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  Saudi Electricity Company secures $3bn financing deal

  29 October 2025

  Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has signed a $3bn financing agreement with a consortium of international banks at the Future Investment Initiative Forum (FII9) in Riyadh.

  The financing comes as SEC continues to expand its project portfolio to meet rising electricity demand. In September, SEC outlined plans to invest SR220bn ($58.7bn) in power projects between 2025 and 2030.

  This includes SR135bn ($36bn) and SR85bn ($22.7bn) for transmission and distribution, respectively, and is part of long-term plans to meet growing electricity demand while improving grid efficiency and reliability.

  The financing partners include the UAE's Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank and Emirates NBD.

  Also included are Bank of East Asia (Hong Kong), Bank of China, Barclays (UK), China Construction Bank, HSBC (UK), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (China), ING (Netherlands) and Mega Bank (Taiwan)

  The state-controlled utility, majority-owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has dominated procurement activity in the power sector in 2025, awarding approximately $6bn-worth of contracts.

  This has been led by two standalone projects in Dawadmi and Riyadh, each with a capacity of 500MW/2,000MWh and an estimated value of about $600m.

  The utility continues to advance other major developments including the PP13 and PP14 combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants in Riyadh. In October, it signed $3.4bn in offtake deals for the plants, which have a total capacity of 3,356MW.

  It also recently reached financial close for Saudi Arabia’s Qurayyah CCGT independent power project (IPP) expansion.

  SEC will develop, finance, build, own and operate the 3,010MW plant as part of a consortium with Saudi Arabia's Acwa Power and Hajj Abdullah Alireza & Company (Haaco).

  Alongside its financing agreement, SEC launched a new Supply Chain Financing Programme during FII9 in partnership with local fintech Manafa and US-headquartered SAP Taulia, supported by the Saudi Industrial Development Fund.

  The initiative aims to improve liquidity across the energy supply chain and enable suppliers to access fast financing at more competitive rates.

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  Mark Dowdall
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  Design work completed for $1bn Libyan pipeline

  29 October 2025

  

   

  Front-end engineering and design (feed) work has been completed for the major oil pipeline that will extend from oil fields in the south of Libya to the oil export terminal of Es Sider, according to industry sources.

  Libya’s Waha Oil Company, a subsidiary of state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC), is developing the pipeline.

  The 700-kilometre pipeline will have a diameter of 32 inches and the capacity to transport 1 million barrels a day (b/d) of oil.

  One source said: “It is crucial that the existing pipeline is replaced. The existing pipeline is suffering frequent leaks and cannot handle higher pressures.

  “In 1960, when the pipeline was installed, the pipe thickness was 36mm, but it is now so worn out that this has been reduced to around 8mm across much of the pipeline. In some spots, it is even less than 8mm.

  “Production cannot be increased at the oil field due to this ageing facility.”

  Waha is preparing to eventually tender an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project, which is estimated to have a value of between $1bn and $1.25bn.

  Although the pipeline’s actual usage is unlikely to exceed 300,000 b/d for some time after its completion, it is being designed to be ready for a significant increase in oil production from Libya’s southern oil fields.

  It is unclear when Waha plans to issue an invitation to bid for the project’s EPC contract.

  In 2012, Waha announced a project to replace key oil pipelines in Libya, but funding issues delayed the timeline and invitations to bid were never issued.

  In January 2024, MEED reported that Waha was considering plans to boost its production by 1 million b/d.

  At the time, the subsidiary was producing about 300,000 b/d.

  Earlier this month, NOC announced that the country’s crude oil production had reached 1,383,430 barrels a day (b/d).

  The company said that natural gas production was 2,519 million cubic feet a day (cf/d), while condensate production was 49,013 b/d.

  NOC said it aimed to further increase production capacity to approximately 1.6 million cf/d by 2026.

  

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  Wil Crisp
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  UAE growth exceeds predictions

  28 October 2025

  Download the PDF

  

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  MEED’s November 2025 report on the UAE includes:

  > COMMENT: Investment shapes UAE growth story
  > GOVERNMENT: Public spending ties the UAE closer together
  > ECONOMY: UAE growth expansion beats expectations
  > BANKING: Stability is the watchword for UAE lenders
  > OIL & GAS: Adnoc strives to build long-term upstream potential
  > PETROCHEMICALS: Taziz fulfils Abu Dhabi’s chemical ambitions at pace
  > POWER: UAE power sector hits record $8.9bn in contracts
  > WATER: Tunnel projects set pace for UAE water sector
  > CONSTRUCTION: UAE construction faces delivery pressures
  > TRANSPORT: $70bn infrastructure schemes underpin UAE economic expansion

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

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  MEED Editorial
• 
  Iraq leads non-GCC project finance activity

  28 October 2025

  This package also includes: Region sees evolving project finance demand

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  Iraq’s first airport public-private partnership (PPP) project is making steady progress, with bids submitted for the contract to redevelop the country’s main aviation hub, Baghdad International airport.

  The project, which could cost up to $600m, involves rehabilitating, expanding, financing, operating and maintaining the airport and increasing its capacity to around 15 million passengers a year. It is emblematic of Iraq’s growing position in the PPP market in the wider Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region outside of the GCC, where the country now outpaces the likes of Egypt and Morocco.

  Iraq’s Transport Ministry and General Company for Airport & Air Navigation Services released a tender for the airport project in July. In early October, bids were submitted for the scheme by three international consortiums. 

  The bidders were a UK/Turkish group of ERG International, Terminal Yapi and ERG Insaat; a Luxembourg/Iraq pairing of Corporacion America Airports and Amwaj International; and a larger consortium of five companies drawn from Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Ireland, made up of Asyad Holding, Top International Engineering Corporation, Lamar Holding, YDA Insaat and Dublin Airport Authority. 

  The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, signed an agreement with the Iraqi government in September 2023 to be the lead transaction adviser on the project – in what was its first PPP mandate in Iraq.

  Prominent sectors and frameworks

  Transport is one of the key sectors for project finance outside of the busy markets of the GCC, with $69bn-worth of schemes planned or under way across the 11 other countries of the region, according to regional project tracker MEED Projects. 

  The only sector that sees more activity is power, with $120bn-worth of projects in total. Between them, the wider region’s power and transport sectors account for more than half of the total market of $332bn of projects and more than 60% of the schemes by number.

  A few other areas have also been seeing significant amounts of activity, including the oil and gas sector with $57bn; chemicals projects, valued at $39bn; and construction, at $33bn. Most schemes are still in the planning rather than the execution phase, however, with around $118bn-worth of projects currently being built, or 36% of the total.

  In geographic terms, Iraq is the most active market, with $117bn-worth of project finance schemes in the works. It is followed by Egypt with $79bn, Morocco with $39bn and Iran with $38bn.

  Almost all countries have developed a project finance market of some description, although in the war-ravaged countries of Syria, Libya and Yemen the amount of activity is very limited.

  By far the most popular model for project finance deals in the region is build-operate- transfer (BOT) contracts, which account for $182bn-worth of all project finance activity under way or planned, equivalent to 55% of the total.

  BOT contracts are particularly prevalent in the power sector, with $65bn of deals, but they are also the most popular option in the chemicals, construction, transport and water sectors. In the oil sector, there is a slight preference for build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) models over BOT contracts, although the latter are also widely used.

  Project finance trends

  There has been something of a slowdown in PPP activity in 2025 across the Mena region, excluding the GCC states – at least in valuation terms.

  There was a particularly strong market performance in 2024, when more than $39bn-worth of schemes using project finance were awarded. 

  In contrast, $19.2bn-worth of awards are expected to have been made by the end of December this year – down on 2024, but still well ahead of the figures for the years prior to that. 

  By other measures, activity is picking up, however. In 2025, the number of PPP contract awards is expected to rise to 32 by the end of the year. This compares to 18 contracts in 2024, which was itself twice as many as the year before. 

  Seven of the awards in 2025 are worth $1bn or more, for projects in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Morocco. 

  The largest is the $3.5bn Aqaba-Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance project, the main contract for which was awarded to a joint venture of Orascom Construction and Vinci in January. It is due to be completed by 2029. 

  In the same market, the $1bn Al-Shidiya to Aqaba phosphate railway line is due to be awarded in December by National Infrastructure Construction Company, a subsidiary of the UAE’s Etihad Rail.

  The Iraqi projects include the $2bn, 1GW solar independent power project (IPP) in Najaf that is being developed by Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power; and the $1.5bn first phase of the Najaf-Karbala metro, which has yet to be awarded.

  Egypt’s leading PPP project this year is the $1.5bn, 1.1GW Suez wind farm IPP, which was awarded in January to Power China. Further west, two large renewable power plants are the biggest PPP contracts in Morocco, with phases two and three of the Noor Midelt solar complex. Each phase comprises a 400MW solar power plant and a battery energy storage system, and each is valued at an estimated $1bn, with Acwa Power undertaking both projects.

  None of these are on the scale of the largest PPP projects awarded last year, however, which was led by the $14bn Southern Refineries Company’s Al-Faw Investment Refinery project in Iraq. 

  Indeed, the six largest projects awarded in the non-GCC markets last year were all in Iraq. The country’s reliable tendering of clearly bankable projects as it steadily rebuild its infrastructure after decades of violence and economic stagnation is a success story to watch – and for many countries, one to emulate.

  Region sees evolving project finance demand

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  Dominic Dudley
• 
  Aldar announces new asset development plan

  28 October 2025

  Abu Dhabi-based real estate developer Aldar Properties has announced a series of major projects across the residential, commercial and logistics sectors in Abu Dhabi, with a combined gross development value of AED3.8bn ($1bn).

  In an official statement, Aldar said it will develop a new residential community in Alreeman, offering more than 2,000 rental units in the Al-Shamkha area.

  Aldar will deliver 665 residential units to the rental market on Yas Island. The new developments include a gated community offering 217 units.

  Aldar will also develop 448 new apartments on the island as an extension to Yas Residential Village.

  On the commercial front, Aldar said it will focus on developing office space in key business districts across the UAE to meet demand for Grade A office space.

  In Abu Dhabi, Aldar is currently developing Yas Business Park, an office development comprising four towers that will offer 47,500 square metres (sq m) of leasable space. The project is slated for completion in 2027. 

  In the logistics sector, Aldar said it is developing high-quality warehousing and distribution space across the UAE. Aldar added that it will expand the Abu Dhabi Business Hub by adding 175,000 sq m of gross floor area to the Musaffah site.

  Aldar will also deliver Abu Dhabi’s first Tesla Experience Centre on Yas Island. The facility will span 5,000 sq m and will include a showroom, service centre and delivery operations. 

  “Upon completion, the new residential, commercial and logistics assets will become part of Aldar Investment’s portfolio, which comprises income-generating real estate valued at AED47bn,” Aldar said in its statement.

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  Yasir Iqbal