August 24, 2007	Friday	Sha’aban 10, 1428

DUBAI, Aug 23: A new group of Gulf Arab oil and gas companies and investment funds is rapidly gaining prominence both in the region and the wider international energy sector.

The mixture of private, public and state-owned newcomers are cashing in on the region’s petrodollar-fuelled economic boom and industry expertise to grow fast.

“A number of these companies are very young and have come a long way quickly,” said Stuart Lewis, Middle East director at energy consultancy IHS. “It really is a case of ‘watch this space’.” One of the fastest-growing is Abu Dhabi National Energy Co, better known as Taqa, which started out in 2005 as a utility in the UAE and aims to boost assets to $60 billion by 2012.

Taqa has already accumulated more than $15 billion of assets after a buying spree in the UK, the Netherlands and Canada. It snapped up another Canadian oil and gas producer for $540 million on Thursday.

Taqa is 75 per cent owned by Abu Dhabi’s government, which controls most of the UAE’s oil reserves and is on a drive to use record oil revenues to diversify both its holdings and economy.

Top brass at many of the new firms have gained their experience in the region’s giant state oil companies. Their know-how and regional expertise was attracting investors from both within and outside the Gulf region, analysts said.

“If you look at the leadership structure for some of these companies, it reads like a who’s who of the Middle East oil industry,” said Lewis.

Little-known independent Kuwait Energy Company (KEC) saw its profile grow earlier this month with a preliminary deal to take a 49 per cent stake with Indonesian partner PT Medco Energi Internasional Tbk in a new Somali state oil company.

Chief Executive Sara Akbar, who worked in Kuwait’s state oil industry for 25 years before founding KEC, helped to draft a new oil law under consideration in Somalia’s parliament.—Reuters