Related Articles

• 
  Dubai extends deadlines for stormwater drainage projects

  1 September 2026

  

   

  Dubai Municipality has extended bid submission deadlines for three tenders linked to stormwater and sewerage infrastructure projects serving Hind City, Dubailand and surrounding areas.

  The projects (DS-316-C1, TF-24-C1 and TF-25-C1) cover drainage networks for Hind 4, connections to the stormwater network in Dubailand and a stormwater trunk line serving Hind 3, Hind 4 and Umm Al-Daman.

  The new bid submission deadline is 24 September. Bids were originally due on 10 September.

  The municipality’s Sewerage and Recycled Water Projects Department issued the tenders in August. Hind 3 and Hind 4 are two of four zones within Hind City. The Dubai government renamed the Al-Minhad area and surrounding areas as Hind City in 2023. The 83.9-square-kilometre area is served by Emirates Road, Dubai-Al-Ain Road and Jebel Ali-Lehbab Road.

  The DS-316-C1 project covers the construction of sewer and stormwater networks in Hind 4. The stormwater network will include gravity drainage pipelines up to 1,600 millimetres (mm) in diameter, while the sewer network will include pipelines up to 800mm.

  The TF-24-C1 project will connect developers’ areas in Dubailand to the stormwater network. It includes 18 kilometres (km) of stormwater drainage pipelines with diameters of up to 1,800mm and 3.5km of gravity sewer pipelines with diameters of up to 1,000mm.

  The TF-25-C1 project involves the construction of a 9.2km stormwater trunk line serving Hind 3, Hind 4 and Umm Al-Daman. The trunk line will include gravity drainage pipelines with diameters of up to 2,800mm. It will also serve main roads along its alignment, including sections of the Dubai-Al-Ain Road, and is designed to accommodate stormwater flows from part of Emirates Road.

  The latest tenders follow a series of recent Tasreef package awards by Dubai Municipality.

  In July, MEED reported that local contractor DeTech Contracting had won the estimated $100m TF-15-C1 EPC contract. The municipality has also awarded the TF-15-C2 and DS-204-C1 packages to China State Construction Engineering Corporation and Nael Construction & Contracting.

  The wider Tasreef programme is intended to increase Dubai’s rainwater drainage capacity by 700% by 2033 and provide capacity for the emirate’s needs for the next 100 years.

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  Mark Dowdall
• 
  Saudi Arabia redirects towards AI

  1 September 2026

  Commentary
  Colin Foreman
  Editor

  The groundbreaking by Humain and DataVolt at Oxagon this month signals where Saudi Arabia’s project spending is heading.

  Over the past year, the dominant story has been reprioritisation, following Neom’s loss of the Asian Winter Games and the cancellation of contracts at Trojena and The Line. While the negative headlines have attracted international attention, it is important to remember that spending has not stopped. Instead, it has changed course, and artificial intelligence (AI) and the new economy are increasingly where it is going.

  The old economy still has a role to play. Over the next eight years, Expo 2030 and the 2034 Fifa World Cup will keep the construction market busy. Looking further ahead, however, the longer-term opportunity lies elsewhere. AI and the wider new economy could sustain a pipeline of construction work that outlasts the events – from data centres and their power supply to the industrial and digital infrastructure that surrounds them.

  Saudi Arabia also has a comparative advantage. Aiman Al‑Mudaifer, Neom’s chief executive, said at Leap that the ability to secure power, land and connectivity was becoming critical to the economics of AI computing capacity. The kingdom has cheap energy, coastline, sovereign capital and, at Oxagon, subsea cables linking to Europe and Africa.

  The build-out is gathering pace. Humain, the PIF-owned AI company launched in May 2025, has struck deals with US chipmakers AMD and Nvidia, attracted interest from Aramco and tendered a separate 6GW campus in east Riyadh. The Oxagon campus is planned to reach 1.5GW, with the first 100MW due in 2028. For contractors and consultants, this points to demand for power distribution, substations, cooling and connectivity rather than stadiums and mountain resorts.

  Whether it pays off is far from settled. Data centre economics depend on customers, chips and reliable power, and Saudi Arabia is a late entrant to a crowded field.

  For construction, the transition will be uneven, and some parts of the projects market will feel the redeployment before they feel the benefit. But for a market that has spent a year dealing with the impact of cancelled contracts and project slowdowns, a clearer sense of where the money is going next is a positive sign.

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19222074/main.jpg

  Colin Foreman
• 
  Libyan company secures upstream oil project

  1 September 2026

  

   

  Libya’s BaderOya Oilfield Services & Energy has been awarded a contract to hook up six wells to an early production facility (EPF) at the Erawin field.

  Engineering contractor Petrofac previously handled the scope of this project. However, Petrofac stopped work before completing the full scope.

  The outstanding work accounted for about 2%-3% of the overall project, according to industry sources.

  The client for the six-well hook-up contract is Zallaf Libya Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Company, which was established in 2013 and is wholly owned by Libya’s state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC).

  In March this year, MEED reported that Petrofac had stopped work on the EPF development project and reduced its Libyan workforce.

  The scope of the original contract awarded by Zallaf to Petrofac included surface facilities at the Erawin oil field, such as well pads and flowlines. It also included a pipeline to transport crude oil about 100 kilometres (km) to the El-Sharara oil field, plus a control room, substation and telecoms system located there.

  Petrofac completed several elements of the original scope, including the pipeline infrastructure, which has been in operation for more than a year, according to the company.

  Zallaf awarded the Erawin EPF contract to Petrofac under an engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning model. In a 2021 statement, Petrofac said the contract was valued at more than $100m, but did not provide a precise figure. The regional project-tracking service MEED Projects has estimated the contract value at $440m.

  Petrofac did not respond to a request for comment on the award of the well hook-up contract to BaderOya Oilfield Services & Energy.

  Financial problems

  On 27 October last year, Petrofac announced that it had applied to appoint administrators, a move that potentially put thousands of jobs at risk and increased uncertainty for projects worth billions of dollars in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

  At the time, the total value of projects awarded to Petrofac and under construction in the region was $5.83bn, according to information recorded by MEED Projects.

  Petrofac also had bids under evaluation for 15 projects in the region worth a total of $19.28bn.

  Since then, key parts of the business have been sold off, and many of the company’s staff have been made redundant.

  The redundancies included around 180 employees who were issued termination notices in October last year.

  In December, the US-based company CB&I announced it had entered into a deal to buy Petrofac’s asset solutions business in the first quarter of 2026.

  In January this year, the proposed company voluntary arrangement related to the sale of its Asset Solutions business was approved.

  Also this year, Petrofac completed the sale of Petrofac Emirates, a business unit it established in Abu Dhabi in 2008.

  The unit was bought by a consortium of financial investors led by the New York-headquartered hedge fund Mason Capital Management and UK-based asset management firm Pearlstone Alternative.

  Project disruption

  After the sale of Petrofac’s asset solutions to CB&I, the US-based company adopted responsibility for close-out works for the Erawin EPF project, according to an industry source.

  This was because the project “fell within an entity that was moving as part of the CB&I sale”, the source said.

  CB&I and Petrofac declined to comment on recent developments relating to the Erawin EPF project and the contract awarded to JOS.

  Erawin exports

  Libya shipped its first cargo of crude from the Erawin oil field in November 2023.

  The shipment departed from Libya’s Zawiyah port and consisted of 600,000 barrels of crude.

  Australia-based Worley Parsons was appointed as the front-end engineering and design (feed) contractor for the EPF project in 2019.

  The Erawin field development project is located about 800km south of Tripoli and 100km southwest of the El-Sharara field.

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19219414/main.jpg

  Wil Crisp
• 
  UAE firm acquires majority stake in African power producer

  31 August 2026

  Abu Dhabi-based ePointZero has announced a deal to acquire a 90% stake in pan-African independent power producer Azura Power Holdings.

  The transaction will give the subsidiary of UAE investment group 2PointZero control of 752MW of operating power generation capacity across Nigeria, Senegal and Mozambique.

  The company will acquire the respective stakes held by existing shareholders Actis and Africa50 through an acquisition vehicle established with Amaya Capital, an Africa-focused investment firm based in London.

  Amaya Capital founded Azuro Power in 2010 and will retain a 10% minority stake in the company, which also has a development pipeline of more than 1.5GW of planned power projects.

  The pipeline includes expansions at existing sites, as well as new gas and renewable energy projects and battery energy storage systems.

  Azuro Power’s operating portfolio comprises the 461MW Azura-Edo power plant in Nigeria, the 116MW Tobene power plant in Senegal and the 175MW Central Termica de Ressano Garcia plant in Mozambique. The company’s operating assets generate around 10% of each country’s grid baseload power, the statement said.

  The company’s projects have received financing and support from development finance institutions including the World Bank, British International Investment, German Investment & Development Company, the US International Development Finance Corporation, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and France’s Proparco.

  The deal, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, marks ePointZero’s entry into African power generation and follows the acquisition of a 20% stake in Egypt’s Elsewedy Electric in 2024.

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19171095/main.jpg

  Mark Dowdall
• 
  Contract award nears for Saudi Landbridge Riyadh section

  31 August 2026

  

   

  Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR) is preparing to award the main construction contract for the design-and-build of the Riyadh Rail Link, a new north-to-south railway line across the capital.

  MEED understands that the commercial proposals were opened two weeks ago, with a decision expected imminently.

  SAR began the post-tender clarifications with bidders in July, as MEED reported.

  The bidders include:

  • China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation / Al-Ayuni Investment & Contracting (China/local)
  • Nesma & Partners / China Harbour Engineering Company (local/China)
  • Al-Rashid Trading & Contracting / IC Ictas Construction / Saipem (local/Turkiye/Spain)
  • Saudi Binladin Group (local)

  In June, MEED exclusively reported that contractors submitted their commercial proposals on the 30th of that month.

  The scope includes a 35-kilometre double-track line connecting SAR’s North-South Railway to the Eastern Railway network.

  Issued on 29 January, the tender also covers the procurement, construction and installation of associated infrastructure, including viaducts, civil works, utility diversions/installations, signalling systems and other related works.

  Once delivered, the Riyadh Rail Link is expected to become a key component of the Saudi Landbridge railway.

  In January, SAR said it would deliver the Saudi Landbridge project through a “new mechanism” by 2034, after failing to reach an agreement with a Chinese consortium to construct it, as MEED reported.

  In an interview with local media, SAR CEO Bashar Bin Khalid Al-Malik said the consortium failed to meet local content requirements, and that the project would instead be delivered in several phases under a different procurement model.

  Negotiations have been under way between Saudi Arabia and China-backed investors interested in developing the scheme through a public-private partnership (PPP). Al-Malik put the project cost at about SR100bn ($26.6bn).

  Overall, it comprises more than 1,500km of new track. A core element is a 900km railway between Riyadh and Jeddah, providing the capital with direct freight access to King Abdullah Port on the Red Sea.

  Other key elements include upgrading the existing Riyadh-Dammam line, a bypass around the capital known as the Riyadh Link, and a connection between King Abdullah Port and Yanbu.

  The Saudi Landbridge is one of the kingdom’s most anticipated project programmes. First announced in 2004, it was put on hold in 2010 before being revived a year later. Rights-of-way issues, route alignment and the high cost have been among the main stumbling blocks.

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  Yasir Iqbal