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Speakers at a session of the ongoing Enriching the Middle East’s Economic Future Conference in Doha called on countries in the region to strike a balance between the energy sector and other sectors of the economy and urged them to take steps to increase their competitiveness in other economic areas.

This came during a workshop held today under the title  "The Energy Revolution: How Does the Middle East Fit"? The workshop discussed best ways to deal with the challenges posed by new technologies, especially in the field of energy that affect the supposed balance between supply and demand.

The panelists addressed the great changes taking place in the energy market in the Middle East and the rest of the world, and the nature of the future relationship between producers and consumers, underlining the need to take advantage of the existing conditions where the price of oil has lost more than 50 percent of its value.

The workshop's speakers also called on countries in the region to create new industries and effective financial markets to diversify their national economies and reduce the impacts of oil prices fluctuations.

Despite persisting volatility in prices over the past decades, most producers were able to make huge profits during the period between 2003 2010 as a result of higher prices, they said. The panelists also highlighted the role of tourism, energy and water sectors in bringing more growth to the region if necessary funds directed to those sectors, pointing to the strong economic ties that Middle Eastern countries began to develop with China and India.

The speakers also mentioned the role of Asia's emerging market in dominating the future energy market as large consumers of oil and natural gas.

They also touched on the natural gas market and the tension between Russia and the European Union, stressing the role that the Middle East countries could play in terms of exporting liquefied natural gas.