• Gulf countries are the worst offenders worldwide when it comes to the direct burning of crude oil in power plants. Of 816,000 b/d burnt worldwide in 2015, 85% was in the Gulf.

• But a seemingly-inexorable rise in burning due to a failure for alternate fuel supplies to keep up with soaring power demand was finally reversed in 2016. The total regional burn was 694,000 b/d for 2016, according to MEES analysis of freshly-released Jodi data, down by 9% from 2015’s record of 764,000 b/d. (CONTINUED - 449 WORDS)