Saudi Arabia seeks to match oil exports

Saudi Arabia plans to generate solar electricity equalling the amount of its energy from crude exports, oil minister Ali Al Nuaimi said. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has the potential by 2020 to produce enough solar power to meet more than four times global demand for electricity, Al Naimi said yesterday in a speech in Krakow, Poland, posted on the Saudi Press Agency website. Al Nuaimi said Saudi Aramco is planning to build the kingdom's biggest solar energy plant, which would produce 10 megawatts of power. Saudi Electricity will join Saudi Aramco and Showa Shell Sekiyu to develop a solar-power plant that can generate as much as 15 megawatts of electricity on Saudi Arabia's Farasan Island, Ali Al Barrak, the head of the utility company, said June 1.