Saudi Arabia’s heavy investments to expand natural gas production in recent years is paying off in the form of record production of the fuel, according to Bloomberg, which cited latest figures from Saudi Aramco’s third-quarter results released on Tuesday.
Despite the record natural gas production for Saudi Arabia, it still wasn’t enough to keep the kingdom’s power plants supplied when they needed it most, Bloomberg notes. “Saudi Arabia consumes all the gas it produces, much of it to generate electricity. Because gas pollutes less than crude, power plants prefer it as fuel…Aramco pumped a record 10.7 billion cubic feet of gas on Aug. 6, the state energy company said in its third-quarter results on Tuesday, without giving an average figure for the period. Yet crude use at Saudi power stations also peaked that month. The country burned 702,000 barrels a day in August, according to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative, the most in four years,” according to Bloomberg.
Saudi Arabia’s domestic crude oil consumption hit a 4-year high in August.
Saudi Arabia, long the world’s leaders in crude oil production and export, is only recently investing and developing its natural gas resources. The Kingdom is investing $110 billion to develop its biggest unconventional gas field, the Jafurah field, which is estimated to hold 200 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Although increased production will help Saudi Arabia use less crude oil for its own domestic power, it is still a long way away from being a natural gas exporter. Neighboring Qatar is the biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas.
The increase in gas and oil use for power met seasonal surges in Saudi Arabia, where power use soars in July and August.
