Saudi driving ban lift could increase gasoline demand

Meed

Saudi Arabia’s lifting of the ban on women driving could lead to an increase in its demand for gasoline, according to energy consultants First Global Energy (FGE). Saudi Arabia is the biggest consumer of gasoline in the region and is the world’s nine largest gasoline market. Current demand is around 580,000 barrels a day (b/d) – a figure that had doubled in a little more than a decade from 300,000 b/d in 2005.
However, FGE in its note cautioned against over-anticipation of a rise in Saudi gasoline demand generated by women drivers on the road in 2018, as the kingdom is reportedly mulling a proposed 80 per cent hike in gasoline prices, which could dampen the effect.
“Nevertheless, providing more people access to driving licenses will inevitably lead to higher driven miles. Just a 10 per cent increase in driving activity would add 60,000 b/d to Saudi gasoline demand,” the note said.
The move would impact Saudi Arabia’s import-export balance as the country remains a net gasoline importer from European refineries, having imported some 30,000 b/d so far this year.
Saudi Arabia, which has a population of 33 million, consumes 100,000 b/d gasoline more than the next largest market Iran, which has around 80 million
people.

Riradh hires
BNP for $7bn power plant sale
Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia hired BNP Paribas SA to advise on the sale of a $7.2 billion power plant, according to people familiar with the matter.
Saline Water Conversion Co., or SWCC, is working with the French lender to find a buyer for the plant, the biggest of its kind when it was built in 2014, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The sale is part of a broader strategy to privatize SWCC by selling some of its existing assets and developing new plants with the private sector, they said.
Privatizations could exceed $350 billion over the next five years, according to Elyas Algaseer, co-head of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. in the Middle East and North Africa. SWCC has been working on its privatization since 2015.
The plant at Ras Al Khair on the kingdom’s east coast provides power for an industrial city that includes aluminum and bauxite facilities owned by Saudi Arabian Mining Co., and is being developed into a maritime industrial hub by Aramco. The plant started operations in 2014 and produces 2,600 megawatts of power and 1,025 million cubic meter of desalinated water, making it the biggest desalination and power plant in the world, according to Aramco.
A spokesman for SWCC didn’t immediately respond to requests to comment, while a spokeswoman for BNP Paribas declined to comment.