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  Technip Energies secures role in Umm Shaif Gas Cap project

  Administrator

  26 August 2026

  France-based Technip Energies has secured a contract to provide detailed engineering services on a key offshore package part of the Umm Shaif integrated gas cap and surface pressure boosting project of Adnoc Offshore.

  The detailed engineering services deal was awarded as a sub-contract to Technip Energies by India’s Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (L&TEH), in its capacity as the main contractor on the package 1 of the Umm Shaif gas cap project.

  MEED previously reported about the offshore business of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Offshore) awarding the main EPC contract for package 1 to a consortium of L&TEH and Saudi Arabia/UAE-based Lamprell.

  Both L&TEH and Lamprell have confirmed their respective contract awards.

  Under the detailed engineering contract, Technip Energies, in its statement on 26 August, said it “will draw on its strong local engineering capabilities and extensive experience with complex, large-scale offshore projects in the Middle East.”

  In July, Adnoc and its foreign partners announced a $6.2bn final investment decision (FID) for their project to produce up to 600 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of natural gas by developing the Umm Shaif Gas Cap in Abu Dhabi.

  The Umm Shaif Gas Cap reserve is located within the offshore Umm Shaif and Nasr hydrocarbons concession, which is operated by Adnoc as the majority stakeholder. The other stakeholders in the concession are Italy’s Eni, France’s TotalEnergies and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

  Adnoc said the FID includes three EPC packages totalling $5.1bn for large-scale offshore infrastructure, awarded to consortiums comprising major UAE and international contractors. The company did not disclose the contractors or the scope of work.

  MEED reported in May that the following contractors had emerged as frontrunners for the two offshore packages and one onshore package of the Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project:

  • First offshore package – fabrication of a 30,000-tonne gas compression system: Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
  • Second offshore package – fabrication of another 30,000-tonne gas compression system: McDermott (US)
  • Onshore package – EPC of gas inlet and processing systems on Das Island: China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Company (CPECC)

  McDermott recently confirmed its contract award for package 2, describing the order as “mega”, a term the company uses for jobs valued above $1bn.

  In its 21 July statement, Adnoc added that, as part of the FID, it has also awarded a $365m contract to its subsidiary Adnoc Drilling for a 14-well drilling and integrated drilling services scope, to be delivered over 18 months using three existing rigs.

  “The FID for Umm Shaif Gas Cap is the latest milestone in the company’s gas growth strategy and will unlock more than 600 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas and associated gas liquids, equivalent to almost 10% of the UAE’s current daily gas consumption. The investment will reinforce the UAE’s energy security and its role as a reliable global energy supplier,” Adnoc said.

  Production from the development is expected by 2030, the Abu Dhabi energy giant said.

  “The UAE holds the seventh-largest gas reserves in the world. As global demand for reliable, lower-carbon energy continues to grow, Adnoc is unlocking more of the nation’s gas resources and expanding its liquefied natural gas (LNG) portfolio to meet the needs of its domestic and international customers and power industrial and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure growth,” it added.

  Umm Shaif Gas Cap project

  Adnoc Offshore, the offshore oil and gas business of Adnoc Group, is the operator of the Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project, MEED has reported.

  The primary objective is to increase gas production by 550 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) and raise associated condensate output by 50,000 barrels a day (b/d).

  Adnoc Offshore intends to feed about 520 million cf/d of the additional produced gas into Adnoc Group’s sales gas grid.

  Adnoc Offshore is understood to have issued the main EPC tender for the Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project in the first quarter of 2025.

  Contractors submitted technical bids for the three EPC packages by the 30 October deadline last year, while commercial bids were submitted by the 2 February deadline.

  The following contractors are among those understood to be bidding for the three EPC packages, according to sources:

  Offshore package 1:

  • Saipem (Italy) / Seatrium (Singapore)
  • Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
  • NMDC Energy (UAE) / Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)

  Offshore package 2:

  • China Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC)
  • McDermott (US)
  • Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
  • NMDC Energy (UAE) / Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)

  Onshore package:

  • Archirodon (Greece)
  • China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Company (CPECC)
  • Engineering for the Petroleum & Process Industries (Enppi; Egypt)
  • Galfar Emirates (UAE branch of Oman’s Galfar Engineering & Construction)
  • Target Engineering Construction Company (UAE)

  Australian firm Worley has performed front-end engineering and design (feed) work on the project.

  Umm Shaif gas production

  Adnoc Offshore operates the Umm Shaif hydrocarbons development, which is located 150 kilometres (km) northwest of the city of Abu Dhabi. The field is located in Abu Dhabi’s offshore Umm Shaif and Nasr hydrocarbons concession, previously operated by former Adnoc Group companies Adma-Opco and Zadco.

  In March and April 2018, Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs (SCFEA) awarded a 10% stake in the Umm Shaif and Nasr offshore block to Eni, 20% to TotalEnergies and 10% to CNPC. Adnoc Group retained the majority 60% interest. The operators produce a total of about 460,000 b/d of oil from the Umm Shaif and Nasr block.

  Gas is produced from the Umm Shaif Khuff and Uweinat reservoirs, as well as from the Arab C and Arab D Early Production Scheme 2. The Umm Shaif Khuff reservoir is a formation that consists of dry gas volumetric reservoirs located in the Umm Shaif field.

  Khuff reservoirs have been in production in Abu Dhabi since August 1989. Umm Shaif Khuff gas is currently produced from 28 active wells within the Umm Shaif field. A majority of these wells supply gas to Adnoc Group subsidiaries Adnoc LNG and Adnoc Gas Processing, with the rest supporting oil reservoirs at the Umm Shaif field through gas injection.

  The Umm Shaif Super Complex (USSC) processes and transports oil, condensates and natural gas in separate pipelines to Das Island for further processing and export. The condensates collected from the USSC are transported to Das Island through an 18-inch pipeline stretching 34.4km, or are spiked into the 36-inch Adnoc main oil line.

  The gas collected from the USSC is transported to Das Island through two 46-inch pipelines, which also run 34.4km.

  Pressure at the Umm Shaif Khuff gas reservoirs will start to decline by the end of 2028. The flowing wellhead pressures at some of the Khuff gas wellhead towers are likely to reduce, so boosting well deliverability and increasing the flowrates is necessary.

  Therefore, new Khuff surface pressure boosting facilities are required to maintain the plateau – with a goal of achieving a 90% gas recovery factor – and increase production beyond the end of the plateau by lowering pressure at the Khuff reservoirs.

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  Indrajit Sen
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  Saur and Nesma sign water infrastructure deal

  Administrator

  26 August 2026

  French firm Saur and local contractor Nesma & Partners have signed a deal to jointly "pursue the design and construction" of two recycled water plants in Riyadh.

  The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed during the French-Saudi Investment Roundtable Meeting in Paris on 24 August.

  It builds on an earlier agreement by the companies last September focusing on developing desalination and sewage treatment plants aceross the kingdom including project development, engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and long-term operations and maintenance (O&M).

  At the time, the companies agreed to "target industrial water treatment through concession and operations contracts," extending the agreement beyond municipal water infrastructure.

  The latest agreement appears to mark a move from the broader partnership towards specific project opportunies in the Riyadh market. Details of the projects were not disclosed.

  In May, MEED exclusively reported that a consortium including Saur, Nesma and another local firm Al-Bawani was preparing to bid for the Riyadh East Independent Sewage Treatment Plant (ISTP) project, of which, the submission deadline was recently extended to 29 September.

  There are almost $2.5bn worth of water treatment projects at the pre-execution stage in Saudi Arabia, according to regional tracker MEED Projects.

  The French-Saudi Investment roundtable meeting was organised as part of Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman’s state visit to France.

  Saudi Aramco also announced agreements and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with French companies, worth a potential combined value of more than $3.7bn.

  Among the other agreements signed during the conference was a cooperation agreement between Saudi Energy and French public investment bank Bpifrance, valued at up to $3bn, to support financing for projects to develop and expand Saudi Arabia’s power grid.

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  Mark Dowdall
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  Wabag confirms $372m Kuwait desalination contract

  Administrator

  26 August 2026

  India's VA Tech Wabag has confirmed it has signed a contract to supply, install, operate and maintain the second phase of the Doha seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant.

  Wabag confirmed the signing in a Regulation 30 filing on 25 August to the National Stock Exchange of India and BSE Limited.

  The contract is valued at KD114.28m ($372m) and will be delivered by a Wabag-led unincorporated joint venture with Kuwait’s Heavy Engineering Industries & Shipbuilding Company (Heisco).

  In April, MEED reported that Kuwait’s Central Agency for Public Tenders had approved the recommendation of the Ministry of Electricity & Water to award the contract to the joint venture.

  It is understood that the decision then had to go through final approval from the Audit Bureau

  The project will deliver a production capacity of about 60 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD) equivalent to about 272 million litres a day.

  It will include the desalination plant with full reverse osmosis trains, pre- and post-treatment systems, recarbonation equipment, booster pumps, and safety and filtration systems. On-site solar photovoltaic systems will also provide part of the plant’s energy requirements.

  According to the filing, construction is scheduled to take 36 months, followed by a five-year operation and maintenance period.

  The Doha SWRO desalination plant is part of Kuwait’s broader programme to expand water production capacity and reduce reliance on thermal desalination methods.

  As reported by MEED, the Heisco/Wabag joint venture submitted the lowest of three bids for the project in August 2025.

  In April 2025, MEED reported that Kuwait had retendered the contract for the facility after the ministry cancelled the initial tender in June 2024.

  The Ministry of Electricity & Water awarded South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction – now known as Doosan Enerbility – a $422m contract in May 2016 to build the 60 MIGD Doha 1 SWRO plant.

  The contract marks Wabag's first project in Kuwait. In June, the contractor also won its first major contract in the UAE for the Ajman sewage biorefinery plant phase 3 project.

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  Mark Dowdall
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  Key approval given for $381m Kuwait oil project

  Administrator

  26 August 2026

  The Supreme Purchasing Committee for Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has approved the award of an oil project contract worth KD117m ($381m) for India’s Megha Engineering & Infrastructure (Meil), according to industry sources.

  The approval was granted earlier this month and has paved the way for an official contract award, sources said.

  The scope of the project is focused on a water separation facility at the Al-Rawdatain facility in Kuwait.

  The water separation facility is being developed at Gathering Centre 25 (GC-25) and a pumping facility is being developed at GC-30.

  Six companies submitted bids for the project in November last year.

  The full list of bids was:

  • Meil (India) – KD117m ($381m)
  • Mechanical Engineering & Contracting Company (Kuwait) – KD130m
  • Spetco (Kuwait) – KD158m
  • Al-Kharafi (Kuwait) – KD164m
  • China Oil HBP Science & Technology (China) – KD169m
  • Alghanim International (Kuwait) – KD169m
  • Jereh Oil & Gas Engineering (China) – KD191m

  The client on the project is state-owned upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC).

  The project will deliver a wide-ranging upgrade of processing and utility infrastructure, including new low-pressure separation and gas handling equipment such as a three-phase wet separator package, a gas knock-out drum and associated LP gas pipelines, alongside a high-integrity pressure protection system and a high-pressure flare.

  In October last year, KOC awarded Meil a separate contract for a project to develop a gas sweetening and recovery facility in West Kuwait.

  Meil submitted the lowest bid for that tender, at KD69.2m ($225.5m), in February 2025.

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  Wil Crisp
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  Chevron signs Libya oil deal

  Administrator

  26 August 2026

  Libya’s state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) has signed a production-sharing agreement (PSA) with US oil company Chevron.

  The agreement will “support the exploration and development of Libya’s resources” and enable the NOC to benefit from Chevron’s technical expertise and advanced technology, according to a statement from NOC.

  Chevron confirmed signing the agreement for the onshore Block S4, which covers an area in Libya’s Sirte Basin, saying it “looks forward to working with NOC and other key stakeholders in Libya.”

  The block was awarded to Chevron in February as part of an international tender launched by Libya in 2025.

  The licensing round was the country’s first in nearly two decades.

  A total of five contracts were announced as awarded as part of the licensing round in February.

  These were:

  • Block O1 – offshore – Eni (Italy; 60%) and QatarEnergy (40%)
  • Block O7 – offshore – Repsol (Spain; 40%), Turkiye Petrolleri A O (TPAO; Turkiye; 40%) and MOL Group (Hungary; 20%)
  • Block C3 – onshore – Repsol and TPAO
  • Block M1 – onshore – Aiteo (Nigeria)
  • Block S4 – onshore – Chevron (US)

  The contracts for blocks O1, O7, and C3, were signed in June.

  Libya is seeking to attract investment and raise oil production capacity to 2 million barrels a day (b/d) from around 1.4 million b/d currently.

  The chairman of NOC, Massoud Suleman, said that the agreements reflected growing confidence in Libya’s oil and gas sector and would support exploration, development and production growth.

  The 2025 licensing round was Libya’s first licensing round since 2007.

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  Wil Crisp
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  Qiddiya plans $7bn theme park hub near Paris

  Administrator

  25 August 2026

  Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya Investment Company plans to develop a mixed-use leisure destination worth about €6bn ($7bn) at Cergy-Pontoise in the Ile-de-France region, in one of the largest Saudi investments in French tourism infrastructure to date.

  The plan was set out in a joint statement issued on 24 August at the close of a state visit to France by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. France and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) covering the project during the two-day visit.

  The destination will bring together entertainment, leisure, hospitality, culture and sport, according to the joint statement. Current plans envisage up to three major entertainment anchors, hotels and complementary leisure experiences, with the €6bn figure covering the full development lifecycle.

  One of the three parks is expected to be manga-themed, according to the French presidency. The themes of the other two have not been disclosed. The parks will be built and opened in stages, with construction expected to take several years. No opening date has been given.

  The parks are expected to create about 22,000 direct jobs, according to the French presidency, compared with about 20,000 at Disneyland Paris. Cergy-Pontoise lies about 30 kilometres northwest of Paris.

  Qiddiya is a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Its flagship project is a giga-scale entertainment, sports and cultural city on the outskirts of Riyadh, one of several gigaprojects under Vision 2030.

  The theme park plan was among a wider set of agreements reached during the visit. Both sides welcomed the announcement of 21 agreements and MoUs at a French-Saudi investment roundtable, spanning energy, industry, financial services, transport and logistics, health, culture, tourism and artificial intelligence. Bilateral trade reached about $11.8bn in 2025.

  It is not the first time Saudi capital has backed a French theme park. Kingdom Holding Company was a longstanding investor in the operator of Disneyland Paris, first taking a stake in 1994 and participating in successive recapitalisations before Walt Disney Company moved to near-full ownership in 2017.

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  Colin Foreman
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  Masdar shelves Abu Dhabi green hydrogen project

  Administrator

  25 August 2026

  

   

  Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has decided to cancel a planned project to build a green hydrogen plant in Abu Dhabi that would have supplied up to 100MW of renewable hydrogen to local steelmaker Emsteel for green steel production.

  After contractors submitted bids for the project last year, Masdar asked bidders in the first quarter of this year to extend the validity of their proposals until the end of August to allow “more time to study and evaluate bids”, according to one source.

  However, Masdar issued a notification to all bidders on 1 August stating that it had decided to cancel the project, sources told MEED.

  Contractors that submitted bids for the Masdar green hydrogen project included:

  • Envision (China)
  • Larsen & Toubro (India)
  • PowerChina (China)
  • Samsung E&A (South Korea)
  • Sinopec (China)

  Masdar did not respond to MEED’s request for comment on the information.

  In its current steelmaking process, Emsteel uses hydrogen produced by steam reforming of natural gas as a reducing agent to extract iron from iron ore. The core objective of Masdar’s planned project was to install a 100MW electrolyser at Emsteel’s main manufacturing hub in Musaffah, Abu Dhabi, to supply green hydrogen for future clean steel production.

  Masdar initiated work on the project in 2024 by awarding a front-end engineering and design (feed) contract to locally based NT Energies, a joint venture of Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Energy and France-based Technip Energies.

  Masdar then sought proposals last year for engineering, procurement, construction, demolition (if needed for brownfield activities), pre-commissioning, commissioning, start-up, and two years of operations and maintenance (extendable up to 20 years) at the planned facility.

  Contractors submitted bids by the end of the year, according to sources.

  The project involved green hydrogen production using alkaline water electrolysis, with a total installed electrolyser capacity of 100MW.

  The scope of work involved building electrolyser stacks and modules, hydrogen separation and compression units, associated utilities and storage systems, and electrical, instrumentation and control systems.

  It also included tie-ins to pre-defined interface points, including (but not limited to):

  • a grid power supply connection to the MOSF substation in Musaffah that exists within the Emsteel complex and is operated by Taqa Transmission
  • a water supply connection to a nearby Taqa Distribution network

  Supporting infrastructure included a substation, a motor control centre, and ancillary plant buildings and facilities.

  Masdar’s planned 100MW electrolyser project at the Emsteel facility would have represented a step up from a previous pilot project by the two Abu Dhabi-owned companies.

  The partners inaugurated a pilot green hydrogen plant at Emsteel’s manufacturing complex in Musaffah in October 2024. It incorporates a 2.1MW electrolyser and is designed to support the production of up to 5,000 tonnes of green steel a year.

  This made Emsteel the only steelmaker in the Middle East to use green hydrogen to produce green steel on a pilot basis.

  “Sustainability is central to Emsteel’s innovation, competitiveness and long-term growth. Today, approximately 89% of our steel business electricity consumption comes from clean sources, and our steel carbon emissions intensity is around 40% lower than the World Steel Association global average,” Michael Rion, chief commercial officer of Emirates Steel, part of Emsteel Group, told MEED in a recent interview.

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  READ THE AUGUST 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Saudi Arabia builds for the global stage; Rising uncertainty creates fresh set of challenges in the Maghreb; Gulf banks remain robust in the face of geopolitical tensions.

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the August 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA: Expo 2030 Riyadh construction gathers pace > WORLD CUP: What the 2026 World Cup means for Saudi Arabia 2034 > MARKET FOCUS: Maghreb fortunes diverge > INDUSTRY REPORT: GCC banks prove resilient amid turmoil > LEADERSHIP: Private capital and the GCC infrastructure inflection > PORTS: Geopolitical risk shapes $513bn of global ports projects > INTERVIEW: Developers look beyond standalone solar

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  Indrajit Sen
• 
  Oman invites bids for Musandam renewables study

  Administrator

  25 August 2026

  Oman’s Nama Power & Water Procurement Company (PWP) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for techno-economic consultancy services to assess the feasibility of renewable energy options in Musandam Governorate.

  The study will examine solar photovoltaic (PV), wind and hybrid renewable energy configurations. It will also assess battery energy storage systems (bess) and other renewable energy and energy storage technologies.

  The consultant will be required to determine which technologies are technically and economically justified for the governorate.

  The bid submission deadline is 24 September.

  The Musandam power system is served primarily by the 123MW Musandam independent power plant (IPP), which began operating in 2017. The governorate has historically relied on small diesel-fired units, but has been seeking to move away from diesel-fired power generation for several years.

  Nama PWP has previously said it was exploring renewable energy options in Musandam to meet future additional capacity requirements.

  Its latest seven-year statement, released in March, forecasts peak electricity demand in Musandam to rise from 91MW in 2024 to 130MW in 2031, an average annual increase of 5%. Average demand is forecast to rise from 52MW to 73MW over the same period.

  The plan says demand growth is being driven by distribution-level load and projects aimed at boosting tourism, economic and commercial activity. 

  Separately, the utility recently invited bids for financial and commercial consultancy services covering three 1GW solar IPPs targeted for commercial operation by the second quarter of 2030.

  The bid submissions deadline is 10 September.

  The three projects covered by the financial and commercial consultancy tender are understood to also be part of the 4GW programme, for which a technical advisory tender was issued on 15 July.

  Bidding for this tender closes on 26 August.

  ---

  READ THE AUGUST 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Saudi Arabia builds for the global stage; Rising uncertainty creates fresh set of challenges in the Maghreb; Gulf banks remain robust in the face of geopolitical tensions.

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the August 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA: Expo 2030 Riyadh construction gathers pace > WORLD CUP: What the 2026 World Cup means for Saudi Arabia 2034 > MARKET FOCUS: Maghreb fortunes diverge > INDUSTRY REPORT: GCC banks prove resilient amid turmoil > LEADERSHIP: Private capital and the GCC infrastructure inflection > PORTS: Geopolitical risk shapes $513bn of global ports projects > INTERVIEW: Developers look beyond standalone solar

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/18983679/main.jpg

  Mark Dowdall