Arab oil states urged to diversify energy and lessen reliance on oil

Iraqi oil minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi on Monday urged the Arab oil states to invest in alternative energies and reform the oil sector.

In his speech in the Arab energy conference, organized by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), the Iraqi oil minister said that most statistics on Arab oil exporting countries do not take into account the negative side-effects of their dominant oil and gas sector such as pollution or waste management.

"Oil and gas still have a long way to go to become clean," Adil said, suggesting the OAPEC members to invest in solar, wind and hydro-energy in order to preserve the environment and to reduce dependency on domestic oil and gas.

Abdul-Mahdi also urged OAPEC and all research firms to look on the size of the energy shadow economy such as smuggling or illegal oil refining.

"The size shadow economy shall not be underestimated and is mostly neglected in many analyses."

OAPEC, headquartered in Kuwait, is a separate and distinct organization form the more well-known OPEC, which is comprised of 12 member states with its headquarter in Vienna.

The OAPEC includes member states of Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates.