JEDDAH, 29 July — Efforts are under way to use natural gas to operate industries as well as electricity and desalination plants in the Makkah region. The move is expected to cut production and maintenance cost by 40 percent.
Saudi Aramco has already constructed pipelines to Riyadh and the Eastern Province to supply gas for the use of industries and electricity plants.
According to Al-Watan newspaper, Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed has urged Saudi Aramco to fix a date for the supply of natural gas to the Jeddah Industrial City.
Fouad Al-Shuraibi, director general of Saudi Electricity Company in the Western Province, said consumption of electricity by industries in Jeddah reached more than 1.7 million megawatt worth SR200 million last year. He expected a seven percent rise in electricity consumption by Jeddah industries by the end of this year.
Natural gas is used to generate electricity and run desalination plants and some industrial projects in place of petroleum. The use of gas reduces pollution as well as cost of production and maintenance.
Abdullah Zainal, chairman of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, had requested the Makkah governor to intervene to speed up implementation of the gas pipeline project. The Jeddah chamber is collecting information through a specialized consultancy agency to assess gas requirements of desalination and electricity plants as well as industries in the city.
The new move comes after the Kingdom signed accords with eight international oil companies on June 3 to develop its gas fields. The gas deals, to carry out three core ventures in the southeastern, western and northwestern parts of the country, will bring an initial investment of $25 billion.
The availability of gas at competitive prices will boost industries specializing in transforming methane, ethane, propane, butane and benzene into value added products.
Suleiman Muhammad Al-Kholaify, chairman of the Gas Distribution Company, emphasized the importance of using methane gas that is clean and environmentally friendly and gives high levels of energy economically. It is used mainly in the iron and steel industries, the building materials industry and the chemical industries. “Efforts to supply gas to meet demand in all regions of the Kingdom started with the establishment of the main gas network in early 1980s and setting up of new gas processing workshops,” Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Al-Naimi said.
Since 2000, Saudi Aramco has been supplying gas to Yanbu Industrial City. “A project is now under way to supply 300 million cubic meters of gas daily to Yanbu. It will be completed by the end of next year,” he said.
The minister disclosed the plan to increase the capacity of the East-West Pipeline. Jubail Industrial City consumes more than 1,000 million cubic meters of methane a day, he said and expected that the figure would touch 2,000 million cubic meters gradually.
At present, the industrial cities in Jubail and Yanbu together consume 350 million cubic meters of ethane daily. By next year that figure will go up to 550 million cubic meters daily, Naimi said.
