New technologies are being honed across the region as the era of easy oil and gas comes to an end. The investment in heavy oil technology in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi's sour gas development, are prominent examples.

However, in a region where the hydrocarbons riches of the few have created a wide gulf between the energy-rich 'haves' and the less fortunate 'have-nots', the opportunities that high prices present to the region's poorer countries are perhaps more important.

They are wasting no time in leveraging the new conditions to bring their more limited, and often more difficult to access, resources to the market.

Oman, in a bid to reverse the decline in output from its ageing fields, is becoming a regional leader in enhanced oil recovery techniques.

Development of Jordan's oil shale deposits is becoming increasingly more realistic, and the technology may also have a role to play in Morocco. Both countries are struggling with their dependence on imported energy.

Further west, Egypt is developing its expertise in ultra-deepwater drilling in the Mediter-ranean. In recent days, Cairo has finally been persuaded to lift the price cap paid to inter-national companies involved in the costly drilling for gas in deep water, removing the greatest obstacle to the wider use of the technology.

If oil prices remain high, as expected, some of the region's smaller economies, or have-nots, may begin to believe that they too can join the haves.