Energy

Utility plants that produce power alongside desalinated water or steam allow Saudi Arabia to optimise the use of its hydrocarbons resources to support communities living in the country’s hot, arid conditions. Cogeneration facilities have been operating for many years, but the country is trying to press home the advantage by making use of new...

When OPEC’s member states announced that their crude oil production target would remain at 30m barrels per day (bpd) at a meeting in Vienna on November 28, 2014, Saudi Arabia was accused of waging a price war to preserve market share. The implication was that the country wanted to see the price of Brent crude fall so low that drillers in the...

Providing power for its rising population represents a significant challenge for Saudi Arabia, with the Kingdom generating more than twice as much electricity in 2015 as it did in 2000 in order to meet growing demand. According to the Electricity and Cogeneration Regulatory Authority (ECRA), the Kingdom will have to invest some $140bn before...

The drop in global oil prices in the second half of 2014 thrust Saudi Arabia’s energy sector into the spotlight, but the consequences for the Kingdom vary significantly depending on whether they are measured in terms of production, price or perception.

Local scientists and engineers working in Saudi Arabia’s laboratories and on its test rigs have been making significant research and development (R&D) gains in the energy technology sector in recent years. In 2014, Saudi Aramco set a new record for inventiveness and innovation – 99 patents were granted to the company in the US, while an...

A 2012 World Bank report suggested that as much as one-fifth of private sector employment in Morocco comes from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while the African Development Bank reported in 2014 that SMEs provide roughly half of the industrial sector’s employment and nearly 40% of its turnover.