Middle income - Natural gas rents (% of GDP)

Natural gas rents (% of GDP) in Middle income was 0.395 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.893 in 2008, while its lowest value was 0.005 in 1972.

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 0.006
1971 0.006
1972 0.005
1973 0.006
1974 0.016
1975 0.047
1976 0.050
1977 0.052
1978 0.064
1979 0.146
1980 0.152
1981 0.069
1982 0.020
1983 0.100
1984 0.106
1985 0.118
1986 0.139
1987 0.188
1988 0.409
1989 0.436
1990 0.607
1991 0.539
1992 0.357
1993 0.378
1994 0.293
1995 0.272
1996 0.317
1997 0.304
1998 0.178
1999 0.191
2000 0.541
2001 0.820
2002 0.675
2003 0.694
2004 0.597
2005 0.599
2006 0.828
2007 0.740
2008 0.893
2009 0.781
2010 0.567
2011 0.770
2012 0.759
2013 0.698
2014 0.576
2015 0.482
2016 0.294
2017 0.370
2018 0.557
2019 0.395

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