You will prepare and submit a term paper on Oil and Energy Industry in UAE. Your paper should be a minimum of 1250 words in length. Moreover, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), UAE’s largest state-owned company, dominates production (EIA) and controls UAE’s quota prescribed by OPEC (EIA).

Notwithstanding plans to diversify economy (Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 n.d.), UAE continues to rely on oil and gas as major sources for state revenues (“Non-Oil Sectors Accelerate UAE Growth Rate”). Indeed, no one economic forecast for UAE’s overall economic performance can ignore the energy sector as one main driver of economic development and growth. This, in fact, poses serious challenges for an economy whose performance has depended largely on international oil markets (Husain, Tazhibayeva, and Ter-Martirosyan 2008).

Moreover, not only has economic performance in an oil-rich country such as UAE depended on energy sector’s positive or negative shocks but fiscal policies seem to strongly correlate with oil prices as well and hence impact positively or negatively, depending on fluctuations in oil prices, non-oil production sectors (see fig. 1).

Indeed, a growing body of analyses and government reports (Boer & Turner. Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 ) have repeatedly stressed the significance of and implications for economic diversification in Gulf Council Countries (GCC), of which UAE is a member. The case for diversification in UAE is even more pressing given UAE’s reliance on Abu Dhabi and Dubai as leading engines for the country’s economic growth (O’Sullivan 2007). Further, given each emirate’s autonomous status according to the constitution (O’Sullivan), UAE cannot enact a universal and binding economic policy unless political authority steps in. This is, again, particularly true given Abu Dhabi’s and Dubai’s attraction force as opposed to remaining emirates’ fading allure, especially to youth.

So far, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, UAE’s leading economies, both have managed to maintain healthy economic growth rates according to each emirate’s strategic vision.