues of $546bn in the first half of 2008.

But EIA revised up its previous forecast of Opec's earnings for 2009 from around $530bn to $540bn. It also raised its estimates for 2010 to around $672bn from $620bn, apparently expecting some price recovery.

The surge in crude prices to a record average of $95 in 2008 combined with rising production boosted Opec's income to its highest ever level of $968bn in current prices and allowed most members to record massive fiscal surpluses.

Prices rapidly plunged in the second half of 2008 under the pressure of faltering demand because of the global financial turbulence.

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