MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia intends to reduce domestic consumption of liquid hydrocarbons by 1 million b/d for use "in a better way", reported S&P Global with reference to the kingdom's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman's statement on March 16.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the kingdom - the Gulf's largest economy - was consuming around 491,000 b/d of oil for industrial use and power generation during the height of its summer demand in 2019, according to previous S&P Global Platts Analytics estimates. The US Energy Information Administration had estimated the figure to be closer to 1 million b/d in 2015 at the peak of summer during a record year for demand.
"If we are to maintain our position as a long-term carbon producer, we have to be innovative enough and collaborative enough to ensure these hydrocarbon resources will be monetized and used in a better way," said the Saudi minister during the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue, broadcast online March 16. "We are launching a sustainability program to try to find ways to use hydrocarbons in different ways, especially in terms of materials, which will not be impacting or affecting the environment in any way."
Reducing domestic demand could also help Saudi Aramco increase its long-term spare capacity from levels of around 1.5 million b/d to 2 million b/d historically. The kingdom has more crude available from its 12 million b/d production capacity, due to its self-enforced cuts agreed with OPEC+, which have limited production to 8.13 million b/d in February, according to the latest S&P Global Platts survey, with exports below 6 million b/d.
A research paper published in 2018 by the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Centre forecast that increases in domestic gasoline and electricity prices in the kingdom could effectively boost export capacity by over 75,000 b/d, while cutting carbon emissions by 97 million tons annually.
"The liquid displacement program that we will be introducing this year will take care of reducing our petroleum and petroleum product consumption from all utilities," said Prince Abdulaziz.
As MRC informed earlier, in October 2019, McDermott International announced that it had been awarded a contract by Saudi Aramco and Total Raffinage Chimie (Total) for their joint venture (JV) Amiral steam cracker project at Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Amiral is a JV in which Aramco holds 62.5% and Total the rest. The plant, designed to produce 1.5 million metric tons/year (MMt/y) of ethylene, will be one of the world's largest mixed-feed crackers.
Aramco and Total launched their USD5-billion Amiral JV project in October 2018. The steam cracker will be fed with a mixture of 50% ethane and refinery off-gases. It will supply ethylene to a downstream 1 MMt/y polyethylene manufacturing complex and other petrochemical products. The project aims to fully exploit operational synergies with the adjacent refinery, owned by Satorp, another JV between Aramco and Total. Third-party investors, including Daelim and Ineos, will locate plants at the value park adjacent to Amiral with a combined investment of USD4 billion. A final investment decision is expected in 2021.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
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