Analysis on gas and oil export intensity changes of MENA countries: recent changes and drivers

Abstract

Based on the methodology employed by Bhattacharyya and Blake (Analysis of oil export dependence of MENA countries: drivers, trends and prospects. Energy Policy, 38, 2, 1098–1107, 2010), this article analyses the oil and gas export intensities of the Middle Eastern and North African economies, using the decomposition method to identify factors of the intensity changes. We update Bhattacharyya and Blake's (2010) results in several ways. First, this article employs the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index method, which does not allow for the existence of unexplained residuals, for the decomposition. Second, one of the main oil exporters, Oman, is newly included in the analysis. Third, we extend the decomposition analysis to ‘gas’ export intensities for Algeria and Qatar, the current leading gas exporters. Finally, all the results are updated using the most recently available data (∼2011).