Oil and non-oil: how much of the UAE economy is oil

Oil accounts for about a fifth of the UAE economy. Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC) data put oil activities at 20.8% of real GDP in the first half of 2026 and non-oil activities at 79.2%. The UAE produced an average of 3.12 million barrels a day in 2025, left OPEC on 1 May 2026 and is targeting capacity of about 5 million barrels a day by 2027.

Key takeaways

• Non-oil activities made up 79.2% of UAE real GDP in the first half of 2026, and oil activities 20.8%.
• Oil production averaged 3.12 million barrels a day in 2025, dropped to 2.0 million in March to May 2026, then recovered to 3.8 million in June and July.
• The UAE left OPEC and OPEC+ on 1 May 2026 and is targeting capacity of about 5 million barrels a day by 2027.
• Non-oil GDP grew 6.8% in 2025, with construction, financial and insurance activities, and wholesale and retail trade the largest contributors.
• Federal revenue comes from service fees, taxes, investment returns, contributions from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Presidential Court, and pension contributions, with no separate line for oil.

On this page 9 sections

How much of UAE GDP is oil?

Roughly one dirham in five of the UAE’s real output comes from oil and gas, and the other four from everything else. The non-oil share rose from 78.1% in the first half of 2025, as non-oil GDP grew 1.8% while total real GDP grew 0.4%.

Oil and non-oil shares of UAE real GDP, first half of 2026

Non-oil 79.2%; oil 20.8% (H1 2026)

In the first half of 2026, non-oil activities made up 79.2% of UAE real GDP and oil activities 20.8%; within non-oil GDP, trade accounted for 16.2%, financial and insurance activities 15.2%, construction 13.1%, manufacturing 11.8% and real estate 7.9%, and financial and insurance activities grew fastest, by 14.8%.

“Oil activities” here means the hydrocarbon sector: oil and gas production and related activities. The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) calls it hydrocarbon GDP and the rest non-hydrocarbon GDP. Trade, banking, construction, property, manufacturing and government services all sit on the non-oil side.

Two points matter when reading the shares:

• They are real shares. FCSC measures them at constant prices, so they follow volumes of output, not oil prices. A share measured in current prices would also reflect the oil price. FCSC’s release gives only the real shares.
• They are preliminary. FCSC says its revised national GDP series, from its Comprehensive GDP Revision Programme, will be released after approval in the first quarter of 2027, so the figures can change.

The size of the economy in dirhams, and the quarterly growth figures, are in UAE GDP. International comparisons often quote GDP in US dollars, which converts at a fixed rate because of the dirham’s peg to the US dollar.

Non-oil GDP: growth and main sectors

Non-oil GDP grew 6.8% in 2025, after 7.0% in 2023 and 8.6% in 2024, according to FCSC figures published by the CBUAE. Growth slowed in 2026: 4.8% in the first quarter, according to the CBUAE, and 1.8% for the first half, according to FCSC, because non-oil activity shrank 1.1% in the second quarter.

In 2025 non-oil growth outpaced the oil sector, whose GDP grew 4.3%. The CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report names construction, financial and insurance activities, and wholesale and retail trade as the largest contributors, together with real estate, transport and storage, and manufacturing. In the second quarter of 2026, FCSC says, tourism, transport and trade were hit by regional developments and travel disruption.

The largest non-oil sectors in the first half of 2026:

Information and communication (up 7.3%), health and social work (up 6%) and government activities (up 3.6%) also grew. The shares are of non-oil GDP, not of the whole economy. Trade’s 16.2% of the non-oil economy is about 12.8% of total real GDP (16.2% × 79.2% = 12.8%).

Oil production and capacity

Yes, the UAE is an oil-producing country. It produces crude oil and natural gas, its oil output averaged 3.12 million barrels a day in 2025, and it has set a capacity target well above that level.

How much oil the UAE produces

Production averaged 3.12 million barrels a day in 2025, 6.9% more than in 2024, according to the CBUAE. Output rose after OPEC+ quota adjustments, especially in the later quarters of the year, and domestic gas production grew 2.7%. Over a full year, 3.12 million barrels a day comes to about 1.14 billion barrels (3.12 million × 365 = 1,138.8 million).

The CBUAE’s September 2026 Quarterly Economic Review gives figures up to July 2026:

UAE oil and gas production, 2026

2.0 mbd (Mar to May 2026); 3.8 mbd (Jun to Jul 2026)

UAE oil production averaged 2.0 million barrels a day in March to May 2026, against 2.9 million in the same period of 2025, then rose to a near-record 3.8 million barrels a day in June and July 2026, 25.9% and 20.3% higher than a year earlier; gas production fell 12.3% year on year in Q1 and 32.5% in Q2 2026.

These are averages over each month or period, which the CBUAE takes from OPEC data, not a reading for a single day.

Capacity and the 5 million barrel target

Capacity is how much the UAE could produce; production is what it actually pumps. The CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report 2025 says that, after its withdrawal from OPEC and OPEC+, the UAE is targeting production capacity of about 5 million barrels a day by 2027. The report gives no figure for current capacity.

Export routes matter as well. The same report says ADNOC’s existing Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, together with a planned parallel line, will significantly reduce exposure to disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. It gives no capacity figure for either line.

Reserves

The official reserves figure is OPEC’s, quoted on the UAE Government portal from OPEC’s 2021 Annual Statistical Bulletin, so it is several years old. No newer official figure was found.

UAE crude oil reserves

107 billion barrels

The UAE's crude oil reserves stand at 107 billion barrels and its natural gas reserves at 7,726 billion cubic metres, according to the OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin 2021 as cited on the UAE Government portal.

2026: the production drop and the OPEC exit

Oil output was roughly a third lower than a year earlier in March and April 2026, then climbed to a near-record level in June and July. In between, on 1 May 2026, the UAE left OPEC and OPEC+.

The CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report reports the fall alongside the regional crisis, including GCC airspace disruptions and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which it says directly affected air transport, tourism and trade. It records oil production 34.3% lower than a year earlier in March 2026 and 30.4% lower in April. The September Quarterly Economic Review shows hydrocarbon activity down 3.5% in the first quarter, which it puts down to a temporary reduction in oil and gas production in March. The CBUAE cut its 2026 growth projection from a pre-crisis 5.6% to 1.7% in the report; its later forecasts are in UAE GDP.

UAE exit from OPEC and OPEC+

Left OPEC and OPEC+ from 1 May 2026

On 28 April 2026 the UAE announced its decision to exit OPEC and OPEC+ with effect from 1 May 2026, after a review of its production policy and current and future capacity; it had joined OPEC in 1967 through the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and said it would bring additional production to market gradually, in line with demand and market conditions.

The announcement presents the exit as giving the UAE more flexibility to respond to the market, and says it will keep investing across oil, gas, renewables and low-carbon energy.

How oil money reaches public budgets

Oil revenue is not a line in the federal budget. Federal revenue for 2026 comes from service fees, taxes, investment returns, contributions from the emirates and pension contributions. Emirates also keep budgets of their own, outside the federal figures: Dubai, for example, approved its general budget for 2026 under Dubai Law No. 15 of 2025, with revenues projected at AED 107.7 billion.

Federal revenue sources, 2026

AED 92.40 billion, five revenue sources

Federal Government revenues for 2026 are estimated at AED 92.40 billion: federal entity service fees AED 30.11 billion, taxes AED 24.67 billion, investment returns AED 20.44 billion, contributions from the emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Presidential Court) AED 16.72 billion and pension contributions AED 470 million.

The 2026 federal budget of AED 92.40 billion is balanced, with spending equal to revenue, and is up from AED 71.50 billion in 2025. The Ministry of Finance puts the 29% rise in revenue down mainly to the introduction of corporate tax, higher federal service fees and stronger investment returns. VAT is the largest item within taxes. How the two taxes work is covered in the UAE corporate tax rate and VAT rates.

Worked example

How the AED 92.40 billion of federal revenue splits in 2026

The amounts are the Ministry of Finance’s estimates for 2026; the percentages are our arithmetic on the AED 92.40 billion total.

1. Federal entity service fees: AED 30.11 billion ÷ AED 92.40 billion = 32.6%.
2. Taxes: AED 24.67 billion ÷ AED 92.40 billion = 26.7%.
3. Investment returns: AED 20.44 billion ÷ AED 92.40 billion = 22.1%.
4. Contributions from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Presidential Court: AED 16.72 billion ÷ AED 92.40 billion = 18.1%.
5. Pension contributions: AED 0.47 billion ÷ AED 92.40 billion = 0.5%.

The five amounts add up to AED 92.41 billion because the yearbook rounds each one.

Contributions from the emirates: about 18.1% of federal revenue in 2026.

Because emirate budgets sit outside these figures, the federal budget shows neither total public revenue in the UAE nor how much of it comes from oil.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai: how much depends on oil

Non-oil activities make up a much smaller share of Abu Dhabi’s economy than of the UAE’s as a whole: 54.7% of its real GDP in 2024, against 79.2% of UAE real GDP in the first half of 2026. Dubai’s official GDP release gives no oil share; its largest sector is wholesale and retail trade. The size and growth of both emirates’ economies are covered in UAE GDP.

Abu Dhabi

Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi (SCAD) puts the emirate’s non-oil GDP at AED 644.3 billion in 2024, up 6.2% and 54.7% of the total, on preliminary estimates. In the third quarter of 2025, non-oil activities were 54% of GDP, and over January to September 2025 the non-oil economy grew 6.8%. These releases give the non-oil share but no separate oil figure. On 21 May 2026 SCAD announced a comprehensive revision and rebasing of its GDP series, so these shares may change; the current published series remains the official reference until the revised estimates are released.

Dubai

In Dubai’s GDP release for the first quarter of 2026, wholesale and retail trade was the largest sector at about 22% of GDP, real estate activities contributed 11.2% and construction 8.1%. The release lists no oil, mining or hydrocarbon share, and no official figure for Dubai’s oil share was found, so there is no reliable number to quote.

Diversification

The non-oil share of UAE real GDP rose to 79.2% in the first half of 2026 from 78.1% a year earlier, and federal and emirate plans aim to grow the non-oil economy further. The national plan “We the UAE 2031” sets economic targets for the decade:

We the UAE 2031: economic targets

GDP from AED 1.49 trillion to AED 3 trillion; AED 800 billion in non-oil exports

'We the UAE 2031', a national plan for the next ten years launched at the UAE Government Annual Meetings on 22 November 2022, aims to double the UAE's GDP from AED 1.49 trillion to AED 3 trillion, generate AED 800 billion in non-oil exports, raise the tourism sector's contribution to GDP to AED 450 billion and raise the value of foreign trade to AED 4 trillion.

These are targets, not results. The government portal’s page on the plan does not say whether its GDP figures are in current or constant prices, or which year the AED 1.49 trillion refers to, so they cannot be compared directly with FCSC’s real GDP.

At emirate level, Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 is a long-term plan to reduce the emirate’s reliance on oil as a source of economic activity over time and to focus more on knowledge-based industries. The Ministry of Finance’s 2026 budget yearbook links the strength of the non-oil sectors to infrastructure, logistics, financial-sector and tourism initiatives and to expanding trade partnerships, including Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements. How those agreements work is covered in CEPA trade agreements, and the rules for shipping goods abroad in exporting and re-exporting from the UAE. More on prices, interest rates and growth is in the UAE economy guides.