Kuwait receives Sabah Al-Ahmed substation bids
31 July 2024
Kuwait's Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) has received bids for two separate contracts to build 11/132-kilovolt (kV) substations catering to neighbourhoods at the South Sabah Al-Ahmed City in Kuwait's Al-Asimah Governorate.
The scope of the first contract includes the supply, installation, implementation and maintenance of 10 11/132Kv main transformer stations in neighbourhoods number N5, N6, N8 and N10 in South Sabah Al-Ahmed City.
The following bidders submitted offers for this contract:
- National Electricity Panels (local): KD44m
- Larsen & Toubro (India): KD44.9m
- National Contracting Company (local): KD44.7m
The second contract involves the supply, installation, implementation and maintenance of 10 11/132kV main transformer stations in neighbourhoods N5, N7 and N9.
The bidders and their prices are:
- National Electricity Panels (local): 44.1m
- Larsen & Toubro (India): KD44.6m
- National Contracting Company (local): KD43.6m
PAHW issued the tenders in June with closing dates of 25 July.
Located 80 kilometres south of Kuwait City, the South Sabah Al-Ahmad residential development will be home to an estimated 280,000 people when complete.
The 61.5 square-kilometre city is formed of ten neighbourhood clusters arranged around the city’s central business district, and bordered by a ring of light industrial buildings focusing on construction, medicine and manufacturing.
In June, PAHW received bids from contractors for a tender covering the infrastructure development works at its South Sabah Al-Ahmed development.
The contract includes the infrastructure works for 6,568 residential units in neighbourhoods N1, N2, N3 and N11.
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Iraq discusses starting operations at $3.78bn refinery project8 October 2026
Iraq’s Minister of Oil, Basem Muhammad Khudair Al-Abadi, has met with Japanese officials to discuss plans to commission the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit at the Basra refinery upgrade project, according to a ministry statement.
The meeting was attended by the Japanese Embassy’s executive officer as well as representatives from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and Japan-based JGC, which is the main contractor on the project.
According to the ministry, discussions focused on direct implementation steps and coordination between Iraqi authorities and the Japanese partners to bring the unit online using Japanese refining technologies.
Iraq’s South Refineries Company (SRC) sent JGC notice of the main contract award for the Basra refinery upgrade project’s FCC package in August 2020.
JGC was awarded the contract in consortium with South Korea’s Hyundai E&C.
The official contract signing ceremony was held in Baghdad on 1 October 2020.
The contract awarded to JGC, which uses the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning model, was worth $3.78bn.
Project delays
The project has faced issues related to the ongoing regional conflict, which started when the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February.
JGC evacuated its personnel from the site in the southern oil hub of Basra following the start of the regional war, stopping work on the project, which was in its final stages of construction.
In August, JGC signed an agreement to restart work.
The project will produce around 5 million litres a day of gasoline and 7 million litres a day of diesel.
The FCC package is part of a broader project to upgrade the Basra refinery.
Oil Ministry officials said in late 2025 that the Basra refinery upgrade project aims to slash Iraq’s fuel import bill and convert heavy refining residues into high-value petroleum products.
The project site is located about 12 kilometres east of Iraq’s southern city of Basra.
The wider upgrade project is installing new facilities on land adjacent to the existing Basra refinery, including a vacuum distillation unit and a diesel desulphurisation unit.
In April 2021, France’s Axens won a contract to provide four process technologies to SRC for the Basra refinery upgrade project.
The technologies that SRC selected are:
- Diesel hydrotreatment unit (Prime-D)
- Vacuum gasoil (VGO) hydrotreating unit
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- Oligomerisation unit (polynaphtha)
In addition, Axens is providing catalysts and adsorbents and proprietary equipment, training and technical services.
READ THE OCTOBER 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDFIndustry and logistics drive development at Neom; Saudi Arabia’s investment priorities realign amid conflict; MEED’s 2026 power developer ranking.
Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the October 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:
> AGENDA: Oxagon takes centre stage at Neom> MARKET FOCUS: Saudi projects hold steady> INDUSTRY REPORT: MEED’s 2026 GCC power developer ranking> LEADERSHIP: The future city does not need to hang above the groundTo see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click herehttps://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/20366574/main.png -
Drilling resumes at Iraq’s Akkas field8 October 2026

Drilling has resumed as part of the project to further develop Iraq’s Akkas gas field, according to industry sources.
In March, MEED reported that development of the field had been disrupted by security issues related to the US and Israel’s war with Iran.
Activity at the project site had been significantly reduced due to security concerns, which led to the evacuation of most non-Iraqi workers.
Now, the project is progressing and drilling at the field is ongoing, sources said.
One source said: “Many of the major issues that stopped drilling at the site have been dealt with in various ways, and the development of the field is proceeding.”
Iraq held a ceremony in January to mark the start of drilling operations under the current phase of development. In July of the previous year, the Iraqi Oil Ministry announced a contract with US-based oilfield services provider SLB to develop the field. Under the agreement, SLB is drilling wells to raise initial output to 100 million cubic feet a day (cf/d), with a long-term production target of 400 million cf/d.
The contract with SLB replaced a previous deal with Ukraine-based Ukrzemresurs, which has been terminated.
It also covers the construction of surface infrastructure and pipelines to connect Akkas to central processing units.
The gas produced at Akkas will fuel the Anbar combined-cycle power plant, which the Electricity Ministry is building.
Akkas gas field development
Located in western Anbar province, Akkas holds an estimated 5.6 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves. The field was discovered in 1992 and entered initial production in 1993, but efforts to develop it commercially have faced repeated delays.
Development rights were originally awarded to a consortium of South Korea’s Kogas and Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGas (KMG) during Iraq’s third licensing round in 2010. After KMG withdrew, Kogas took over as sole operator under revised contractual terms before work was subsequently halted.
In April 2024, the Oil Ministry signed an agreement with Ukraine’s Ukrzemresurs targeting 100 million cf/d within two years and 400 million cf/d within four years. However, the deal faced strong domestic political resistance.
Iraq’s parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee opposed the award, with committee member Ali Al-Mashkour telling Shafaq News Agency: “This contract involves a great waste of Iraq’s wealth, and there will be a waste of Iraq’s oil, and this confirms that Iraq is once again failing to choose reputable companies to work with in the most important economic field in the country.”
He added: “We will work to uncover and expose the suspicions in this contract during the next stage, especially since this contract was made by some representatives for specific interests, which we will reveal soon with evidence.”
The deal was subsequently terminated, paving the way for the current contract with SLB.
The development of Akkas is central to Baghdad’s broader ambition to transition from a net gas importer into an exporter. Iraq remains heavily dependent on gas imports from Iran to meet domestic electricity demand. Both the US and Saudi Arabia have backed Iraq’s efforts to develop non-associated gas fields to reduce its economic and energy dependence on Tehran.
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Neom extends bid deadline for Oxagon wastewater plant8 October 2026

Neom has extended the bid submission deadline for a contract to build a wastewater treatment plant for Oxagon, its industrial cluster.
According to a source, the new deadline is 25 October. The original deadline was 2 October.
Enowa, Neom’s energy and water utility, is tendering the contract.
The industrial wastewater treatment package will have an initial capacity of 35,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), supplied in modular trains of 5,000 cm/d each. A separate sanitary wastewater treatment package will have a capacity of 1,000 cm/d.
The contract is structured as a design-build-operate project and covers the supply, installation and commissioning of industrial and sanitary wastewater treatment packages, as well as three years of operation and maintenance.
According to sources, local contractor Alfanar, Beijing-based PowerChina and France-based Veolia are among the companies preparing bids.
The project follows an earlier tender for the Oxagon Village Water Recycling Plant, which was cancelled despite contractors submitting bids in 2024.
MEED reported at the time that PowerChina, Alfanar and Cairo-headquartered Orascom had submitted bids for that project.
The earlier scheme included truck-receiving facilities, pretreatment, biological treatment using food chain reactor technology, tertiary treatment, sludge handling and recycled-water storage.
The latest procurement appears to take a reworked approach to wastewater treatment at Oxagon Industrial Quarter. It replaces the previous engineering, procurement and construction scheme with an interim modular and demountable facility.
The plant is designed to provide “interim wastewater treatment” capacity for Oxagon Industrial Quarter as industrial development progresses.
As MEED understands, this includes treatment systems that can be installed and subsequently removed or relocated as requirements at Oxagon evolve. The plant can be expanded to a maximum capacity of 45,000 cm/d.
The tender documents also state that Neom may consider export credit agency (ECA) financing for the project. The strength of bidders’ ECA financing proposals will form part of the commercial evaluation.
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Syria seeks interest for $1.16bn Euphrates dam7 October 2026
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Syria’s Ministry of Energy has invited expressions of interest (EoIs) for the development of the Halabiyeh-Zalabiyeh dam project on the Euphrates River.
The project has an indicative total cost of $1.16bn, according to the ministry’s EoI document. This includes $433.7m for the dam and hydropower plant and $729.6m for the pumped-storage power plant (PSP).
The scheme includes an 81MW hydroelectric power plant and a pumped-storage facility with a capacity of up to 1,200MW. The project will also include the construction of the dam and associated water-storage infrastructure.
The ministry seeks interest from qualified local and international companies, investors and other entities. Interested parties can participate in studies, design, financing, construction, and operation and maintenance of the project.
The ministry is considering several potential development structures, including build-own-operate-transfer, build-operate-transfer and public-private partnership models, as well as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) structure. It has said it is also open to proposals covering consultancy and financing services.
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Arada launches UAE construction arm with Roberts7 October 2026
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UAE developer Arada has integrated Australian contractor Roberts into the UAE market as part of its wider business strategy.
Arada acquired Roberts in 2025 after entering the Australian market. The tier-one contractor delivers projects in the healthcare, education, commercial, residential, hospitality, industrial, life sciences and defence sectors.
At the time of the acquisition, Arada said it planned to invest about $20m in Roberts. The investment is intended to give the developer greater control over the delivery of its Australian projects and support Roberts’ expansion into markets including the UAE.
Arada has said it could invest up to $100m in Roberts’ expansion into new sectors and markets. The company is targeting $1bn in annual revenue from Roberts by 2028.
Roberts has established a UAE office, with a head office team already in place. Arada said the contractor’s capabilities will support the delivery of its high-rise residential and social infrastructure projects.
The contractor’s first UAE project will be phase two of Arada Central Business District, a commercial development within Aljada in Sharjah. Arada is developing the AED35bn ($9.5bn) mixed-use project.
Roberts is also providing preconstruction services for several Arada projects in Dubai and Sharjah, ahead of starting site work.
READ THE OCTOBER 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDFIndustry and logistics drive development at Neom; Saudi Arabia’s investment priorities realign amid conflict; MEED’s 2026 power developer ranking.
Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the October 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:
> AGENDA: Oxagon takes centre stage at Neom> MARKET FOCUS: Saudi projects hold steady> INDUSTRY REPORT: MEED’s 2026 GCC power developer ranking> LEADERSHIP: The future city does not need to hang above the groundTo see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click herehttps://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/20334926/main.jpg