High income - Natural gas rents (% of GDP)

Natural gas rents (% of GDP) in High income was 0.115 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.798 in 1979, while its lowest value was 0.007 in 1970.

Definition: Natural gas rents are the difference between the value of natural gas production at world prices and total costs of production.

Source: Estimates based on sources and methods described in "The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium" (World Bank, 2011).

See also:

Year Value
1970 0.007
1971 0.012
1972 0.026
1973 0.061
1974 0.486
1975 0.415
1976 0.413
1977 0.391
1978 0.331
1979 0.798
1980 0.761
1981 0.477
1982 0.100
1983 0.314
1984 0.341
1985 0.292
1986 0.102
1987 0.148
1988 0.103
1989 0.108
1990 0.106
1991 0.089
1992 0.106
1993 0.147
1994 0.115
1995 0.076
1996 0.142
1997 0.138
1998 0.094
1999 0.118
2000 0.276
2001 0.312
2002 0.180
2003 0.248
2004 0.308
2005 0.335
2006 0.290
2007 0.250
2008 0.353
2009 0.150
2010 0.106
2011 0.151
2012 0.168
2013 0.165
2014 0.140
2015 0.107
2016 0.065
2017 0.082
2018 0.137
2019 0.115

Development Relevance: Accounting for the contribution of natural resources to economic output is important in building an analytical framework for sustainable development. In some countries earnings from natural resources, especially from fossil fuels and minerals, account for a sizable share of GDP, and much of these earnings come in the form of economic rents - revenues above the cost of extracting the resources. Natural resources give rise to economic rents because they are not produced. For produced goods and services competitive forces expand supply until economic profits are driven to zero, but natural resources in fixed supply often command returns well in excess of their cost of production. Rents from nonrenewable resources - fossil fuels and minerals - as well as rents from overharvesting of forests indicate the liquidation of a country's capital stock. When countries use such rents to support current consumption rather than to invest in new capital to replace what is being used up, they are, in effect, borrowing against their future.

Limitations and Exceptions: This definition of economic rent differs from that used in the System of National Accounts, where rents are a form of property income, consisting of payments to landowners by a tenant for the use of the land or payments to the owners of subsoil assets by institutional units permitting them to extract subsoil deposits.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The estimates of natural resources rents are calculated as the difference between the price of a commodity and the average cost of producing it. This is done by estimating the world price of units of specific commodities and subtracting estimates of average unit costs of extraction or harvesting costs (including a normal return on capital). These unit rents are then multiplied by the physical quantities countries extract or harvest to determine the rents for each commodity as a share of gross domestic product (GDP).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Natural resources contribution to GDP