Energy

Accounting for just under 30% of real GDP and providing 80-90% of state revenue, the oil and gas sector has been the dominant force behind Saudi Arabia’s economy for decades. Seeking to cement its position as a front-runner in the global market, the government has continued to invest heavily over the last decade to boost...

Traditionally viewed as a means to exploit technically challenging, marginal and maturing oil and gas reservoirs during periods when energy prices are high enough to offset greater production costs, the development of unconventional hydrocarbon sources has flourished around the world over the past decade from Southeast Asia to...

With little rainfall, scarce and depleting groundwater and high consumption per capita (see overview), Saudi Arabia is heavily reliant on desalination for water provision. As a consequence, the Kingdom is now the largest producer of desalinated water in the world and is investing heavily in new plants to keep up with demand,...

Despite possessing some of the largest crude reserves in the world, retaining the crown as the world’s preeminent oil exporter is not always easy. As the Kingdom’s own domestic consumption constitutes an ever-larger portion of its national crude output, the country’s oil producers are becoming involved in a continuous search for...

While Saudi Electric Company (SEC) remains majority state-owned, several initiatives are under way to bring private investment into the sector. Investment is already flowing in the form of independent power projects (IPPs), with some already up and running, and other major projects in the pipeline for the near future. The...

Investment is being poured into expansions and capacity upgrades across the sector, with around SR500bn ($133.25bn) to flow into the electricity and water segments in the coming decade. Saudi Arabia has ambitious plans to build up renewable electricity generation capacity, in particular solar power, to address rapidly rising...