Kuwait - Natural gas rents (% of GDP)

Natural gas rents (% of GDP) in Kuwait was 0.514 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.882 in 2013, while its lowest value was 0.019 in 1971.

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 0.036
1971 0.019
1972 0.024
1973 0.041
1974 0.046
1975 0.164
1976 0.203
1977 0.302
1978 0.365
1980 0.336
1981 0.224
1982 0.038
1983 0.318
1984 0.304
1985 0.312
1986 0.454
1987 0.214
1988 0.302
1989 0.311
1990 0.266
1991 0.048
1992 0.117
1993 0.258
1994 0.211
1995 0.351
1996 0.398
1997 0.484
1998 0.450
1999 0.317
2000 0.527
2001 0.680
2002 0.462
2003 0.439
2004 0.439
2005 0.573
2006 0.598
2007 0.545
2008 0.561
2009 0.667
2010 0.520
2011 0.733
2012 0.811
2013 0.882
2014 0.801
2015 0.792
2016 0.463
2017 0.469
2018 0.608
2019 0.514

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