Saudi Aramco’s ambitious gas expansion plans were front and center of the firm’s Q2 results earlier this month. And little wonder, with the kingdom burning a record 1.48mn b/d of oil for power generation and water desalination in June (MEES, 26 August).

The environmental and financial costs of this are huge at the best of times, but when crude oil is averaging more than $100/B, the lost export revenues hurt all the more. Even if oil exports are bringing in more than $1bn every day (MEES, 26 August). (CONTINUED - 913 WORDS)