Reuters: Saudi kings of oil join the shale gas revolution

Saudi Arabia is unlikely to produce much shale gas this decade, hampered by scarce water and prices fixed far below production costs, but it has the reserves, the desire and the potential to become a shale giant one day.

The world's biggest oil exporter already has sizeable reserves of conventional gas, but more than half is trapped in oil fields whose production is driven by OPEC oil policy. Increases in output are not expected to keep pace with the economy's voracious appetite for gas to fuel power, petrochemical and desalination plants.

Inspired by a shale gas surge in the United States, which has transformed it from the world's largest gas importer to a budding exporter, the kingdom has begun investigating its large unconventional deposits and their potential for fuelling long-term growth for its booming population. MORE