Related Articles

• 
  November 2025: Data drives regional projects

  25 November 2025

  Click here to download the PDF

  Includes: Top 10 global contractors | Brent Spot Price | Construction output

   MEED's 2025 EPC contractor ranking

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  MEED’s December 2025 report on Bahrain includes:

  > COMMENT: Manama pursues reform amid strain
  > GVT & ECONOMY: Bahrain’s cautious economic evolution
  > BANKING: Mergers loom over Bahrain’s banking system
  > OIL & GAS: Bahrain remains in pursuit of hydrocarbon resources
  > POWER & WATER: Bahrain advances utility reform
  > CONSTRUCTION: Bahrain construction faces major slowdown
  > TRANSPORT: Air Asia aviation deal boosts connectivity

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

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  MEED Editorial
• 
  Bahrain pursues reform amid strain

  25 November 2025

  Commentary
  John Bambridge
  Analysis editor

  Cautious optimism defines Bahrain’s current economic moment as the country presses ahead with a broad agenda of diversification, reform and targeted investment. Yet the more assertively Manama moves to reshape its future, the more the tension between its ambition and its fiscal constraints becomes evident as the defining feature of its policymaking.

  Bahrain’s projects sector, which has now been shrinking for the past seven years, is emblematic of the country’s constricted spending. This year, contract awards have fallen to their lowest value in a decade. This signals a decisive shift to a more disciplined investment strategy aligned with fiscal realities and a more selective approach to forward-looking capital spending. 

  The diminished projects market is in turn a challenge for the financial sector, which now faces a receding pool of project financing and other contracting loans. This is giving further impetus to the potential consolidation of local lenders in the overbanked market, which is also beset by thinning margins, rising compliance costs and pressure to scale amid financial system modernisation. While it could create short-term pain, consolidation should boost the financial health of legacy lenders and provide stability in a sector increasingly being defined by new digital banking models and innovation.

  Yet even as some sectors change, Bahrain’s government remains deeply reliant on hydrocarbons, which continues to drive exploration, including in the technically complex Khaleej Al-Bahrain basin. These activities reflect the practical need to maintain oil revenues in the medium term and, should additional recoverable reserves be discovered, a potent source of optimism.

  Manana is meanwhile looking to overhaul the utilities sector by creating a dedicated regulator and new national operator. The reforms should make space for greater private participation, drawing more capital into power and water projects while improving efficiency and reducing state expenditure in an aspirationally positive step towards greater long-term sustainability.

  Even as fiscal concerns narrow Manama’s policy options, it continues to secure strategic wins. A new aviation agreement with Air Asia establishes Bahrain as a regional hub for one of Asia’s largest low-cost carriers. This move opens new connectivity corridors and, alongside the renewal of direct Gulf Air routes to the US, reinforces Bahrain’s position as a gateway between regions, promising benefits for tourism, logistics and services.

  Overall, Bahrain’s economic trajectory remains delicately balanced – marked by reform-driven progress yet tempered by fiscal constraint. But in threading this needle, Manama shows that cautious optimism can still be a powerful catalyst for change.

  

   

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  MEED’s December 2025 report on Bahrain includes:

  > GVT & ECONOMY: Bahrain’s cautious economic evolution
  > BANKING: Mergers loom over Bahrain’s banking system
  > OIL & GAS: Bahrain remains in pursuit of hydrocarbon resources
  > POWER & WATER: Bahrain advances utility reform
  > CONSTRUCTION: Bahrain construction faces major slowdown
  > AVIATION: Bahrain signs game-changer aviation deal with Air Asia

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

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15109785/main.gif

  John Bambridge
• 
  Ineco appointed for Spain-Morocco tunnel study

  25 November 2025

  Spanish engineering firm Ineco has been commissioned to conduct an exploratory tunnel study to validate the feasibility of the railway connection linking Spain and Morocco.

  According to reports in Spanish media, the $1m contract will establish a detailed technical roadmap for the project.

  Ineco’s scope of work includes the preliminary design of the exploratory tunnel, revisions to previous studies, and a comprehensive update of the route, geology, geotechnical conditions, security systems, terminals and associated installations.

  Ineco will validate the critical geological conditions of the Strait, particularly in the areas where the project’s greatest risks are located.

  The study is expected to be completed by August next year.

  The latest development comes after German company Herrenknecht completed its study in October. Herrenknecht said it found the project feasible to undertake due to the availability of the technology needed to execute it.

  The media reports added that clients will further study the project and make a final decision in 2027 regarding tendering.

  Recent developments

  MEED reported in August that Ineco had secured an estimated €350,000 ($409,000) contract to carry out a financial feasibility study for the proposed infrastructure.

  UK-based Vodafone also won a contract to provide advanced telecommunications support to teams working on the project.

  These developments followed the appointment of Herrenknecht in January for a €296,400 ($307,483) contract to conduct a drilling feasibility study.

  The Spanish government revived the Morocco-Spain undersea rail link in June last year, after allocating about $2.5m for a renewed design study.

  Project background

  The project, originally launched in 2003, was put on hold following the 2008 financial crisis. It has undergone several rounds of feasibility studies, but remains in the planning phase after nearly two decades of funding-related delays.

  The proposed design includes a double-track railway and a service tunnel extending 38.5 kilometres (km) between Tarifa in Spain and Tangier in Morocco. Of this, 28km will run beneath the Mediterranean Sea at a maximum depth of 475 metres.

  Each single-track tunnel will have an inner diameter of 7.9 metres, while the service gallery will be 6 metres in diameter.

  The project is being jointly developed by Morocco’s National Society for Strait of Gibraltar Studies and Spain’s Sociedad Espanola de Estudios para la Comunicacion Fija a Traves del Estrecho de Gibraltar.

  In 2006, Swiss engineering firm Lombardi Engineering was selected to design the tunnel. Preliminary studies were completed two years later.

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15148660/main.jpg

  Yasir Iqbal
• 
  UK firm wins Saudi airport masterplan update deal

  25 November 2025

  UK-based engineering firm Mott MacDonald has won a contract from Saudi Arabia’s Matarat Holding to provide advisory services on long-term airport development and associated investment programmes.

  Mott MacDonald will review and update the existing masterplans for 25 airports operated by Matarat and its subsidiaries.

  According to an official statement issued by Mott MacDonald: “The scope of work includes preparing short, medium and long-term development plans, environmental studies and capital expenditure estimates for the next 25 years.”

  The contract duration is two years.

  “The 25 airports covered by the framework include two major hubs, Riyadh Airport and Jeddah Airport, five airports focused on international travel and tourism, six regional airports, six domestic airports and six remote airports, which serve a social or developmental purpose,” the statement added.

  Mott MacDonald will study future demand, facility capacity, land use, development alternatives, preferred plan selection and implementation strategies, including infrastructure upgrades.  

  The development of these airports is a vital part of the Saudi Aviation Strategy and Saudi Vision 2030, helping to drive economic development, tourism and regional connectivity.

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15148644/main.jpg

  Yasir Iqbal
• 
  Key Iraq oil pipeline report progresses

  25 November 2025

  

   

  Progress is being made on a key report on pricing relating to the Iraq-Turkiye Pipeline (ITP) and it is expected to be completed before the end of the year, according to industry sources.

  The research and consultancy company Wood Mackenzie is writing the report, which will help determine the prices oil-producing companies receive in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

  The consultancy was contracted by the Iraqi government to assess production and transportation costs for Kurdish oil earlier this year.

  Since then, concerns about potential disruption to exports via the ITP have increased due to sanctions on the Russian oil company Rosneft, which owned a 60% stake in the pipeline.

  In an attempt to stop sanctions from disrupting oil flows through the pipeline, Rosneft has sold an 11% stake in the ITP to the UAE-based fund manager DEX Capital.

  On 27 September, oil flows restarted to the Turkish port of Ceyhan from Iraqi Kurdistan via the ITP.

  The pipeline restart followed an agreement reached by oil companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan with Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

  Under the terms of the deal, the KRG will deliver the crude to Iraq’s state-owned oil marketing company, Somo, and an independent trader will handle sales from the Turkish port of Ceyhan using Somo’s official prices.

  The eight oil producers have agreed to accept a temporary price of $16 a barrel until the Wood Mackenzie review is completed.

  The final review is expected to lead to a retroactive adjustment of payments.

  The initial shutdown started in March 2023, when the International Chamber of Commerce ordered Turkiye to pay Iraq $1.5bn in damages for what it decided were unauthorised exports by the Kurdish regional authorities.

  Turkiye has stated that it plans to continue its appeal against this compensation order.

  

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  Wil Crisp