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21 February 2023
After several challenging years, the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) construction industry is starting a new era of spending.
The need to meet the expectations of growing populations is driving investment in transport infrastructure, housing and power and water capacity. At the same time, governments are investing in industrial, digital and logistics capacity to support the growth and diversification of the regional economy.
Inspired by powerful national visions, construction spending is surging across the region, led by huge masterplan developments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq. But as well as new opportunities, the surge in activity also raises new challenges.
MEED’s Mena Construction Summit 2023 examines the trends, opportunities and challenges for construction companies and their suppliers in the Middle East.
Decarbonisation agenda
New factors are reshaping how projects in the Middle East are planned, delivered and operated.
In November 2022, Egypt hosted the 27th instalment of the UN climate change summit, Cop27. This year, from 30 November until 12 December, the UAE will host Cop28. Decarbonising the economy is at the top of the regional policy agenda and is set to transform project delivery in the region.
As the biggest consumer of raw materials, generating between 25-40 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, the construction industry is vital in the drive to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The Mena Construction Summit 2023 examines what the decarbonisation agenda means for the Middle East construction industry and discusses ways to reduce the carbon footprint of its people, plants and materials.
Smart construction
Covid-19 has turbocharged the digitalisation of the region's construction industry, and project sponsors and construction clients today expect digital data and smart technology to drive efficiency, safety, sustainability and whole life-cycle profits.
Technologies such as 4D and 5D building information modelling (BIM), digital twins, cloud-based project controls, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, 3D printing, internet of things (IoT) and big data analytics are no longer ‘nice to haves’. They are essential to be competitive.
The Mena Construction Summit 2023 explores how new technology is transforming project delivery and redefining design and construction, while at the same time reducing waste and environmental impact.
At the heart of the Middle East construction community
After a successful third edition of the summit in 2022 that boasted over 1,000 attendees representing the biggest regional construction companies, the fourth edition of the Mena Construction Summit continues to support the construction ecosystem for smart and sustainable cities and help firms change their operational dynamics.
Bringing together key players from across the construction value chain, the event will showcase some of the latest research and innovations driving improvements in productivity, quality, reliability, cost-savings, waste-reduction and energy efficiency and how you can employ these methods in your projects.
Join us in person for the fourth edition of the Mena Construction Summit on 7 June 2023 as we explore the many ways of using innovation and technology to construct sustainable buildings of the future. An immersive agenda with interactive panel discussions, fireside chats and keynote presentations will offer the unmissable opportunity to discuss and examine case studies from the region’s greatest gigaprojects.
Participants attending include representatives from important government stakeholders, project owners, contractors, architects, engineers, consultants, digital technology and equipment providers and software solution companies.
This is an exclusive opportunity to network in person with high-profile individuals, deepen your understanding of the construction sector in the Mena region and make the right investments, while ensuring better project delivery and finding future growth opportunities.
Exclusive from Meed
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Tender issued for Libyan gas project17 September 2026
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Aldar and Mubadala acquire Masdar City Square17 September 2026
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Dubai announces new 80km highway corridor16 September 2026
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Engineering progresses on Ras Laffan LNG terminal berths16 September 2026
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Design completed for Libyan oil field development16 September 2026
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Related Articles
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Tender issued for Libyan gas project17 September 2026
An invitation to bid has been issued for a contract to conduct environmental assessments for the project to expand the Mellitah oil and gas complex in Libya.
The bid submission deadline is 2pm today (17 September) Libyan time.
The scope of the project includes provision of:
- An environmental baseline study (EBS)
- An environmental impact assessment (EIA)
- An environmental management plan (EMP)
The client is Mellitah Oil & Gas (MOG), which is a joint venture of Italy’s Eni and Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC).
MOG is based in Tripoli and operates both onshore and offshore oil and gas facilities.
The joint venture owns and operates six major oil and gas fields across the North African country.
According to the tender documents, the company that is awarded the contract will need to prepare environmental management measures in compliance with:
- Libyan environmental legislation
- Ministry of Environment requirements
- NOC environmental guidelines
- Applicable international environmental standards and best practices
The expansion of the Mellitah oil and gas complex is part of a project estimated to be worth $8bn.
The wider project is known as the Mellitah Complex Expansion & CO2 Management Integrated Development Project.
It has six main packages:
- Onshore package
- Offshore Structure A
- Offshore Structure E
- Subsea pipeline package
- Site preparation work
- Carbon capture and storage facility
Security issues and political instability have been a major problem for Libya’s oil and gas sector since the country’s civil war started in 2011.
Earlier this month, the Mellitah oil and gas complex was forced to shut down temporarily due to a protest over deteriorating public services.
The existing onshore complex includes housing, processing units, storage facilities and export facilities.
It also serves as the launch point for the Greenstream pipeline, which delivers Libyan gas directly to Italy.
The planned expansion of the complex will involve:
- Construction of a new fourth gas processing train
- Construction of a third condensate train
- Construction of a third natural gas liquids fractionation train
- Construction of a fourth sulphur recovery unit train
- Installation of a hydrogen sulphide enrichment unit
- Installation of a sulphur recovery unit
- Construction of other associated facilities
The Mellitah complex is located about 100 kilometres west of Tripoli and is a key energy facility in the west of the country.
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Aldar and Mubadala acquire Masdar City Square17 September 2026
Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company and local developer Aldar have completed the acquisition of Masdar City Square at Masdar City, in a transaction valued at AED918m ($250m).
The deal was executed through their joint venture established in 2024.
Masdar City Square comprises more than 47,000 square metres (sq m) of net leasable area across seven office buildings.
Completed in Q1 2026, the development is 99% occupied. Tenants include Taqa, the Department of Energy, Emirates College and the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.
The transaction expands the joint venture’s real estate portfolio in Masdar City, which is now valued at AED4.7bn ($1.3bn).
Masdar City is one of the region’s leading hubs for clean energy, artificial intelligence, advanced research and sustainable urban development.
The joint venture acquired The Link project at Masdar City for AED654m ($178m) in April.
Comprising about 32,000 sq m of net leasable area across five buildings, The Link is fully leased to a portfolio of major tenants, including Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) and the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.
The asset includes Grade A, Leed Platinum office space, a net-zero-energy headquarters building, a multi-use hall and residential accommodation, supporting its position as a high-performing, integrated component of Masdar City.
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Dubai announces new 80km highway corridor16 September 2026
Dubai has approved the construction of the new fourth corridor, a major highway programme aimed at boosting inter-emirate connectivity, increasing road capacity and easing congestion.
The corridor will extend 80 kilometres, from Al-Faya Road in Abu Dhabi to Al-Shanouf Road in Sharjah.
It will include 12 lanes, 72 bridges and 17 tunnels.
The project is expected to reduce travel times by up to 60% and serve more than 3.1 million people, while providing links to Al-Maktoum International airport and Etihad Rail.
It will have the capacity to accommodate 24,000 vehicles per hour in each direction.
The project will be delivered in two phases. The first phase, running from Al-Shanouf Road to Dubai-Al Ain Road, will be delivered at a cost of AED3.5bn ($953m).
The second phase will stretch from Dubai-Al Ain Road to Al-Faya Road in Abu Dhabi.
Hamdan bin Mohammed: In line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to boost investment in infrastructure, I approved the New Fourth Corridor to strengthen Dubai’s road network and enhance connectivity with the UAE’s federal road network.… pic.twitter.com/zlIyY2yKBN
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) September 16, 2026
The scheme adds a fourth spine to a network that has long relied on three main corridors: the E11 (Sheikh Zayed Road/Al-Ittihad Road); the E311 (Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Road) and the E611 (Emirates Road), which together carry more than 850,000 vehicles commuting between Dubai and the northern emirates daily.
That concentration has made the route one of the country’s most congested, with peak-hour bottlenecks a persistent problem for residents. The new corridor is designed to divert a significant share of that traffic onto a higher-capacity route, rather than add pressure to the existing network.
The project also aligns with the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, which anticipates population growth to 5.8 million by 2040 and calls for the expansion of roads, railways, airports and ports to support that growth and reinforce Dubai’s position as a global trading hub. This is reflected in the corridor’s direct links to Al-Maktoum International airport and Etihad Rail.
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Engineering progresses on Ras Laffan LNG terminal berths16 September 2026

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Front-end engineering and design (feed) works are progressing on a QatarEnergy LNG project to build 13 liquefied natural gas (LNG) loading berths at the south export terminal in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City.
Ras Laffan Industrial City, which lies about 90 kilometres north of Doha, is the world's largest integrated LNG production and export complex, comprising 15 processing trains with a total capacity of 77.5 million tonnes a year (t/y). QatarEnergy began LNG operations at the facility, which houses all its processing trains and export infrastructure, in 1984.
According to sources, QatarEnergy LNG, a subsidiary of state enterprise QatarEnergy, awarded the feed contract for the project to build 13 LNG berths at the south export terminal at Ras Laffan to Australia-headquartered Worley.
The contract was awarded to Worley in the second quarter of this year. Its duration is estimated to be 200,000-250,000 man hours, sources told MEED.
Ras Laffan’s LNG processing and export capabilities will increase by up to about 63% when the three phases of QatarEnergy’s estimated $40bn North Field LNG expansion project come into operation by the end of this decade. Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works on all three projects are progressing.
QatarEnergy is understood to have committed nearly $30bn to the first two phases – North Field East (NFE) and North Field South (NFS) – which will lift Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77.5 million t/y to 126 million t/y by 2028.
QatarEnergy awarded the main EPC contracts for NFE in 2021. The project was intended to raise LNG output to 110 million t/y by 2025. The $13bn EPC package – covering the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of four LNG trains, each with a capacity of 8 million t/y – was awarded in February 2021 to a consortium of Japan’s Chiyoda and France’s Technip Energies.
In May 2023, QatarEnergy awarded the $10bn main EPC contract for NFS to a consortium of Technip Energies and Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC). The contract includes two LNG trains, each with a capacity of 7.8 million t/y.
Once fully operational, the first two phases are expected to add 48 million t/y of LNG supply to the global market.
QatarEnergy took the final investment decision on the third phase, North Field West (NFW), this year, awarding an EPC contract estimated at $8bn to a joint venture comprising Technip Energies, CCC and Gulf Asia Contracting in February.
Chiyoda carried out the feed work for the NFW LNG project.
The NFW scope covers the EPC of two LNG trains with a combined capacity of 16 million t/y, as well as associated facilities for gas treatment, natural gas liquids recovery and helium extraction.
In addition to LNG, NFW is expected to produce about 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day of condensate, ethane and liquefied petroleum gas.
With all three phases under EPC execution – and NFE scheduled for commissioning later this year – QatarEnergy is positioning itself to remain one of the world’s largest LNG suppliers in the long term.
READ THE SEPTEMBER 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDFNuclear power ambitions gather pace; Kuwait keeps dealmaking alive despite war; Region invests in raising gas processing capacity.
Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the September 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:
> AGENDA: Gulf nuclear revival takes shape> MARKET FOCUS: Kuwait keeps dealmaking alive under fire> INDUSTRY REPORT: Gas processing takes centre stage in Mena regionTo see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click herehttps://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19715235/main5946.jpg -
Design completed for Libyan oil field development16 September 2026

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Design work has been completed for a project to develop Libya’s I/R oil field, according to industry sources.
The front-end engineering and design work was completed by a team in the London offices of Italy’s EniProgetti and paves the way for the main engineering, procurement and construction contract to be tendered.
One source said: “At the moment, there is no fixed date for when the invitation to bid for the main contract will be issued, but the project has a lot of momentum and is progressing towards tendering.”
The I/R oil field is located in Murzuq Basin in southwestern Libya.
In June this year, Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) signed a unified operating agreement for the field.
The I/R field is operated by Akakus Oil Operations, which is a joint venture of NOC in partnership with Spain’s Repsol, France’s TotalEnergies Repsol, Austria’s OMV and Norway’s Equinor.
The agreement in June was signed by NOC as well as its concession partners.
NOC said the agreement would unify operational and administrative procedures related to field management, optimise resource utilisation and support production sustainability.
READ THE SEPTEMBER 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDFNuclear power ambitions gather pace; Kuwait keeps dealmaking alive despite war; Region invests in raising gas processing capacity.
Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the September 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:
> AGENDA: Gulf nuclear revival takes shape> MARKET FOCUS: Kuwait keeps dealmaking alive under fire> INDUSTRY REPORT: Gas processing takes centre stage in Mena regionTo see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click herehttps://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19711588/main.jpg