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  Iraq awards Baghdad airport PPP deal

  29 October 2025

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  Iraq has awarded a contract to develop Baghdad International airport on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis to a consortium comprising Luxembourg-based Corporacion America Airports (CAAP) and local firm Amwaj International.

  According to local media reports, the estimated $764m contract covers the rehabilitation of airport infrastructure, construction of a new passenger terminal, and operations and maintenance under a 25-year concession.

  In a statement on its website, the Ministry of Transport said the airport’s initial capacity is expected to be around 9 million passengers, gradually increasing to 15 million.

  Iraq’s Ministry of Transport and General Company for Airports & Air Navigation Services received the bids earlier this month, MEED reported.

  The bidding consortium included:

  • Asyad Holding / Top International Engineering Corporation / Lamar Holding / YDA Insaat / Dublin Airport Authority (Saudi Arabia/Saudi Arabia/Saudi Arabia/Turkiye/Ireland) 
  • Corporacion America Airports / Amwaj International (Luxembourg/Iraq)
  • ERG International / Terminal Yapi / ERG Insaat (UK/Turkiye/Turkiye)

  The media report added that the winning consortium offered the government 43.05% of total airport revenues.

  The Asyad-led consortium offered 38.05%.

  The ERG International-led consortium was disqualified from the bidding process.

  The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is the project’s lead transaction adviser.

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  Yasir Iqbal
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  Saudi Electricity Company secures $3bn financing deal

  29 October 2025

  Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has signed a $3bn financing agreement with a consortium of international banks at the Future Investment Initiative Forum (FII9) in Riyadh.

  The financing comes as SEC continues to expand its project portfolio to meet rising electricity demand. In September, SEC outlined plans to invest SR220bn ($58.7bn) in power projects between 2025 and 2030.

  This includes SR135bn ($36bn) and SR85bn ($22.7bn) for transmission and distribution, respectively, and is part of long-term plans to meet growing electricity demand while improving grid efficiency and reliability.

  The financing partners include the UAE's Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank and Emirates NBD.

  Also included are Bank of East Asia (Hong Kong), Bank of China, Barclays (UK), China Construction Bank, HSBC (UK), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (China), ING (Netherlands) and Mega Bank (Taiwan)

  The state-controlled utility, majority-owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has dominated procurement activity in the power sector in 2025, awarding approximately $6bn-worth of contracts.

  This has been led by two standalone projects in Dawadmi and Riyadh, each with a capacity of 500MW/2,000MWh and an estimated value of about $600m.

  The utility continues to advance other major developments including the PP13 and PP14 combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants in Riyadh. In October, it signed $3.4bn in offtake deals for the plants, which have a total capacity of 3,356MW.

  It also recently reached financial close for Saudi Arabia’s Qurayyah CCGT independent power project (IPP) expansion.

  SEC will develop, finance, build, own and operate the 3,010MW plant as part of a consortium with Saudi Arabia's Acwa Power and Hajj Abdullah Alireza & Company (Haaco).

  Alongside its financing agreement, SEC launched a new Supply Chain Financing Programme during FII9 in partnership with local fintech Manafa and US-headquartered SAP Taulia, supported by the Saudi Industrial Development Fund.

  The initiative aims to improve liquidity across the energy supply chain and enable suppliers to access fast financing at more competitive rates.

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  Mark Dowdall
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  Design work completed for $1bn Libyan pipeline

  29 October 2025

  

   

  Front-end engineering and design (feed) work has been completed for the major oil pipeline that will extend from oil fields in the south of Libya to the oil export terminal of Es Sider, according to industry sources.

  Libya’s Waha Oil Company, a subsidiary of state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC), is developing the pipeline.

  The 700-kilometre pipeline will have a diameter of 32 inches and the capacity to transport 1 million barrels a day (b/d) of oil.

  One source said: “It is crucial that the existing pipeline is replaced. The existing pipeline is suffering frequent leaks and cannot handle higher pressures.

  “In 1960, when the pipeline was installed, the pipe thickness was 36mm, but it is now so worn out that this has been reduced to around 8mm across much of the pipeline. In some spots, it is even less than 8mm.

  “Production cannot be increased at the oil field due to this ageing facility.”

  Waha is preparing to eventually tender an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project, which is estimated to have a value of between $1bn and $1.25bn.

  Although the pipeline’s actual usage is unlikely to exceed 300,000 b/d for some time after its completion, it is being designed to be ready for a significant increase in oil production from Libya’s southern oil fields.

  It is unclear when Waha plans to issue an invitation to bid for the project’s EPC contract.

  In 2012, Waha announced a project to replace key oil pipelines in Libya, but funding issues delayed the timeline and invitations to bid were never issued.

  In January 2024, MEED reported that Waha was considering plans to boost its production by 1 million b/d.

  At the time, the subsidiary was producing about 300,000 b/d.

  Earlier this month, NOC announced that the country’s crude oil production had reached 1,383,430 barrels a day (b/d).

  The company said that natural gas production was 2,519 million cubic feet a day (cf/d), while condensate production was 49,013 b/d.

  NOC said it aimed to further increase production capacity to approximately 1.6 million cf/d by 2026.

  

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  Wil Crisp
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  Kuwait forms project company for Al-Zour North expansion

  29 October 2025

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  Kuwait has formally established a new public shareholding company to manage the next stages of the Al-Zour North independent water and power plant (IWPP).

  The Gulf Alliance for Power & Water Company will be responsible for the construction, implementation, management, operation and maintenance of Al-Zour North IWPP phases two and three.

  The Al-Zour North phases two and three IWPP involves constructing a 2,700MW power plant and a 120-million-imperial-gallon-a-day desalination facility. The project’s total estimated value is approximately $4bn.

  In August, Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power and Kuwait-based financial institution Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) signed a contract to develop the project, which will be the country’s largest IWPP.

  The consortium of Acwa Power and GIC will hold 40% of the project company through Al-Zour Kuwaiti Second & Third Holding Company.

  The Public-Private Partnership Authority will hold 10% on behalf of government entities, while 50% will be offered to Kuwaiti citizens through a public subscription process.

  Al-Zour North IWPP phases two and three is owned by the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (Kapp) and the Ministry of Electricity, Water & Renewable Energy.

  It will be developed under a build-operate-transfer model with a 25-year offtake agreement.

  Sepco3 is the EPC contractor for the project.

  The project company has been set up with an authorised and issued capital of KD197.032m ($639m).

  This capital is divided into 1.97 billion shares, each with a nominal value of 100 fils. The paid-up capital at the time of establishment is KD49.2m.

  

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  Mark Dowdall
• 
  Aramco closes $11bn lease deal for Jafurah gas assets

  28 October 2025

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  Saudi Aramco has announced completing a $11bn lease-and-leaseback deal for gas processing facilities at its Jafurah unconventional gas reserve with a consortium led by funds managed by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), part of US asset manager BlackRock.

  Under the transaction, which Aramco started in August, a newly formed subsidiary – Jafurah Midstream Gas Company (JMGC) – will lease development and usage rights to the Jafurah field gas processing plant and the Riyas natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation facility.

  After 20 years, JMGC will lease the assets back to Aramco. JMGC will collect a tariff payable by Aramco in exchange for granting Aramco the exclusive right to receive, process and treat raw gas from the Jafurah resource base.

  Aramco will hold a 51% majority stake in JMGC, while the GIP-led consortium will hold the remaining 49%. Investors participating in the GIP-led consortium include Hassana Investment Company, The Arab Energy Fund (TAEF) and Aberdeen Investcorp Infrastructure Partners, as well as other institutional investors from North and Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

  ALSO READ: Investment secured by Aramco for Jafurah is critical

  This is GIP’s second oil and gas investment in Saudi Arabia. Previously, GIP’s parent company, BlackRock, led a consortium including Saudi Arabia’s Hassana Investment Company in a similar $15.5bn lease-and-leaseback deal for Aramco’s natural gas pipeline network.

  Under the December 2021 agreement, the BlackRock-led consortium acquired a 49% stake in Aramco Gas Pipelines Company, with Aramco retaining 51%. The consortium holds a 20‑year lease on the pipeline network, after which usage rights revert to Aramco.

  Jafurah unconventional gas base

  Located in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, the Jafurah basin is the largest liquid-rich shale gas play in the Middle East, spanning around 17,000 square kilometres. The reserve is estimated to contain 229 trillion cubic feet of gas and 75 billion stock-tank barrels of condensate.

  Aramco expects to start gas production at Jafurah later this year, with the intention of progressively ramping up to 2 billion standard cubic feet per day (cf/d) of sales gas, 420 million cf/d of ethane, and 630,000 barrels a day of high-value liquids by 2030.

  The Jafurah project is central to Aramco’s goal of increasing gas production capacity by 60% between 2021 and 2030 to meet rising global demand. The company expects lifecycle investment in Jafurah to exceed $100bn.

  In February 2020, Aramco received a capital expenditure grant of $110bn from the Saudi government for the long-term phased development of the Jafurah unconventional gas resource base.

  “Jafurah is a cornerstone of our ambitious gas expansion programme, and the GIP-led consortium’s participation as investors in a key component of our unconventional gas operations demonstrates the attractive value proposition of the project,” Amin H Nasser, Aramco president and CEO, had earlier said.

  “As Jafurah prepares to start phase one production this year, development of subsequent phases is well on track. We look forward to Jafurah playing a major role as a feedstock provider to the petrochemicals sector, and supplying energy required to power new growth sectors, such as [artificial intelligence] AI data centres, in the kingdom,” Nasser previously said.

  ALSO READ: Contractors extend bid validity for Jafurah fourth expansion project

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  Indrajit Sen