Sorry bunyonhead, I don’t have the source but I read a long time ago that NG in Saudi is mostly spent in water desalinization. They don’t have any other source of water than the sea…

It is shocking to see in the CIA World Factbook that the Saudi NG production of 65.68 billion cu m (2004 est.) equals their domestic consumption!

Actually Saudi Arabia has two huge aquifers underlying much of the country. In fact they have been farming wheat there and watering it with aquifer water.

There are many oasis in the country where the aquifers reach the surface. Date palms surround the oasis.

However all the aquifer water is not potable but much of it is. They do have desal plants all along the coast and pipe water all the way to Riyadh from desal plants near Ras Tanura. When I was there in the early 80s, I saw the completion of a huge desal plant just north of Ras Tanura. The pipelines were the largest I have ever seen lain overland.

Since I was there another, even larger, desal plant has been built very near that one.

Saudi also uses natural gas to generate electrical power. Gazlan power plant, near Ras Tanura was a hydro (boiler) plant that burned natural gas but could also burn crude oil or naphtha. Of course the desal plants can also burn crude or naphtha but mostly they burn natural gas.

Ron Patterson

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7398%28199207%29158%3A2%3C215%3ADG...