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As the country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world, it is perhaps surprising that Saudi Arabia was the first Gulf country to consider the potential for alternative [...]

Derek BrowerLONDONSaudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi spoke in Berlin on 4 March, giving his view of the market and explaining the kingdomâs oil policy. The speech raised more questions than [...]

Western oil companies may not be allowed to make equity investments in the Middle Eastern upstream sector any time soon. Despite the flurry of speculation about the possibility of Western companies being allowed to take equity positions in low-cost oil reserves, their re-entry into the upstream sector looks somewhat unlikely given rising religious and economic tensions in Saudi Arabia and the growing complexity of geopolitics in the Gulf region., The re-entry of Western oil companies into equity ownership of Middle Eastern oil reserves is frequently a topic of discussion in Western and Middle Eastern capitals, but the complexity of [...]

Saudi Arabia met with the seven major US petroleum companies to discuss the possibility of their participation in the country's energy industry. The meeting marks the first time that the Saudis approached oil companies instead of the other way around. Saudi Arabia's decision to open its oil reserves to foreign development is part of its effort to alleviate the country from economic difficulties., Not for the first time in recent history, the Saudis are talking to the oil majors, presumably about the possibility of them participating in the country's upstream sector It would [...]

The kingdom is reasserting its influence on oil markets in an attempt to keep prices above $60/b, writes James Gavin THE SAUDI response to the recent dip in oil prices [...]

OPEC's Secretary General has said Iran and Libya will not follow Iraq's example and introduce a temporary embargo on oil exports in protest at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That has not [...]

International oil company (IOC) executives were awaiting government memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in mid-April for the kingdom's gas initiative. Ten IOCs submitted detailed proposals in February to develop the initiative, [...]

The private company formed to take over and develop utilities in the industrial cities of Jubail and Yanbu plans to invest $1,300 million-2,100 million in its first five years of [...]

PREMIER POWER TO BUILD NI PLANT Premier Power Limited (PPL), plans to invest $320 million in a 600 MW combined cycle gas-fired power plant Ballylumford, which could meet up to [...]

The long-awaited restructuring of the Saudi electricity sector was approved by the cabinet on 30 November, launching a process that will lead to privatisation. Peter Kemp reports Saudi Arabia has [...]

Peak demand for electricity in Saudi Arabia in 2010 hit 45,000MW, a year-on-year increase of 9 per cent, and 2 per cent faster growth than the rate recorded between 2007 [...]

IN JANUARY, King Abdullah made his first overseas visit as king--China. In April, China's president, Hu Jintao, returned the compliment. During Hu's visit to the kingdom, agreements were signed covering [...]

Much has been achieved in the gas sector since the original Saudi gas initiative died last June. In November, a Royal Dutch/Shell Group-led consortium comprising France's Total and Saudi Aramco [...]

FEW TEARS WERE shed when, in June, the death rites were summarily read on the kingdom's $25bn natural gas initiative. The reasons for its demise were unambiguous. The core-venture structure, [...]

Long-delayed plans to open the country's natural gas upstream to western oil majors were close to collapse last month, after a letter sent by Prince Saud al-Faisal to the consortia [...]

There were smiles all round at the headquarters of the Saudi Consolidated Electricity Company for the Eastern Province (Sceco-East) in Dammam on 26 July. Officials opening bid envelopes for the [...]

The slim margin between Saudi Arabia's electricity demand and supply was dramatically demonstrated on the kingdom's national day, 23 September. A failure in an Eastern Province substation set off a [...]

Saudi Arabia is not just one of the world's biggest producers of oil and gas; it has also historically been one of the cheapest. But if it wants to meet [...]

Saudi Arabia's growing population and the kingdom's ambitious industrial plans need a lot of electrical power--and quickly. According to forecasts by Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), power demand in Saudi Arabia [...]

Saudi Arabia's Supreme Petroleum Council, which sets the country's oil and gas policy, is in talks with Saudi Aramco over the state-owned oil major taking a role in the development [...]

In January, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told MEED that Riyadh wanted a nuclear-free Gulf. Prince Saud's comments were made in the context of mounting international tension [...]

Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has made a significant shift in its tendering strategy for two of its forthcoming power generation projects. The new strategy of splitting the turbine procurement from [...]

The GGC has long-term plans to interconnect with other Arab states to form a pan-Arab grid, according to Saleh Alawaji, deputy minister of electricity affairs at Saudi Arabia's Water & [...]

Petroleum & Mineral Resources Minister Ali Naimi announced in late September that the kingdom will soon almost double its proven reserves of crude oil. 'We will soon be able to [...]

Oil prices jumped to more than $60 a barrel on the death of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd but were also driven by increasing tension between Washington and Tehran and refining [...]

THE KINGDOM is looking for partners to help beef up its 2m barrels a day (b/d) refining capacity. A proposed 400,000 Wd export refinery, at the Red Sea port city [...]

A new law governing the kingdom's electricity sector is expected to be approved before the end of the year, according to Fareed Zedan, governor of the Electricity & Co-generation Regulatory [...]

Three contractors submitted bids on 10 January to Sauce Electricity Company (SEC) for the contract to expand capacity at Najran power station in the south. Tender documents were released by [...]

* The kingdom is in its third stage of a three-phase natural gas development plan, says the oil minister, Ali Naimi. The first stage was the setting up of the [...]

SAUDI ARABIA's indication last month that it is prepared to increase its own oil production in order to cool world prices, without the support of the rest of Opec if [...]

* The government plans to increase the capacity of its 1.6bn cf/d non-associated gas plant in Hawiyah to 2.4bn cf/d. The project will need investment of around $0.8bn. No timetable [...]

* The government was due to issue the new tender for the revamped strategic gas initiative last month, according to the oil minister, Ali Naimi. Bids for the three blocks--which [...]

SAUDI ARABIA IS OPENING its lucrative and closely-guarded doors to the international energy community for the first time in nearly 30 years. Saudi officials have outlined details of a bidding [...]

Concerns that a war in Iraq would further reduce world supplies already thinned by the strike in Venezuela, combined with strong US demand for winter heating, continued to sustain high [...]

The government says it will set up a new holding company to co-ordinate private investment in services for the energy sector. The company will cover 'engineering, seismic surveying, drilling, manufacturing [...]