Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), world's biggest manufacturer of petrochemicals, recently revealed that, in order to offset the short supply of natural gas in Saudi Arabia, the company will shift to naphtha and propane as feedstock.
SABIC and other petrochemical manufacturers in Saudi Arabia mainly use ethane as their feedstock, since it is cheaper than other feedstock's and also because ethane is available at government subsidised rates, below market prices.
Swift development of the economy has caused the Saudi Arabian government to divert its ethane supply in higher quantities to power plants, which has resulted in reduced supply of gas to the petrochemical producers.
It is expected that, by 2014 use of ethane would reduce to 65 percent of the present usage, as the producers are slowly shifting to propane, which though costs more, but is extensively available as compared to ethane.