Falih said. Among them are a consensus among analysts that world energy prices will remain high in the long term, and the development of integrated refining and petrochemical plants in the region - a trend in which Saudi Aramco is leading the way in order to capture economic synergies and broaden the product slate. One of the key trends Al-Falih focused on was changes in feedstock parameters, which he termed "evolving feedstock fundamentals." He explained that, whereas petrochemical feedstock from the 1980s through 1990 was generally 100-percent ethane, then mixed propane and butane with ethane was introduced, and today the percentage of ethane in the feed is much lower. Al-Falih said ethane content in associated natural gas (18-20 percent), which is obtained in "association" with crude oil production, is much greater than the percentage in non-associated gas (4-6 percent), produced in gas fields that are independent of oil reservoirs. "I would like to emphasize that we are not predicting a precipitous decline from our producing fields, which still have tremendous reserves remaining, but simply a plateauing of their production. It is the incremental capacity that will not yield significant quantities of associated gas." Although the ethane production trend may not appear encouraging, he said, it can be overcome, as Saudi Aramco has done by developing effective feedstock with lower ethane content. As early as 1992, he said, propane was being mixed with ethane as a cracker feedstock by Arabian Petrochemical Co. (Petrokemya) in Jubail, and by 2000, two new crackers were using natural gasoline (condensate). By the end of the current decade, he said, Saudi Aramco will be able to reduce the proportion of ethane in petrochemical feedstock to 60 percent - down from 100 percent in the 1980s. Al-Falih said Gulf producers have come a long way - "You are the envy of the entire global industry" - but still have a long way to go. "We as a region account for less than 4 percent of global petrochemical production, and the segments we participate in represent less than a third of the total chemicals business," he said. He went on to call on the industry to move into higher value segments of the industry, "We made a strategic decision 30 years ago to establish a commanding position in the polymers and bulk-petrochemicals sector, and that's exactly what we've done. But if we want to capture even more value, then we must commit ourselves to elevating our game."
