Saudi Arabia is increasingly burning its biggest export product, crude oil, in power stations because of rapidly rising demand and a dearth of natural gas.

Analysts at HSBC estimate Saudi Arabia's rate of direct crude burning more than doubled from 2008 to 2010 after the government decided in 2006 to channel the country's limited gas flows to the petrochemicals sector.

Below is a table of HSBC's estimates of direct crude oil burning in the kingdom's power generation sector in thousands of barrels per day (bpd), based on data provided by the the Joint Data Initiative (JODI).

Power demand in the Middle East peaks during hot summer months because of high air conditioning demand.-Reuters