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UAE energy minister urges CIS to diversify economies

Xinhua, February 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

United Arab Emirates' (UAE) energy minister said on Wednesday the Community of Independent States (CIS) members should take the low oil and gas prices as an opportunity to diversify their economies.

Delivering a speech at the two-day Global Business Forum in Dubai, Suhail Al-Mazrouei said the slump in hydro-carbon energy prices shall be taken as a chance to boost different sectors of the non-oil economies in CIS.

The minister said the UAE has reduced the share of oil in the domestic economy to 29 percent, and aims to slash the share of gas for domestic energy purposes from the current nearly 100 percent to 70 percent by 2030.

Asked after his speech what the UAE's position is on the agreement between Russia and Saudi Arabia to freeze oil output levels, the UAE official declined to comment.

Oil prices have plummeted from over 110 dollars per barrel (159 liter) in mid-2014 to around 30 dollars per barrel, which turned the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) fiscal budgets from surpluses to deficits in 2015. Endit