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  Contract award nears for Trump Tower Jeddah Yasir Iqbal

  13 August 2025

  

   

  Saudi Arabia-headquartered real estate developer Dar Global is preparing to award the main construction contract to build the Trump Tower development in Jeddah.

  "The bid evaluation process has reached the final stages, and the contract could be finalised in a few weeks," sources close to the project told MEED.

  The enabling works have already started and are being undertaken by local firm Specialised Italian Foundation Company.

  The 47-floor tower is expected to be developed at an estimated cost of SR2bn ($532m).

  Dar Global is developing the project in collaboration with the US-based Trump Organisation.

  The project is the latest addition to Dar Global's portfolio after it announced the development of two new projects in Riyadh with the Trump Organisation.

  The announcement follows a partnership deal signed by Dar Global in September last year with Geneva-based jeweller Mouawad to develop a residential project in Riyadh.

  The estimated SR880m ($234m) development will offer 200 residential villas north of Riyadh, close to the Expo 2030 site.

  The development is expected to be completed by 2026.

  According to an official statement, Dar Global has $7.5bn-worth of projects under development in six countries: the UAE, Oman, Qatar, the UK, Spain and Saudi Arabia.

  UK analytics firm GlobalData expects the kingdom's construction industry to record an annual average growth rate of 5.2% in 2025-28, supported by investments in transport, electricity, housing and tourism infrastructure projects and the Saudi gigaprojects programme.

  The industry will also be supported by the government’s aim of increasing homeownership from 62% in 2020 to 70% by 2030, as part of Saudi Vision 2030.

  

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  Yasir Iqbal
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  Drake & Scull announces $381m in new contract awards Yasir Iqbal

  13 August 2025

  Dubai-based contractor Drake & Scull International (DSI) has announced that it has secured three new contracts worth over AED1.4bn ($381m) in the UAE, Jordan and India.

  The first contract, worth over AED1bn ($272m), covers the infrastructure works for the Arabian Hills project in Dubai.

  The second contract, which is worth AED215m ($58m), includes the construction of the North Balqa wastewater treatment plant in Jordan.

  The third contract, valued at AED169m ($46m), covers the construction of a water treatment facility in Maharashtra, India.

  The firm has also announced its entry into Dubai’s commercial real estate sector with the purchase of a land parcel in the Majan area of the city, where it plans to develop an office building.

  DSI has also announced that in the first half of 2025, its revenues increased to AED78m. The firm posted a gross profit of about AED6m, while net profit stood at AED6.5m.

  In June last year, DSI announced that it had completed its financial restructuring plan after it was able to reach settlements with “a number of creditors”.

  "Settlements have been reached with creditors and the financial restructuring plan has been approved by the competent courts," said Shafiq Abdul Hamid, chairman of the board of directors of DSI.

  "The company has been successful in increasing its new capital by more than AED450m ($123m) and obtaining approval from the Securities & Commodities Authority," he added.

  Hamid said the move was expected to enable the company to resume its activities by bidding for new projects.

  According to the new operational plan, the company will be focusing on three core disciplines: mechanical, electrical and plumbing; oil and gas; and wastewater treatment.

  In November 2023, DSI's restructuring plan was approved by the Courts of Dubai.

  The company resumed trading on the Dubai Financial Market in May, following a suspension of more than five years for restructuring.

  DSI's restructuring advisory team includes Trussbridge, Allen & Overy, Hadef & Partners, Ibrahim & Partners, Aaronite, Linklaters and Deloitte.

  UK analytics firm GlobalData expects the UAE construction industry to register annual growth of 3.9% in 2025-27, supported by investments in infrastructure, renewable energy, oil and gas, housing, industrial and tourism projects.

  The residential construction sector is expected to expand by 2.7% in 2025-28, supported by private investment in the residential housing sector, along with government initiatives to meet rising housing demand.

  

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  Yasir Iqbal
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  AIQ and SLB to deploy agentic AI to Adnoc operations Indrajit Sen

  12 August 2025

  Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence (AI) services provider AIQ has entered into an agreement with US oil field services major SLB for the development and deployment of AIQ’s ENERGYai (Energy to the Power of AI) agentic AI system across subsurface operations at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc).

  Built on 70 years of proprietary data and knowledge, ENERGYai combines large language model technology with agentic AI, which is trained for specific workflows across Adnoc’s upstream operations.

  Early indications of ENERGYai's capabilities in a test environment using 15% of Adnoc’s data, and looking specifically at two fields, resulted in a seismic agent achieving a 10 times increase in the speed of seismic interpretation and a 70% increase in precision.

  In March, Adnoc awarded AIQ a $340m contract to deploy ENERGYai across its operations.

  AIQ and SLB will jointly design and deploy new agentic AI workflows across Adnoc’s subsurface operations, including for geology, seismic explorations and reservoir modelling, supported by SLB’s Lumi data and AI platform and other digital technologies.

  A scalable version of ENERGYai is under development, which will include AI agents covering tasks within subsurface operations. Deployment will commence in the last quarter of this year.

  The agreement between AIQ and SLB builds on another agreement that the companies signed in March to facilitate autonomous operations in the energy sector through the adoption of edge AI and Internet of Things technologies, and specifically to promote the use of Agora edge technology.

  ALSO READ: SLB completes $7.8bn US oil field services firm acquisition

  

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  Indrajit Sen
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  Local firm submits lowest bid for $1.7bn Kuwait power project MEED EDITORIAL

  12 August 2025

  Kuwait-based International General Trading & Contracting has submitted the lowest bid for a contract to supply, install, operate and maintain combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units at the Subiya power and water distillation station.

  The contract involves delivering new CCGT units to boost efficiency and meet Kuwait's growing demand for electricity.

  Three firms submitted bids for the contract. The bidders and their prices are:

  • International General Trading & Contracting Company: KD516.89m ($1.68bn)
  • Heavy Engineering & Shipbuilding Industries Company: KD548.45m ($1.78bn)
  • Al-Dhow Engineering General Trading & Contracting Company: KD569.39m ($1.85bn)

  The tender was issued by Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water & Renewable Energy with a bid submission deadline of 5 August 2025.

  The phase four expansion follows separate works tendered for engineering services to convert the plant’s 250MW second phase from open-cycle gas turbines to CCGT.

  This tender closed in July with Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting again making the lowest bid.

  The Subiya power and water distillation station is Kuwait’s largest power and water facility, with a generation capacity of 7,046.7MW, accounting for about 35% of the country’s installed power.

  It also has a water desalination capacity of 100 million imperial gallons a day.

  

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• 
  Kuwait looks to capitalise on consolidation of power James Gavin

  12 August 2025

  

   

  The passing of the debt law in March 2025 appeared to herald a new page being turned in Kuwait’s turbulent history, after a five-year period that witnessed 10 cabinet resignations, four parliamentary elections and repeated gridlock hamstringing decision-making.

  Members of parliament (MPs) had previously blocked the government’s attempts to bring in legislation to allow the state to issue debt. However, more than one year on from emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s dissolution of the National Assembly and the suspension of key elements of the Kuwaiti constitution, the leadership managed to unshackle itself from traditional constraints on policymaking and pass the law.

  Such reforms have real-world impacts on Kuwait. The public debt law allows the sovereign to issue up to KD30bn ($98bn) over 50 years, releasing funds to support centrepiece economic projects. Given that past political logjams had delayed economic reforms – contributing, according to Fitch Ratings, to a reduction in real GDP of 2.8% in 2024 – there should at least be some upside from moves that have drawn criticism for setting Kuwait on a path towards autocracy.

  What would provide further reassurance that the emir’s consolidation of power is having a positive impact would be for the proposed residential mortgage law to be approved, which would allow banks to offer housing loans to Kuwaiti citizens.

  Political uncertainty

  Much is still unclear about the path forward. Parliament’s suspension is intended to be limited to its four-year term. This should allow for further measures of constitutional change designed to prevent a repeat of the impasse and delays that have frustrated ordinary Kuwaitis for many years.

  The situation is not helped by the advanced age of Sheikh Meshal, who is about to turn 85. That leaves questions as to whether the legislature will ever return to its former status as an independent chamber able to scrutinise government actions, and whether a reformed parliament will emerge from the process – without the attendant political dysfunction that has marked its performance.

  As one Kuwaiti analyst tells MEED, there is no evidence that radical political change is on the emir’s agenda. “The public does not expect the parliament’s suspension to last long. The system is broadly the same as before.”

  Other analysts see a status quo setting in over the near- to medium-term, giving the leadership some room to manoeuvre.

  “There’s no realistic prospect of a return of the National Assembly in the coming year, and the broader public’s dissatisfaction with MPs, viewed as largely responsible for the impasse and failure to support the country’s development, means there is less pressure on Sheikh Meshal to revive the legislature anytime soon,” says Kristian Ulrichsen, Middle East fellow at Rice University. 

  There is a strong sense in the leadership’s circle that decision-making is now proceeding more smoothly, and that popular frustrations with MPs’ actions over successive years leaves the executive with more leeway to develop a bold political and economic platform.

  “Many Kuwaitis believed that allowing the broken system to continue as before would have achieved nothing. This has given Sheikh Meshal a level of support in his moves to consolidate power,” says Ulrichsen.

  That does not mean that Sheikh Meshal’s proposed path will lead to success. “Suspending parliament was still a high-risk move by the emir, as with the legislature out of the way, there’s no-one but himself to blame if things go wrong,” says Ulrichsen.  

  Many Kuwaitis believed that allowing the broken system to continue as before would have achieved nothing

  The extension of executive power has not meant an end to Kuwait’s political turbulence. The resignation of Finance Minister Nora Al-Fassam on 4 August, just weeks before she was due to compete here first year in office, is the latest in a series of high-level cabinet departures. No reason has been given for her quitting the cabinet.

  Contentious rulings

  A more lasting source of political turmoil is the controversial decision to remove the citizenship of an estimated 42,000 Kuwait citizens since September 2024, when the government enforced changes to the country’s Nationality Law.

  This is proving the most contentious of the changes wrought by Sheikh Meshal since he took power in December 2023.  Those affected include individuals who have been accused of creating fake family relationships to win citizenship and women naturalised via marriage to Kuwaitis.

  The citizenship revocation campaign reflects a populist agenda to strengthen nationalist sentiment around conceptions of citizenship. While it may have won public support in its targeting of foreigners who have been accused of attempting to secure generous welfare entitlements that are the birthright of Kuwaitis of ancestral citizenship, its broad scope means it also risks incurring wider opposition, say analysts.

  “The citizenship issue risks becoming the biggest challenge in Kuwait, more even than the suspension of parliament,” says Ulrichsen.

  The Kuwaiti analyst sees the citizenship move as not explicitly politically motivated, but that it may over time inveigle regime supporters who are seen as more likely to marry people from outside Kuwait.

  The citizenship issue risks becoming the biggest challenge in Kuwait, more even than the suspension of parliament

  Kuwait’s political gaze is not just turned inward. Relations with its neighbours have also come into view recently, most notably with Iraq, with whom a dispute over a joint waterway has reignited.

  A group of Iraqi politicians have claimed that a bilateral agreement from 2012 regulating navigation in the 120-kilometre-long Khor Abdullah channel separating the two countries infringes on Iraqi sovereignty. They have persuaded the Supreme Court in Baghdad to rule that approval of the scheme by the country’s parliament failed to meet constitutional requirements.

  Iraqis have more recently accused Kuwaiti vessels of entering Iraq’s waters, ignoring Iraqi Navy requests for their withdrawal. Kuwait and its GCC partners have signalled their anger at this expression of Iraqi nationalist sentiment. Officials are hoping it does not escalate further, but if it does become an issue around which Iraqi political factions unite, Kuwait’s achievement in building a lasting understanding with Baghdad may be under threat – just three years after Iraq concluded its UN-instituted financial compensations relating to the occupation of Kuwait in 1990.

  For now, the Kuwaiti approach is to dial down the hostility and let diplomacy take its course, however renewed friction with its large neighbour is not a prospect that will fill Kuwait’s leadership with joy.

  Domestically, however, Sheikh Meshal may have reason to feel more confident. For now, he has sufficient political space to continue on his chosen path. The anticipated passing of a mortgage law in coming months would be one more signal to the public that his decisions have improved their lives. That focus on delivery would go a long way to ensuring that Kuwait’s critical voices remain dimmed for a while longer.

  Momentum builds in Kuwait construction

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  READ THE AUGUST 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Gulf heads into a new era of aviation; Maghreb’s resilience rises despite global pressures; GCC banks expand issuance amid demand

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the August 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA 1: Middle East invests in giant airports > AGENDA 2: Broader region upgrades its airports > AGENDA 3: Global air travel shifts east > CURRENT AFFAIRS: Syria wrestles fragile security situation > GCC BANKS: Gulf banks navigate turbulent times > BANKING: Strategic planning enters a new era of volatility > CONSTRUCTION: Soudah Peaks outlines project construction plans > INTERVIEW: SETS leads Saudi heritage preservation charge > LEADERSHIP: From plastic leakage to leadership in the Gulf > MAGHREB MARKET FOCUS: Maghreb pushes for stability

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

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  James Gavin