Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, burned 45 percent more oil in March to produce electricity and desalinate water than it did a year earlier, according to the Joint Organization Data Initiative.
The desert kingdom consumed 377,000 barrels a day in domestic power stations and water-treatment plants in March, compared with 260,000 barrels a day in 2011, according to official data posted today on the organization’s website. The March figure is up 24 percent from February, when Saudi Arabia used 303,000 barrels a day for power and water, according to the data.
The country reduced the amount of oil it processed in domestic refineries in March by 1.5 percent from February, to 1.62 million barrels a day, as the 550,000 barrel-a-day Ras Tanura plant, the nation’s largest, was shut for planned maintenance, the data showed.
JODI is supervised by the Riyadh-based International Energy Forum and compiles data provided by member governments. The IEF, a group of nations accounting for more than 90 percent of global oil and natural-gas supply and demand, was established as a forum for producing and consuming countries to discuss energy security. The U.S., China and the European Union are among the IEF’s members, according to its website.
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