Monthly briefing: 22 key developments in the region
28 September 2022
By Indrajit Sen
> Opec+ agrees minor production increase
> King appoints crown prince as Saudi prime minister
> Lebanon parliament approves $1.2bn draft budget
> Iraq court rules against national oil company
> Libya oil production continues to grow
> President approves Egypt's Olympic plans
> Dubai prepares hydrogen strategy
> GCC central banks raise interest rates
> UK and GCC hold ministerial meeting at the UN
OIL
Oil producers will raise output by 100,000b/d in October
The Opec+ alliance of oil producers decided in September that it would increase oil production by just 100,000 barrels a day (b/d) in October to support crude prices, which have fluctuated in recent weeks amid fears that a global economic recession will curb demand for oil.
Opec+ members also increased overall oil production by 100,000b/d in September.
The alliance agreed to increase its July and August crude production by about 50 per cent to 648,000b/d, fully restoring the 5.8 million b/d output that the group had cut at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more
IRAN
Deadly protests follow woman’s death in custody
Thirty-five people have been killed in protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody on 16 September.
Protests have been reported in 31 provinces.
The 22-year-old Amini had been detained for breaking headscarf rules and was reportedly beaten with batons.
Officials said she suffered heart failure and Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi has stated that she was not beaten.
President Ebrahim Raisi pledged to crack down on the unrest on 24 September.
The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported on 25 September that there had been large-scale demonstrations to condemn the protests.

21 September: Iranian demonstrators take to the streets of Tehran during a protest for Mahsa Amini, days after she died in police custody. Credit: AFP via Getty Images
SALIK IPO
Dubai toll operator raises over $1bn from oversubscribed stock listing
Dubai toll operator Salik raised $1.017bn from its initial public offering (IPO) on the Dubai Financial Market, as part of a series of IPOs of state enterprises aimed at boosting the size of the emirate's capital market.
The IPO was more than 49 times oversubscribed across all tranches, with total gross demand at $50.2bn.
The company had set its offering price at AED2 ($0.54) a share, giving it a valuation of more than $4bn.
The emirate's government sold more than 1.867 billion shares in the company, or 24.9 per cent, up from the previously announced 1.5 billion shares, equivalent to 20 per cent.
ARAB PEACE
Saudi Arabia, Arab League and EU hold meeting in New York
Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud and Arab League secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit attended a meeting of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee and its sponsors in the EU. The meeting took place at the UN General Assembly in New York.
The Arab Peace Initiative, which Saudi Arabia launched in 2002, is a proposal to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. The members of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee are Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iraq, Palestine, Qatar, Lebanon, Morocco and Yemen. The initiative is sponsored by Spain, Sweden and France.
GCC
Two years of high oil prices set to improve regional outlook
Rating agency Moody’s Investors Service has said that elevated oil prices during the next two years will lead to a significant improvement in the fiscal and external positions of GCC sovereigns, partly reversing the sharp deterioration in their balance sheets since 2015.
Improvements in creditworthiness will hinge on the extent to which regional governments utilise the windfall to address constraints posed by their exposure to cyclical oil price and demand volatility, and by longer-term carbon transition risks, Moody’s said.
The agency expects oil prices to average about $105 a barrel in 2022 and $95 a barrel in 2023. As a result, most hydrocarbon-exporting countries in the GCC will run fiscal and current account surpluses, allowing governments to pay down debts, rebuild fiscal reserves and accumulate foreign-currency buffers.
GULF BANKS
Regional banks are returning to pre-pandemic form
After a strong first half, ratings agency S&P Global expects that earnings for most GCC banks will almost reach pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year amid high oil prices and rising interest rates.
In the second half of 2022, S&P forecasts further strengthening of regional banks’ interest margins and a manageable rise in cost of risk amid lingering effects from the Covid-19 pandemic via loans that benefited from support measures and were then restructured. Combined, these factors will be a net positive for banks’ earnings.
SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi infrastructure and property projects top $1.1tn
The aggregate value of property and infrastructure projects since the launch of Saudi Arabia’s National Transformation Plan in 2016 has crossed $1.1tn as the kingdom continues to diversify its economy, according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank.
The $500bn Neom city development is the biggest of 15 major projects in Saudi Arabia that are currently at various phases of construction. The kingdom plans to have more than 555,000 residential units, 275,000 hotel rooms, 4.3 million square metres (sq m) of retail and 6.1 million sq m of new office space by 2030.
The country is also developing several large-scale tourism projects as it seeks to increase the economic contribution of the sector from 3 per cent of GDP to 10 per cent by the end of this decade.
JERUSALEM
UK prime minister considers relocating British embassy
UK Prime Minister Liz Truss is considering moving the British embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Truss spoke about a possible move to the contested city during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
Despite Israel having designated Jerusalem as its capital, Britain has long maintained its embassy in Tel Aviv.
When he was president of the US, Donald Trump took the controversial decision to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem in May 2018.
Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city as their capital.
SAUDI ARABIA
First Saudi woman to be sent to space in a crewed mission
Saudi Arabia plans to send a woman into space for the first time as part of its new mission programme.
A crew will be launched next year that will include the first Saudi female pilot and astronaut.
The kingdom’s astronaut programme aims to produce qualified Saudi citizens who will take part in short- and long-term space flights, as well as participate in scientific experiments, international research and future space-related missions.
The new programme comes under the umbrella of Saudi Vision 2030 and will fall under the National Space Strategy, the details of which will be announced in the coming months.
FIFA WORLD CUP
Qatar to shut borders to non-World Cup ticket holders
Entry to Qatar will be restricted from 1 November to citizens, residents and holders of the World Cup Hayya card, the tournament’s organising committee has announced.
The suspension of visits by people not attending Fifa World Cup matches will continue until 23 December, five days after the final match takes place in Doha.
The restrictions apply to all air, land and sea borders into Qatar.
Football fans in possession of a match ticket for the World Cup must also apply for a Hayya entry permit – a pre-approved digital visa linked to a passport that offers free public transport around the country.
The Hayya card allows entry into Qatar until 23 January 2023.
Qatari citizens and residents, GCC citizens holding a Qatari identification card, holders of work entry permits and personal visas, and approved humanitarian cases will be exempt from the restrictions.
Exclusive from Meed
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Algeria tenders 310km Tamanrasset railway16 October 2026
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Joint venture wins $246m RCRC bridges contract16 October 2026
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Humain tenders 100MW Riyadh AI data centre16 October 2026
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Adnoc Onshore seeks bids for Bu Hasa field EOR project16 October 2026
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OTTCO issues tender for Oman oil storage park expansion16 October 2026
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Related Articles
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Algeria tenders 310km Tamanrasset railway16 October 2026

Algeria’s state railway project developer, Agence Nationale d’Etudes et de Suivi de la Realisation des Investissements Ferroviaires (Anesrif), has invited national and international contractors to bid for the construction of a 310-kilometre (km) railway line between Hotel Station and Moulay Lahcen Station.
The planned line is a key segment of the proposed railway corridor connecting El-Menea, In-Salah and Tamanrasset across the southern wilayas of In-Salah and Tamanrasset.
The tender notice was issued on 12 October, with bids due by 10 November.
The tender is open to single contractors and consortiums. To qualify, single firms must have executed at least 200km of new railway lines or track-doubling works since 2010, with accepted project certificates covering sections of at least 100km, along with a cumulative 800 metres of railway bridges with individual spans exceeding 30 metres.
Bidders must also provide at least two rail-tamping machines, two ballast regulators, and a project director with an engineering degree and at least five years of railway construction management experience.
From a commercial and classification perspective, single bidders and consortium leaders must hold a category-nine (IX) professional qualification in public works.
Bidders must also demonstrate an average annual turnover in construction of at least DZ260bn ($1.96bn) across the 2023-2025 financial period.
For joint ventures, the cumulative turnover of all members must meet the $1.96bn threshold, with the consortium leader accounting for at least $1.3bn.
Offers must be accompanied by a bid bond exceeding 1% of the total bid value for submissions exceeding $7.4m, with proposals remaining valid for 90 days beyond the submission date.
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Joint venture wins $246m RCRC bridges contract16 October 2026

A joint venture of local contractor Mofarreh Group and Turkey-based Gulsan Holding has won an estimated SR923m ($246m) contract from the Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC) to construct a series of grade-separated steel flyovers across the capital.
The contract, known as Package 2 (Groups 2 and 3), is part of RCRC’s urgent bridges programme under the wider project to build steel bridges at 10 junctions across Riyadh.
The works have a 12-month execution timeline to fast-track traffic decongestion across major arterial corridors.
The joint venture’s scope covers the engineering and construction of grade-separated steel bridge interchanges across seven key intersections:
- IC04: Al-Khair Road and King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Road
- IC05: Prince Turki Road and Imam Saud Road
- IC06: Al-Takhassosi Road and Saeed Al-Sulami Road
- IC07: Khurais Road and Al-Hareth Bin Abdullah Road
- IC08: Khurais Road and Ash-Sharq Road
- IC09: Khurais Road and Marmar Road
- IC10: Al-Kharj Road and Al-Hilla Road
The total length of the flyovers is 8.86 kilometres, excluding Junction IC10.
In addition to the structural steel superstructures, concrete bridge foundations, decks and approach ramps, the contract includes retaining walls, utility diversions, temporary phased traffic arrangements, associated roadworks, drainage networks, roadway lighting, intelligent transportation systems and landscaping.
The client received commercial proposals from several local and international contractors. Other bidders included:
- Masco
- Nesma & Partners
- Al-Omaier Trading & Contracting Company
- Yuksel Saudia
- Batco
- Modern Building Leaders
- Sapac
The urgent bridges initiative is part of Riyadh’s rapid transport infrastructure programme to improve traffic throughput, enhance safety and ease vehicular congestion across central and ring-road corridors ahead of major events, including Expo 2030 and the 2034 Fifa World Cup.
In July, Mofarreh Group and Turkiye’s Gulsan Holding formed a joint venture to bid for and deliver transport infrastructure projects in Riyadh for RCRC.
The joint venture said it will target road, bridge, viaduct and interchange projects.
Mofarreh will provide local market access and operational capacity, while Gulsan will contribute international experience in large-scale transport projects.
The companies said the new venture will support knowledge transfer and localisation, and promote the use of international engineering and construction standards aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 infrastructure and sustainability goals.
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Humain tenders 100MW Riyadh AI data centre16 October 2026

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Saudi artificial intelligence infrastructure developer Humain has issued a request for proposals for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to deliver a 100MW artificial intelligence (AI) data centre facility in Riyadh’s Al-Saad area.
The tender was issued on 17 September, with bids due by 8 November.
The contract includes core-and-shell works; civil works; mechanical, electrical and plumbing installation; testing and commissioning; and site infrastructure across a 350,200-square-metre plot.
The project also includes an optional expansion phase that could raise total site capacity to 200MW.
The initial 100MW development is split into two equal 50MW phases, structured across two single-storey IT buildings housing four 25MW data halls.
Phase one targets a ready-for-service date by October 2028, followed by phase two in January 2029.
Under the optional phase three, an additional 100MW facility would be brought online by July 2029.
The data centre will be designed to support high-density graphics processing unit clusters and AI-compute workloads, with rack densities of 240kW to 250kW.
The facility will be built to Uptime Institute Tier III topology and LEED Silver standards as a baseline, targeting LEED Gold.
The operational design targets an annualised power usage effectiveness below 1.35.
Power will be delivered through four 33kV connections supplied by Saudi Electricity Company from two separate high-voltage/medium-voltage primary substations. The scope requires 15 transformers, 15 static 2,250kW IT uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units, and 450kW mechanical UPS systems with lithium-ion battery storage for each 25MW block.
Backup emergency diesel generators will be provided on an owner-furnished, contractor-installed basis, with the EPC contractor handling their installation, connection and testing. Fuel storage will provide 24 hours of autonomous run-time, split between on-site underground bulk tanks and generator belly tanks.
Thermal management combines air and liquid cooling. High-density server racks will be equipped with direct-to-chip liquid cooling loops using coolant distribution units and technical water distribution, paired with air-cooled chillers operating in dual high- and low-temperature loops, alongside fan-wall units.
The total construction timeline is capped at 25 months from site handover or contract signing, with pre-execution early mobilisation scheduled to start in January 2027.
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Adnoc Onshore seeks bids for Bu Hasa field EOR project16 October 2026

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The onshore oil and gas business of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Onshore) has sought bids from contractors for a key project to increase the oil production capacity of the Bu Hasa oil field, primarily through enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques.
The main objective of the Bu Hasa-Shuaiba EOR Unit 1 (Phase 1) project is to achieve a targeted 70% increase in oil production, extend the Bu Hasa field development’s production plateau and maximise the field’s potential in an economical manner.
The project aims to confirm and validate the optimum EOR technology for the top-ranked reservoirs/units; assess incremental recovery on top of the improved oil recovery (IOR) wedge; extend the field plateau for as long as is economically feasible; and achieve an ultimate recovery factor of 70% from the Shuaiba reservoir. It will evaluate and execute the recommended EOR option through pattern phasing for any technology proven by Adnoc.
Adnoc Onshore is understood to have issued the tender for the project on 20 September, with an initial technical bid submission deadline of 8 October, according to sources. The client later extended the technical bid submission deadline to 17 October, sources told MEED.
The chosen contractor will execute the project under a hybrid contracting strategy comprising:
- A lump sum (turnkey) EPC scope covering the complete pipeline system from East Hub to the separation plant
- A call-out-based scope for execution of all WAG injector and WSW tie-in works
Unless otherwise specified, all activities defined under the contractor’s scope will be deemed included within the lump-sum contract price. This will cover engineering, procurement, construction, testing, pre-commissioning and support to commissioning for a complete and operable system.
At the Bu Hasa field development, three remote degassing stations (RDS-1/2/3) and two satellite stations, Bida Al-Qemzan and Huwaila, are currently in operation. Production from oil wells completed in Shuaiba, Thamama B, Thamama F, Bida Al-Qemzan and Huwaila is routed via individual flowlines to the three remote degassing stations and the Bida Al-Qemzan and Huwaila stations across different parts of the field.
Combined production from the wells at each of these stations is routed to the central degassing stations (CDS) via transfer lines ranging from 16 inches to 24 inches in diameter. In addition, some wells in the central part of the field are connected directly to the CDS.
Previous studies have identified carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding as a promising tertiary recovery mechanism in the Shuaiba reservoir, delivering incremental recovery on top of the IOR wedge (P5 project), extending the field plateau as long as economically feasible, and achieving an ultimate recovery factor of 70% from the Bu Hasa Shuaiba units.
Located 200 kilometres south of Abu Dhabi city, Bu Hasa is Adnoc Onshore’s westernmost producing field. It is one of Abu Dhabi's biggest onshore assets, with crude oil production capacity of 650,000 b/d. It is also one of the Adnoc Group’s oldest oil fields, having been discovered in 1962 and in production since May 1965.
As part of the ongoing Bu Hasa Integrated Field Development Project (BUIFDP), 13 new well pads and two pad hubs have been added to the field. Oil, gas and water produced at these sites will be collected at a central gathering facility, then sent through production headers and transfer lines to the CDS for processing.
Adnoc Onshore is the Adnoc Group’s largest oil-producing subsidiary, accounting for 2 million b/d of oil and about 7 billion cubic feet a day of associated gas production from four main onshore field developments in Abu Dhabi: Bab, Bu Hasa, North East Bab and South East.
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OTTCO issues tender for Oman oil storage park expansion16 October 2026

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Oman Tank Terminal Company (OTTCO) has issued the main tender for a major project related to the expansion of the Ras Markaz crude oil storage complex at Duqm, on the sultanate’s Arabian Sea coast.
The project, titled Trade Bridge, involves the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of eight large storage tanks, each with a capacity of 650,000 barrels. This will increase the Ras Markaz terminal’s total storage capacity by 5.2 million barrels.
The project represents the next expansion phase (phase 1.4) of the Ras Markaz oil storage terminal within the Special Economic Zone at Duqm (Sezad).
State-owned OTTCO issued the prequalification notice for the project on 28 July, with contractors submitting initial responses by 4 August and final responses by 19 August, MEED previously reported.
According to sources, OTTCO issued the main tender for EPC works on Project Trade Bridge in the weeks following completion of the prequalification exercise.
The following contractors, among others, are understood to have been prequalified by OTTCO to bid for Project Trade Bridge:
- China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Company (China)
- China Tianchen Engineering Corporation (China)
- Daqing Oilfield Construction Group Company (China)
- Enppi Muscat (local branch of Egypt-based Enppi)
- Gulf Petrochemical Services & Trading (Oman)
- Hualu Engineering & Technology Company (China)
- Rotary Engineering (Singapore)
- Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Company (China)
OTTCO commissioned the first phase of the Ras Markaz crude oil storage park, covering 10 square kilometres and with a capacity of 26.7 million barrels, in December 2022.
The storage facility has two parts. The first is a marine services area, which includes a floating station for crude imports and exports. This zone is about 7 kilometres offshore and is connected via two 42-inch pipelines and associated facilities.
In water depths of up to 42 metres, the floating station can accommodate very large crude carriers. It is linked to four main pumps that transfer crude oil to the storage area, which is located more than 120 metres above sea level. OTTCO could add pumps at a later stage to keep pace with future demand for oil storage.
The second part of the storage facility features oil pumping systems, water treatment facilities, reservoirs, power station networks and other associated systems.
Region’s largest oil storage park
OTTCO will build the Ras Markaz oil storage facility in five phases over several years across an area of about 40 square kilometres, for which it signed a land agreement with Sezad in July 2017.
It will be able to hold 200 million barrels of crude a year. Total investment in the scheme is understood to be $5.2bn.
The storage terminal in the first phase of the Ras Markaz facility is connected to the estimated $7bn Duqm refinery and other oil-derivatives production plants at Sezad via a pipeline that will supply crude feedstock to the refinery when required.
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