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• 
  Acwa Power acquires Bahrain assets from Engie

  15 December 2025

  Saudi Arabia's Acwa Power has completed the acquisition of gas-fired power generation and water desalination assets in Bahrain from France’s Engie.

  The completed Bahrain acquisition was announced on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul). It comprises 45% stakes in both the Al-Ezzel independent power project (IPP) and Al-Dur independent water and power project (IWPP), and a 30% stake in the Al-Hidd IWPP.

  The 1,220MW Al-Dur and 930MW Al-Hidd plants include seawater reverse osmosis and multi-stage flash desalination facilities, respectively. The Al-Ezzel IPP has a power generation capacity of 940MW.

  The transaction also includes the acquisition of Bahrain's Al-Ezzel O&M Company, giving Acwa Power full ownership of the plant’s operations and maintenance platform.

  The sale forms part of a wider transaction covering assets in Bahrain and Kuwait. In the stock exchange filing, Acwa Power said the Kuwait portion will be finalised once "customary technical conditions" are met. 

  This comprises an 18% stake in the Al-Zour North IWPP. The facility includes a 1,520MW combined-cycle gas-fired power plant and a 486,000-cubic-metre-a-day desalination plant.

  Acwa Power is also acquiring a 50% stake in Kuwait's Al-Zour North O&M Company.

  Across Bahrain and Kuwait, the assets being acquired have a combined gas-fired power generation capacity of about 4.6GW and total desalination capacity of around 1.1 million cubic metres a day, according to the company.

  Engie recently told MEED that the sale is part of plans to phase out conventional assets and shift towards renewables projects.

  The transaction was signed in February under a share purchase agreement with Kahrabel, a subsidiary of Engie, and is valued at SR2.6bn ($693m). It is being financed through a mix of Acwa Power’s own funds and external financing.

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  READ THE DECEMBER 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Prospects widen as Middle East rail projects are delivered; India’s L&T storms up MEED’s EPC contractor ranking; Manama balances growth with fiscal challenges

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the December 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA 1: Regional rail construction surges ahead > AGENDA 2:  Middle East becomes a hub as rail networks mature > INDUSTRY REPORT 1: Larsen & Toubro climbs EPC contractor ranking > INDUSTRY REPORT 2: Chinese firms expand oil and gas presence > LIBYA: Oil companies ramp up activity in Libya > CONSTRUCTION: Aramco Stadium races towards completion > RENEWABLES: UAE moves ahead with $6bn solar and storage project > INTERVIEW: Engie pivots towards renewables projects > BAHRAIN MARKET FOCUS: Manama pursues reform amid strain

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

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  Mark Dowdall
• 
  Kuwait appoints consultant for major wastewater project

  15 December 2025

  Kuwait’s Ministry of Public Works has commissioned Lebanese consultancy Dar Al-Handasah to provide design review and construction supervision services for the South Al-Mutlaa wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).

  Located on a 1.1 million square metre site in Kuwait's South Al-Mutlaa City, the WWTP will have a treatment capacity of 400,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), with peak capacity of up to 600,000 cm/d.

  In October, the ministry awarded the $489m main contract to Turkiye's Kuzu Group to build, operate and maintain the plant. 

  The plant will serve residents of the Al-Mutlaa City development, which includes more than 28,000 housing units located about 40 kilometres (km) north of Kuwait City. The Al-Mutlaa project is one of the largest residential schemes under development in the country. 

  According to the ministry, the project will produce tertiary treated water for agricultural and other non-potable uses, combining conventional and renewable energy sources.

  Kuzu Group was previously confirmed as the lowest bidder for the scheme in July 2024.

  MEED previously reported that the project scope includes underground buffering tanks with a capacity of 50,000 cubic metres, a tanker discharge station of the same capacity and a treated sewage effluent network to Al-Mutlaa’s irrigation systems.

  It also includes a 40km waterline linking the plant to a bird sanctuary in Al-Jahra Governorate.

  The tender was first issued in 2020 but was cancelled during the Covid-19 lockdown period. It was retendered in November 2021 and attracted four commercial offers.

  Construction is scheduled to start in 2026, with the plant due to be completed by the end of 2029.

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  READ THE DECEMBER 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Prospects widen as Middle East rail projects are delivered; India’s L&T storms up MEED’s EPC contractor ranking; Manama balances growth with fiscal challenges

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the December 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA 1: Regional rail construction surges ahead > AGENDA 2:  Middle East becomes a hub as rail networks mature > INDUSTRY REPORT 1: Larsen & Toubro climbs EPC contractor ranking > INDUSTRY REPORT 2: Chinese firms expand oil and gas presence > LIBYA: Oil companies ramp up activity in Libya > CONSTRUCTION: Aramco Stadium races towards completion > RENEWABLES: UAE moves ahead with $6bn solar and storage project > INTERVIEW: Engie pivots towards renewables projects > BAHRAIN MARKET FOCUS: Manama pursues reform amid strain

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

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  Mark Dowdall
• 
  Abu Dhabi capitalises on global attention

  12 December 2025

  Commentary
  Colin Foreman
  Editor

  Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit took centre stage on 7 December as the 2025 Formula 1 championship came down to the wire as a three-way contest between defending champion Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Verstappen won the race, while Norris, finishing third, secured enough points to win the overall championship for the season.  

  Abu Dhabi capitalised on the global attention the following day, when local real estate developer Aldar Properties and sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company launched a joint venture to expand Al-Maryah Island.

  The project, which will underpin the next phase of growth for the international financial district and the Abu Dhabi Global Market, also coincided with Abu Dhabi Finance Week, which began on 8 December and reaffirmed Abu Dhabi’s positioning as 'the Capital of Capital'.

  The project is a significant one for Abu Dhabi’s construction sector. A joint statement by Aldar and Mubadala says it will have a gross development value exceeding AED60bn ($16bn) and will be built on 500,000 square metres of land. Altogether, it will comprise 1.5 million square metres of new office, residential, retail and hospitality space.

  The work will support a construction market in Abu Dhabi that has shown signs of levelling off over the past two years. The annual total of contract awards for real estate construction increased from $1.5bn in 2020 to $7.4bn in 2023. Then, in 2024, the total fell to $5.9bn, and the total by mid-December for 2025 is $2.4bn.

  By harnessing global interest in Abu Dhabi, the Maryah Island expansion project should ensure that the annual total of construction contract awards for the coming years remains at an elevated level.

  

   

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  Colin Foreman
• 
  Oman gas contract is worth $683m

  12 December 2025

  

   

  The contract that Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has awarded to Kuwait-based Spetco to develop an integrated natural gas facility is worth $683m, according to industry sources.

  The facility, which will produce natural gas from the Budour and Tayseer fields in Oman, will be constructed over a 30-month period under the terms of the contract, sources said.

  In September, MEED reported that PDO had awarded Spetco the main design, build, own, operate and maintain (DBOOM) contract for the combined Budour-Tayseer sour gas processing facility project.

  PDO recently held an official signing ceremony with Spetco for the DBOOM contract, which has an operations and maintenance period of 15 years.

  The project aims to expand the capacity of the existing gas production and processing facilities at Tayseer. It represents the second development phase of the gas field.

  Through the project, PDO is also seeking to appraise, produce and process sweet gas from the Budour field, which is about 50 kilometres (km) west of the Tayseer field.

  The following firms, among others, are understood to have submitted proposals to PDO:

  • Enerflex (Canada)
  • Jereh Group (China)
  • Spetco (Kuwait)

  The three developers originally submitted proposals for the project by 30 November 2024.

  PDO issued the DBOOM tender for the Budour‑Tayseer combined gas processing facility project in the first quarter of 2024, after completing a prequalification exercise in June 2023.

  MEED previously reported that PDO suspended the DBOOM tendering exercise earlier this year and tested an alternative execution model, initiating a front‑end engineering and design (feed) to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) competition.

  PDO floated a prequalification document for the feed-to-EPC contest in March. Contractors submitted responses to the prequalification questionnaire by the deadline of 27 April.

  The feed-to-EPC competition model involves the project operator selecting contractors to execute feed work and then choosing the contractor with the most competitive feed proposal to execute EPC works on the project, while also compensating the other contestants for their work.

  However, PDO did not select contractors to take part in the feed‑to‑EPC contest and is understood to have cancelled the exercise, sources told MEED. The client eventually reverted to the DBOOM model.

  Tayseer and Budour field development

  The Tayseer field was discovered in November 2014 after the successful well-testing of Tay-1. It is approximately 50km north of the Birba field and 20km west of the Al-Noor production station.

  Since the Tayseer field is part of the A1C platform carbonate, which has proven aquifer support in the Budne A1C field, some formation water production can be expected.

  PDO developed the Tayseer field through a project in 2016. US-based Exterran was awarded a design, build and operate contract in 2017.

  Currently, three Tayseer wells are being processed in the existing Tayseer early development facility and sweet gas from the facility is being exported to PDO’s South Oman gas pipeline.

  As part of the expansion phase, new production wells will be drilled at Tayseer. The produced gas will be processed at a new sour gas processing facility located at Budour.

  The Budour A4C non-associated gas field was discovered in 2001 and appraised until 2009. The field has never been appraised since. The development concept for the Budour non-associated gas field involves depletion through a standalone sour gas processing facility, with sweet gas exported to the South Oman gas pipeline.

  No formation water is expected, so only the condensation water requires handling and disposal. New production wells are to be drilled at Budour and production from those wells will be processed at the planned new sour gas processing facility.

  The DBOOM contractor was required to provide the following on-plot facilities and services as part of the project:

  • Inlet production/ test manifold
  • Well testing
  • Inlet separation
  • Sour gas processing facility, including export gas compressors
  • Sulphur recovery and storage
  • Crude de-salting
  • Condensate stabilisation
  • Condensate storage and export
  • Produced water treatment
  • Storage, export and raw water treatment with all the associated plant utilities
  • Controls and instrumentation

  The planned combined Budour-Tayseer sour gas processing facility is projected to have a capacity of 78.39 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) and unstabilised condensate of 1,167 cubic metres a day (cm/d). The facility will handle gas exports of about 70 million cf/d, stabilised condensate exports of 950 cm/d and will have a water handling capacity of 340 cm/d.

  Outside the scope of services under the original DBOOM contract, PDO intended to build off-plot facilities to support the Budour-Tayseer combined gas processing facility.

  These were:

  • Wellhead hook-ups
  • Sour gas flowlines from the wellhead to the on-plot facilities
  • Remote manifold station at the Tayseer field
  • Wash water distribution network from the on-plot facility boundaries to gas production wellheads
  • Sour gas production pipeline from the Tayseer field to the Budour field
  • Sweet gas export pipeline from the on-plot facility to the Salalah gas line
  • Condensate export pipeline from the on-plot facility to the main oil line
  • Produced water pipeline from the on-plot facility to the Marmul water treatment plant in southeastern Oman for further processing and deep water disposal
  • Raw water supply line from the water supply well to the on-plot facility and electrical overhead line from the PDO grid to the DBOOM facility

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  READ THE DECEMBER 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Prospects widen as Middle East rail projects are delivered; India’s L&T storms up MEED’s EPC contractor ranking; Manama balances growth with fiscal challenges

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the December 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA 1: Regional rail construction surges ahead > AGENDA 2:  Middle East becomes a hub as rail networks mature > INDUSTRY REPORT 1: Larsen & Toubro climbs EPC contractor ranking > INDUSTRY REPORT 2: Chinese firms expand oil and gas presence > LIBYA: Oil companies ramp up activity in Libya > CONSTRUCTION: Aramco Stadium races towards completion > RENEWABLES: UAE moves ahead with $6bn solar and storage project > INTERVIEW: Engie pivots towards renewables projects > BAHRAIN MARKET FOCUS: Manama pursues reform amid strain

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

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15235584/main.png

  Wil Crisp
• 
  SLB passes evaluation for Kuwait upstream project

  12 December 2025

  The US-based oilfield services company SLB, formerly Schlumberger, has passed the technical bid evaluation for a major project to develop Kuwait’s Mutriba oil field.

  The Houston-headquartered company was the only bidder to pass the technical evaluation for the Mutriba integrated project management (IPM) contract.

  The minimum passing technical evaluation score was 75%.

  The full list of bidders was:

  • SLB (US): 97%
  • Halliburton (US): 72%
  • Weatherford (US): 61.5%

  The decision was finalised at a meeting of the Higher Purchase Committee (HPC) of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on 20 November 2025.

  According to a document published earlier this year by KOC, the IPM tender for the Mutriba field aims to “accelerate production through a comprehensive study that includes economic feasibility evaluation, well planning and long-term sustainability strategies”.

  The field was originally discovered in 2009.

  Commercial production from the Mutriba field started earlier this year, on 15 June, after several wells were connected to production facilities.

  The field is located in a relatively undeveloped area in northwest Kuwait and spans more than 230 square kilometres.

  The oil at the Mutriba field has unusually high hydrogen sulfide content, which can be as much as 40%.

  This presents operational challenges requiring specialised technologies and safety measures.

  In order to start producing oil at the field, KOC deployed multiphase pumps to increase hydrocarbon pressure and enable transportation to the nearest Jurassic production facilities in north Kuwait.

  The company also built long-distance pipelines stretching 50 to 70 kilometres, using high-grade corrosion-resistant materials engineered to withstand the high hydrogen sulfide levels and ensure long-term reliability.

  KOC also commissioned the Mutriba long-term testing facility in northwest Kuwait, with a nameplate capacity of around 5,000 barrels of oil a day (b/d) and 5 million standard cubic feet of gas a day (mmscf/d).

  Once this facility was commissioned, production stabilised at 5,000 b/d and 7 mmscf/d.

  In documents published earlier this year, KOC said that starting production from the field had “laid a solid foundation” for the IPM contract by generating essential reservoir and surface data that will guide future development.

  Future output from the field is expected to range between 80,000 and 120,000 b/d, in addition to approximately 150 mmscf/d of gas.

  

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15235579/main.png

  Wil Crisp