Saudi Aramco plans to cut oil usage in power generation 

(MENAFN) Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil producer, unveiled plans to begin shifting to natural gas and reduce dependency on oil to fuel power stations and water desalination plants across the Gulf Kingdom by 2014, Arab News reported.

Saudi Arabia's natural gas findings have increased in recent years, the last of which was in the Red Sea, which gives Saudi Aramco the opportunity to limit domestic consumption of oil to increase crude exports.

Also, expanding the exploitation of the natural gas will help the company meet the increasing demand for liquid gas from petrochemical companies.

Saudi Aramco increased its gas exploration activities in 2010 after it completed a huge oil exploration program that started in 2009.

The Kingdom's natural gas reserves were estimated at 284 trillion cubic feet in 2012. Its peak production of gas is 11.2 billion cubic feet from more than 100 wells.