Saudi officially plans to phase out power plant liquids-burn. But, with much of the country not connected to gas pipelines, oil-burn is here to stay. The kingdom has more oil-fired capacity under construction than the rest of the world put together.

Saudi Arabia is advancing a power generation strategy with considerable internal inconsistencies. On the one hand, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih says “liquids burning in our utilities will be virtually eliminated” over the next decade. Meanwhile, the IEA’s Oil 2019 report released this week highlights that the kingdom has the largest amount of oil-fired power capacity under construction in the world.

If Mr Falih’s ambition is realized, the kingdom is therefore going to be left with a lot of white elephants.

The IEA says that “of the 11.1GW of fuel oil-fired capacity under construction today around the world, 8.5GW is in...