Runaway power demand and delayed gas field start-ups mean the peak month crude burn will rise from 757,000 b/d last year to hit 1mn b/d by 2020, FACTS says. This contrasts sharply with a recent Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) pronouncement that it expects the liquid fuels burn to fall by 550,000 b/d “once current and future plans [for gas-fired power plants] are complete.” The last of these plants is due online in 2017 (MEES, 4 April).
For 2013 as a whole Saudi Arabia burnt 483,000 b/d of crude and 311,000 b/d of fuel oil. With an additional five heavy fuel oil-fired plants totaling 14GW (as well as the 17GW of gas-fired plant) due online by 2018, the official Saudi target appears to imply that by the end of 2018 the crude burn will fall to zero. (CONTINUED - 665 WORDS)
