Low income - Natural gas rents (% of GDP)

Natural gas rents (% of GDP) in Low income was 0.096 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 45 years was 0.484 in 2013, while its lowest value was 0.000 in 1982.

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
1974 0.017
1975 0.051
1976 0.054
1977 0.052
1978 0.026
1979 0.041
1980 0.034
1981 0.010
1982 0.000
1983 0.002
1984 0.003
1985 0.005
1986 0.013
1987 0.011
1988 0.016
1989 0.032
1990 0.044
1991 0.048
1992 0.049
1993 0.064
1994 0.087
1995 0.113
1996 0.142
1997 0.243
1998 0.234
1999 0.202
2000 0.294
2001 0.358
2002 0.298
2003 0.312
2004 0.307
2005 0.412
2006 0.479
2007 0.422
2011 0.460
2012 0.455
2013 0.484
2014 0.428
2015 0.169
2016 0.081
2017 0.110
2018 0.184
2019 0.096

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