meed-logo

line1 line2 line3
SIGN IN / REGISTER

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.
https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/10042154/main.gif
MEED Editorial

Register for MEED's guest program now to access this article.

Click here to register
Exclusive from Meed
Related Articles
  • Qiddiya plans $7bn theme park hub near Paris

    25 August 2026

    Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya Investment Company plans to develop a mixed-use leisure destination worth about €6bn ($7bn) at Cergy-Pontoise in the Ile-de-France region, in one of the largest Saudi investments in French tourism infrastructure to date.

    The plan was set out in a joint statement issued on 24 August at the close of a state visit to France by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. France and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) covering the project during the two-day visit.

    The destination will bring together entertainment, leisure, hospitality, culture and sport, according to the joint statement. Current plans envisage up to three major entertainment anchors, hotels and complementary leisure experiences, with the €6bn figure covering the full development lifecycle.

    One of the three parks is expected to be manga-themed, according to the French presidency. The themes of the other two have not been disclosed. The parks will be built and opened in stages, with construction expected to take several years. No opening date has been given.

    The parks are expected to create about 22,000 direct jobs, according to the French presidency, compared with about 20,000 at Disneyland Paris. Cergy-Pontoise lies about 30 kilometres northwest of Paris.

    Qiddiya is a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Its flagship project is a giga-scale entertainment, sports and cultural city on the outskirts of Riyadh, one of several gigaprojects under Vision 2030.

    The theme park plan was among a wider set of agreements reached during the visit. Both sides welcomed the announcement of 21 agreements and MoUs at a French-Saudi investment roundtable, spanning energy, industry, financial services, transport and logistics, health, culture, tourism and artificial intelligence. Bilateral trade reached about $11.8bn in 2025.

    It is not the first time Saudi capital has backed a French theme park. Kingdom Holding Company was a longstanding investor in the operator of Disneyland Paris, first taking a stake in 1994 and participating in successive recapitalisations before Walt Disney Company moved to near-full ownership in 2017.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/18987274/main.png
    Colin Foreman
  • Masdar shelves Abu Dhabi green hydrogen project

    25 August 2026

     

    Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has decided to cancel a planned project to build a green hydrogen plant in Abu Dhabi that would have supplied up to 100MW of renewable hydrogen to local steelmaker Emsteel for green steel production.

    After contractors submitted bids for the project last year, Masdar asked bidders in the first quarter of this year to extend the validity of their proposals until the end of August to allow “more time to study and evaluate bids”, according to one source.

    However, Masdar issued a notification to all bidders on 1 August stating that it had decided to cancel the project, sources told MEED.

    Contractors that submitted bids for the Masdar green hydrogen project included:

    • Envision (China)
    • Larsen & Toubro (India)
    • PowerChina (China)
    • Samsung E&A (South Korea)
    • Sinopec (China)

    Masdar did not respond to MEED’s request for comment on the information.

    In its current steelmaking process, Emsteel uses hydrogen produced by steam reforming of natural gas as a reducing agent to extract iron from iron ore. The core objective of Masdar’s planned project was to install a 100MW electrolyser at Emsteel’s main manufacturing hub in Musaffah, Abu Dhabi, to supply green hydrogen for future clean steel production.

    Masdar initiated work on the project in 2024 by awarding a front-end engineering and design (feed) contract to locally based NT Energies, a joint venture of Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Energy and France-based Technip Energies.

    Masdar then sought proposals last year for engineering, procurement, construction, demolition (if needed for brownfield activities), pre-commissioning, commissioning, start-up, and two years of operations and maintenance (extendable up to 20 years) at the planned facility.

    Contractors submitted bids by the end of the year, according to sources.

    The project involved green hydrogen production using alkaline water electrolysis, with a total installed electrolyser capacity of 100MW.

    The scope of work involved building electrolyser stacks and modules, hydrogen separation and compression units, associated utilities and storage systems, and electrical, instrumentation and control systems.

    It also included tie-ins to pre-defined interface points, including (but not limited to):

    • a grid power supply connection to the MOSF substation in Musaffah that exists within the Emsteel complex and is operated by Taqa Transmission
    • a water supply connection to a nearby Taqa Distribution network

    Supporting infrastructure included a substation, a motor control centre, and ancillary plant buildings and facilities.

    Masdar’s planned 100MW electrolyser project at the Emsteel facility would have represented a step up from a previous pilot project by the two Abu Dhabi-owned companies.

    The partners inaugurated a pilot green hydrogen plant at Emsteel’s manufacturing complex in Musaffah in October 2024. It incorporates a 2.1MW electrolyser and is designed to support the production of up to 5,000 tonnes of green steel a year.

    This made Emsteel the only steelmaker in the Middle East to use green hydrogen to produce green steel on a pilot basis.

    “Sustainability is central to Emsteel’s innovation, competitiveness and long-term growth. Today, approximately 89% of our steel business electricity consumption comes from clean sources, and our steel carbon emissions intensity is around 40% lower than the World Steel Association global average,” Michael Rion, chief commercial officer of Emirates Steel, part of Emsteel Group, told MEED in a recent interview.

    READ THE AUGUST 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

    Saudi Arabia builds for the global stage; Rising uncertainty creates fresh set of challenges in the Maghreb; Gulf banks remain robust in the face of geopolitical tensions.

    Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the August 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

    > MARKET FOCUS: Maghreb fortunes diverge
    To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here
    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/18911651/main0611.jpg
    Indrajit Sen
  • Oman invites bids for Musandam renewables study

    25 August 2026

    Oman’s Nama Power & Water Procurement Company (PWP) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for techno-economic consultancy services to assess the feasibility of renewable energy options in Musandam Governorate.

    The study will examine solar photovoltaic (PV), wind and hybrid renewable energy configurations. It will also assess battery energy storage systems (bess) and other renewable energy and energy storage technologies.

    The consultant will be required to determine which technologies are technically and economically justified for the governorate.

    The bid submission deadline is 24 September.

    The Musandam power system is served primarily by the 123MW Musandam independent power plant (IPP), which began operating in 2017. The governorate has historically relied on small diesel-fired units, but has been seeking to move away from diesel-fired power generation for several years.

    Nama PWP has previously said it was exploring renewable energy options in Musandam to meet future additional capacity requirements.

    Its latest seven-year statement, released in March, forecasts peak electricity demand in Musandam to rise from 91MW in 2024 to 130MW in 2031, an average annual increase of 5%. Average demand is forecast to rise from 52MW to 73MW over the same period.

    The plan says demand growth is being driven by distribution-level load and projects aimed at boosting tourism, economic and commercial activity. 

    Separately, the utility recently invited bids for financial and commercial consultancy services covering three 1GW solar IPPs targeted for commercial operation by the second quarter of 2030.

    The bid submissions deadline is 10 September.

    The three projects covered by the financial and commercial consultancy tender are understood to also be part of the 4GW programme, for which a technical advisory tender was issued on 15 July.

    Bidding for this tender closes on 26 August.

    READ THE AUGUST 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

    Saudi Arabia builds for the global stage; Rising uncertainty creates fresh set of challenges in the Maghreb; Gulf banks remain robust in the face of geopolitical tensions.

    Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the August 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

    > MARKET FOCUS: Maghreb fortunes diverge
    To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here
    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/18983679/main.jpg
    Mark Dowdall
  • US launches sanctions campaign against Iran

    25 August 2026

    The US has launched a sweeping sanctions campaign against Iran and the entities that trade with it, imposing measures on almost 60 individuals, companies and vessels while expanding the reach of secondary sanctions across five sectors of the Iranian economy.

    The campaign, named Operation Economic Outcast, was announced on 24 August by US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who described it as an economic D-Day for Iran. He said Washington’s objective was to sever every economic lifeline sustaining the Iranian regime.

    The treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) issued five sectoral sanctions determinations under Executive Order 13902, covering digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. The determinations allow Ofac to sanction any person operating in those sectors, regardless of location. Washington said Iran uses cryptocurrency for sanctions evasion, seeks advanced technology for its weapons programmes, uses gold to stabilise the rial, and relies on commercial aviation and shipping networks to move fighters, weapons and oil revenue.

    The measures build on earlier determinations targeting Iran’s financial, petroleum and petrochemical sectors.

    Ofac also sanctioned close to 60 entities, individuals and vessels across multiple jurisdictions, including UAE-based entities, over alleged involvement in nuclear and missile procurement, cyber operations and oil revenue networks. The designations named a network of brokers, companies and shadow fleet vessels operating across the UAE, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Switzerland and other regions to transport Iranian oil and channel revenue to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

    Among those designated were shipping brokers and bunkering firms based in the UAE that Washington said facilitated Iranian oil shipments and provided services to sanctioned vessels. The treasury also identified several shadow fleet tankers as blocked property, saying they had moved millions of barrels of Iranian crude and petroleum products, mainly to China.

    Separately, the treasury targeted a procurement network spanning the Middle East and East Asia that it said supported Iran’s acquisition of proliferation-sensitive equipment, along with a cyber group directed by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence & Security.

    Bessent said Washington was pressing governments to shut down Iran-related activity within defined timelines, warning that entities facilitating money laundering or sanctions evasion for Iran risked being cut off from the US financial system. He declined to name specific countries.

    The campaign follows the UAE’s own move against Tehran. On 19 August, the UAE suspended all trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran with immediate effect, citing regional escalation. The UAE has historically been one of Iran’s most significant trading partners, with much of the relationship built on re-export trade routed through Dubai.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/18983152/main.jpg
    Colin Foreman
  • Kuwait tenders $3.3bn gas processing facility

    25 August 2026

     

    State-owned Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC) has issued the tender for the development of an onshore gas plant next to the Al-Zour refinery, according to industry sources.

    The project budget is estimated at $3.3bn, and the bid deadline is 29 December, with a meeting for contractors scheduled for 14 September.

    The tender was issued on 23 August.

    The proposed plant will have the capacity to process up to 632 million cubic feet a day of gas and 60,000 b/d a day of condensates from the Dorra offshore field, located in Gulf waters in the Saudi-Kuwait Neutral Zone.

    In February, MEED reported that at least seven companies had shown interest in participating in the tender.

    Contractors that sent representatives to previous meetings to discuss the project include:

    • Samsung E&A (South Korea)
    • Larsen & Toubro (India)
    • Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)
    • Saipem (Italy)
    • Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
    • Hyundai Engineering Company (South Korea)
    • JGC (Japan)

    The tender process is using a fast-track model, which means that Kuwait’s Central Agency for Public Tenders (Capt) will not be involved in the tender process.

    Capt typically reviews the technical and commercial evaluations of bids and verifies that the bidding process is competitive.

    It is understood that not requiring Capt to approve this tender is expected to speed up the tender process.

    Iran disputes ownership of the field, referring to it as Arash.

    Iran claims the field partially extends into Iranian territory and asserts that Tehran should be a stakeholder in its development.

    The Dorra field’s close proximity to Iran could make development difficult due to current security concerns.

    The offshore elements of the wider Dorra field development project are expected to be especially difficult to protect from attacks from Iran.

    Earlier this month, MEED revealed that Al-Khafji Joint Operations (KJO) had selected contractors for two major offshore packages under the Dorra field facilities development project.

    KJO, which is jointly owned by Aramco subsidiary Aramco Gulf Operations Company and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation subsidiary KGOC, has divided the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) scope for the Dorra gas production project into four packages: three offshore and one onshore.

    US-based McDermott International has secured offshore package 2A, valued at about $1.5bn, according to sources.

    A consortium of India’s Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (LTEH) and Italian contractor Saipem has secured package 2B, sources told MEED.

    Estimated at about $3.7bn, package 2B is the largest of the three offshore EPC packages under the Dorra field facilities project.

    MEED reported in March that the LTEH/Saipem consortium had emerged as the lowest bidder for offshore package 2B.

    Contractors submitted bids for offshore packages 2A and 2B by the 9 March deadline, MEED previously reported. Bid validity was understood to expire on 15 August, prompting KJO to issue letters of intent to the selected contractors earlier this month, sources said.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/18964461/main.png
    Wil Crisp