For more than a century, the Middle East has been one of the world’s most important centres of energy supply. Yet a strategic paradox remains at the heart of its energy architecture: a region that exports oil and gas across the world still lacks a coherent framework for exchanging energy within itself.

Electricity grids, regulations, markets and much of the region’s energy infrastructure continue to be designed and governed primarily within national boundaries. Meanwhile, the nature of the energy challenge is changing. Rising electricity demand, extreme heat, desalination, rapid solar deployment, the digitalisation of economies and the emergence of hydrogen are creating challenges that will become increasingly difficult to manage solely at the national level.

This is where an idea that may initially sound ambitious deserves serious consideration: a Middle East Energy Schengen.

An Energy Schengen — not another union

An Energy Schengen is neither a proposal to replicate the European Union nor an invitation to political integration or the surrender of national sovereignty. “Schengen” should be understood here as a policy metaphor, not an institutional blueprint.

An Energy Schengen is neither a proposal to replicate the European Union nor an invitation to political integration or the surrender of national sovereignty. “Schengen” should be understood here as a policy metaphor, not an institutional blueprint.

What the Middle East needs is a regional framework for energy interoperability: one that reduces barriers to the movement of electricity, gas, hydrogen, capital and energy technologies while gradually making participating countries’ grids, regulations, tariffs, standards and market mechanisms more compatible.

Put simply, the objective is not merely to connect cables and pipelines. It is to ensure that connected energy systems can actually work together.

According to the International Energy Agency, solar photovoltaic capacity across the Middle East and North Africa could increase roughly tenfold by 2035, with around 200 GW of new capacity added. At the same time, investment in electricity grids is expected to account for nearly 40 per cent of total power-sector investment in the region over the coming decade.

The strategic meaning of these figures matters more than the numbers themselves. As variable renewable generation expands and electricity demand from cooling and desalination rises, larger and more flexible cross-border grids become increasingly valuable. One country may have surplus generation........

© Middle East Monitor