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US DFC approves $1.8bn financing for Jordan National Water Carrier Administrator24 September 2026
The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has approved a loan of up to $1bn and political-risk insurance of up to $800m for Jordan’s National Water Carrier Project.
The $1bn loan will be provided to National Carrier Project Company (NCPC) to finance the design, development, construction, operation and maintenance of the project’s seawater desalination plant, water conveyance system and dedicated solar generation plant.
The $800m of political-risk insurance will be provided to Paris-based investment and utility firms Meridiam and Suez, which are developing the project.
The National Water Carrier, also known as the Aqaba-Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance Project, is being developed under a public-private partnership between Jordan’s Ministry of Water & Irrigation and NCPC, a special-purpose vehicle owned by Meridiam (90%) and Suez (10%).
The project involves the design, development, construction, operation and maintenance of a seawater desalination plant, a water transmission system and dedicated renewable power generation facilities under a build-operate-transfer model.
Jordan signed the project’s final technical and legal agreement with Meridiam in April, following months of negotiations.
The project’s capital cost was put at about $4.3bn, with total costs including financing estimated at $5.8bn.
Financial close has not yet been completed. The project’s technical director said in July that the final agreements required for financial close were still being prepared, with construction expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2026. Water pumping is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2030.
Jordan’s cabinet approved a $97m financing agreement with the French Development Agency in July as the government continued to complete the project’s financing arrangements.
The cabinet also approved a package of facilities and exemptions for the National Water Carrier Project on 17 September to help finalise start-up procedures for the project in the Aqaba Special Economic Zone.
Jordan’s water needs
The Aqaba-Amman water desalination and conveyance project will desalinate 300 million cubic metres of seawater annually. It will also include a 450-kilometre pipeline and pumping systems reaching elevations of up to 1,100 metres.
The project is intended to help address Jordan’s severe water scarcity. As one of the world’s most water-stressed countries, Jordan consumes nearly 1 billion cubic metres of water a year.
The domestic sector consumes approximately 50% of this, with only 61 cubic metres of water available per person a year, far below the global absolute water scarcity level of 500 cubic metres of water per capita.
According to the government, the scheme will increase overall water supply by 40%, with per capita availability expected to rise to 110 cubic metres annually.
Annual output from the Water Carrier Project will be nearly equivalent to the total storage capacity of all dams in the kingdom and almost three times the output of the Disi Water Project.
The project is expected to supply about 40% of Jordan’s drinking water needs, with operations scheduled to begin in 2030. It will also include a 280MW solar photovoltaic plant in Al-Quweira covering roughly 30% of the project’s energy needs.
Financing
The government previously said the project had secured about $663m in grants from international partners, including the US, the European Union, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, France, Italy, Japan and the Green Climate Fund.
The Jordanian government is contributing $722m.
Meridiam is arranging about $2.9bn in private sector financing from international financial institutions. The financing package includes support from institutions including the World Bank Group, European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction & Development, Islamic Development Bank, Proparco, Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Opec Fund for International Development.
A consortium of Jordanian banks led by Housing Bank is providing up to $1.1bn in local financing, with the Social Security Investment Fund also taking an equity stake alongside Meridiam.
Local manufacturing
The project is also beginning to generate associated industrial investment.
On 30 August, Jordan’s cabinet approved the establishment of a steel pipe manufacturing and coating plant in Aqaba with investment of up to JD120m ($169m). The plant is expected to allocate 50% of its production to the National Water Carrier and create about 420 jobs. Its output will also be available for future water, gas transmission and pumping projects.
The Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority and the Ministry of Water & Irrigation also launched a dedicated single-window platform in August to streamline licensing and permitting for the National Water Carrier project.
Once operational, the project is expected to remain under the PPP structure for 26 years before ownership transfers to the Jordanian government.
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Contractor wins 6GW data centre campus infrastructure Administrator24 September 2026
Dammam-based construction firm Alyamama Company has won a contract to develop infrastructure for a planned 6GW hyperscale artificial intelligence (AI) data centre campus in Riyadh.
The project will be delivered on an early contractor involvement (ECI) basis. Under the ECI process, selected contractors are required to submit methodologies and design proposals, after which one team will be selected to deliver the construction works.
Saudi Arabia’s AI company Humain, owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), tendered the contract in May, as MEED reported.
The scope of infrastructure work covers:
- Construction of 380kV/132kV/33kV electrical distribution network, two substations with a capacity of 500MVA and 200MVA, bulk supply point (2,000MVA)
- Water network and fire protection systems
- Sewage treatment plant and wastewater network
- Stormwater systems
- Roads
- Underground cable and fibre optic networks
- Landscaping works
The client is being supported by Canadian engineering firm Hatch, France’s Egis and US-based firm JLL.
The development will be built on a 24-square-kilometre site in the Al-Saad area in east Riyadh. It will be delivered in two phases across six plots, each with a capacity of 1GW.
Humain was launched in May last year to operate and invest across the AI value chain.
Humain is building full-stack AI capabilities across four core areas: next-generation data centres, hyper-performance infrastructure and cloud platforms, and advanced AI models, including Allam.
Also in May 2025, Humain signed preliminary deals with US chipmakers AMD and Nvidia to build multibillion-dollar advanced digital infrastructure in the kingdom.
AMD said it will invest up to $10bn to deploy 500MW of AI compute capacity in Saudi Arabia over the next five years.
In October 2025, PIF and Saudi Aramco signed a non-binding term sheet setting out key terms under which Aramco would acquire a minority stake in Humain, with PIF retaining majority ownership.
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Algeria officially launches major phosphate project Administrator24 September 2026
Algeria’s Minister of State and Minister of Hydrocarbons, Mohamed Arkab, has officially launched the construction of the country’s Integrated Phosphate Project (IPP) during a visit to the province of Annaba.
This major phosphate project spans the provinces of Annaba, Souk Ahras, Tebessa and Bir El-Ater.
The scope of the IPP includes:
- A raw phosphate extraction and beneficiation complex at the Bled El-Hadba site (Bir El-Ater): designed for 5.5 million tonnes a year (t/y) of ore extraction and 3.2 million t/y of phosphate concentrate production
- An industrial complex at the Oued Keberit site: to include several production units, with the capacity to produce 2.4 million t/y of phosphate fertilisers as well as 570,000 t/y of nitrogen fertilisers
- Port facilities at the port of Annaba: for exporting surplus fertiliser production
- Utilities and auxiliary infrastructure
In a statement, the Ministry of Hydrocarbons said that Arkab’s official visit was taking place “within the framework of periodic field monitoring of the project’s implementation stages”.
It said: “The project stands as one of the most significant strategic and structural initiatives for the national economy; it aims to develop and exploit national mineral resources and to process and add value to phosphate locally, thereby boosting value-added output and increasing non-hydrocarbon exports.”
It added: “The integrated phosphate project is part of a comprehensive vision to valorise national mineral resources and develop associated downstream industries.
“This initiative aims to boost national production of fertilisers and high-value-added chemical products, support food security, create jobs, and contribute to diversifying the national economy and increasing non-hydrocarbon exports.”
On 12 August, Algeria’s national oil and gas company Sonatrach and the Algerian Chinese Fertilisers Company (ACFC) signed two engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for the project.
The contracts were part of the Bled El-Hadba phosphate development project, which is expected to be worth $7bn.
The contracts were signed by Italy’s Saipem and China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) as part of the first phase of the integrated phosphate project.
Saipem’s contract was worth about €500m ($577m), according to a statement from the Italian company.
It focuses on constructing fertiliser processing and production facilities.
The contract with CHEC focuses on constructing port facilities at the Port of Annaba.
ACFC was created in March 2022 by Algerian companies Asmidal and Manadjim El-Djazair (Manal), which own 56% of the company, and Chinese groups Wuhuan and Tianan, which own the remaining 44% stake.
Manal and Asmidal are both subsidiaries of Sonatrach.
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Design review nearly complete for Libya upstream project Administrator24 September 2026
US-headquartered KBR is nearing completion of its re-evaluation of the design for the project to develop the J6 North Gialo field in Libya, according to industry sources.
In June, MEED reported that Libya’s Waha Oil Company (WOC), a subsidiary of state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC), had launched a review into the tender process for the J6 North Gialo oil field development project, and that this would include re-evaluating the front-end engineering and design (feed).
The Waha concessions are held by a consortium of Libya’s NOC (59.16%), TotalEnergies (20.42%) and US-based ConocoPhillips (20.42%).
They are operated by WOC, which is 100% owned by NOC.
WOC is planning to tender the main contract for the project to develop the J6 field before the end of this year, although it may be tendered in the first quarter of 2027 if there are delays.
KBR in Libya
KBR has previously provided engineering services for major national projects in Libya, such as the Great Man-Made River project, which is widely recognised as the largest irrigation project in the world.
In March, KBR was awarded a contract by Zallaf Exploration, Production & Refining of Oil & Gas Company to provide project management and technical services for the South Refinery project in Libya’s southern city of Ubari.
Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide contract management, project management and supporting technical services throughout the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phases of the project.
The EPC work is expected to be executed over a 50-month period.
In its statement, KBR said the project aligns with its “long-standing commitment to advancing vital oil and gas infrastructure in Libya”.
Upstream development
In March, MEED reported that South Korea’s Daewoo had pulled out of the tender process for Libya’s J6 North Gialo oil field development project.
Daewoo had formed a partnership with Egypt’s Petrojet to participate in the tender process.
The only other company to submit a bid for the project was UK-based Petrofac, which filed for administration in October last year.
In January, TotalEnergies signed an agreement extending the Waha concessions agreement up to 31 December 2050.
This agreement set new fiscal terms, allowing an increase in the production of these concessions that were, at the time, producing about 370,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boe/d).
In January, TotalEnergies said that the deal paved the way for “a new phase of investments, including the development of the North Gialo field, which is expected to add 100,000 boe/d of production”.
The J6 North Gialo project is the first of three field development projects that WOC has prioritised.
The other two are known as NC98 and Gialo 3.
Together, the three projects are expected to double Waha’s production from about 300,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil to 600,000 b/d.
The Waha concession covers 13 million acres.
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Kuwait awards $381m oil project Administrator23 September 2026
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State-owned upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has awarded an oil project contract worth KD117m ($381m) to India’s Megha Engineering & Infrastructure (Meil).
The Supreme Purchasing Committee for Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) approved the contract last month, paving the way for the official award.
The project focuses on a water separation unit at the Al-Rawdatain facility in Kuwait.
The water separation facility will be developed at Gathering Centre 25 (GC-25), along with a pumping facility at GC-30.
The project will deliver a wide-ranging upgrade of processing and utility infrastructure, including new low-pressure separation and gas-handling equipment such as a three-phase wet separator package, a gas knock-out drum and associated low-pressure gas pipelines, as well as a high-integrity pressure protection system and a high-pressure flare.
Meil will develop the new three-phase low-pressure wet separation facility at GC-25.
The main process equipment will include two wet separator packages, each with a capacity of 150,000 barrels of liquid a day, and a low-pressure gas knock-out drum with a capacity of 53 million standard cubic feet a day, together with associated gas-handling facilities.
The facility will also incorporate an effluent water treatment and transfer system, including an effluent water balance tank equipped with microbubble flotation and induced gas flotation systems, as well as transfer pumps.
Additional GC-25 facilities will include fuel gas treatment, chemical injection, oil recovery and flare connections, along with firewater and deluge systems.
The scope also covers control and safety systems, substations, and associated civil, structural, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation works.
At GC-30, the project will focus on treated-water filtration and high-pressure injection infrastructure.
The scope includes nutshell filters and associated feed pumps with a combined capacity of approximately 500,000 barrels of water a day.
Booster and injection pumps will transfer treated effluent water to designated injection wells.
Additional facilities at GC-30 will include fuel gas treatment, sludge collection and disposal systems, oil recovery systems, control and safety systems, substations, laboratory and workshop facilities, and associated civil, structural, piping, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation works.
The project also includes transfer pipelines connecting GC-25, GC-15 and GC-30.
Meil will carry out modifications to existing tanks at GC-30, as well as process and utility tie-ins, electrical and instrumentation modifications and other infrastructure required to integrate the new facilities with KOC’s existing assets.
Meil’s responsibilities cover the project lifecycle from design and engineering through procurement, construction, testing, pre-commissioning, commissioning, start-up and performance testing.
The contract also includes operation, maintenance, repair and insurance responsibilities for the designated facilities during the applicable operations and maintenance period.
Seven companies submitted bids for the project last November.
The full list of bids was:
- Meil (India) – KD117m ($381m)
- Mechanical Engineering & Contracting Company (Kuwait) – KD130m
- Spetco (Kuwait) – KD158m
- Al-Kharafi (Kuwait) – KD164m
- China Oil HBP Science & Technology (China) – KD169m
- Alghanim International (Kuwait) – KD169m
- Jereh Oil & Gas Engineering (China) – KD191m
In October last year, KOC awarded Meil a separate contract for a project to develop a gas sweetening and recovery facility in west Kuwait.
Meil submitted the lowest bid for that tender, at KD69.2m ($225.5m), in February 2025.
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Kuwait refinery project on track for year-end completion Administrator23 September 2026
A $65m project to replace a substation at the Mina Al-Ahmadi (MAA) refinery is on schedule to be mechanically complete before the end of the year, according to industry sources.
The project is being executed by India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which was awarded the contract in October 2024.
One source said: “This project is approaching completion and is currently on schedule to be completed before the end of the year, although it could still see delays related to the ongoing regional conflict.”
The client is state-owned downstream operator Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC).
Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water & Renewable Energy (MEW) is also involved in the project and will provide final approvals and sign-off.
The scope of the project includes:
- Construction of a substation
- Installation of transformers
- Installation of medium-voltage switchgear
- Installation of low-voltage auxiliary systems
- Installation of network protection systems
- Installation of disconnecting switches
- Installation of surge arrestors
- Installation of feeder breakers and cubicles
- Installation of low-voltage A/C and D/C equipment
- Installation of battery banks and battery chargers
- Installation of related relay and control panel boards
- Installation of fire alarm and fire protection equipment
- Installation of a SCADA system
- Installation of cables
- Civil works
- Associated facilities
The current project to replace a substation at the MAA refinery closely resembles another project tendered by KNPC more than a decade ago, which L&T also won.
On 18 May 2015, KNPC signed a contract with L&T to build a new 240MW substation at the MAA refinery, valued at KD21.866m.
The new substation, known as M20, was designed to replace an existing substation that was considered old and obsolete.
Mohammed Al-Mutairi, who was KNPC’s chief executive at the time, said the substation building would be explosion-proof and use state-of-the-art control systems.
He said the station’s capacity would increase from 180MW to 240MW, supplying most of the refinery’s electricity needs.
Given the similarities between the two projects, L&T has been able to reuse some designs, creating efficiencies, according to industry sources.
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Contractor wins $208m Almoosa hospital MEP contract Administrator23 September 2026
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Riyadh-based construction firm BEC Arabia has won a SR781m ($208m) contract for the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) works at Almoosa Hospital in Al-Khobar.
Saudi Arabia’s Almoosa Health Company awarded the contract.
The hospital complex consists of two towers: a 24-storey in-patient tower with 380 beds, and an 11-storey tower with 224 clinics and 113 additional treatment spaces.
It will be built on a 45,000-square-metre site.
A podium spanning the ninth and 10th floors will connect the two towers.
The hospital will also include parking for 1,700 cars.
BEC Arabia won the SR656m ($175m) main construction contract for the hospital in November last year.
In August 2025, MEED reported that Almoosa Health Company had announced it had secured a sharia-compliant credit facility worth SR650m ($173m) from Banque Saudi Fransi.
In a statement published on the Saudi stock exchange (Tadawul), the company said the seven-year facility would be used to support its expansion and growth strategy.
Lebanon’s Dar, US-based Perkins&Will and French design firm Pierre-Yves Rochon designed the project.
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UAE to develop integrated waste-to-resource pilot Administrator23 September 2026
Emirates Biotech and United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) have launched a pilot project in Al-Ain that could provide a model for larger waste-to-resource facilities.
The project involves developing the UAE’s first integrated organic-waste valorisation pilot plant, which will test whether food waste and compostable packaging can be processed together to recover resources and reduce waste sent to landfill.
Located near the UAEU campus, the 40kg-a-day facility will process organic waste to produce renewable biogas and nutrient-rich compost. The project is intended to generate technical and operating data that could support the development of larger-scale facilities.
Emirates Biotech and UAEU will design, build and operate the pilot plant as part of a two-year research project running from August 2026 to August 2028. Installation and commissioning are expected to be completed by August 2027.
The plant will combine anaerobic digestion and composting. Anaerobic digestion will convert the organic waste into renewable biogas, while the resulting digestate will be composted to produce nutrient-rich compost.
A laboratory-scale assessment will also examine the potential to convert the biogas into renewable hydrogen.
Food waste accounts for nearly 40% of daily municipal solid waste in the UAE, according to Emirates Biotech, and much of it is currently disposed of in landfills.
The pilot will therefore assess the technical and operational feasibility of recovering value from two waste streams through a single integrated process.
If successfully scaled, Emirates Biotech says an integrated organic-waste valorisation plant could reduce CO₂ emissions by 89% compared with landfilling.
The project is expected to provide a scalable and modular model for converting food waste and compostable packaging into renewable biogas and compost, with the findings intended to inform the development of larger waste-to-resource facilities.
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Contractors prepare Oxagon Highway 55 bids Administrator23 September 2026
Contractors are preparing to submit bids on 28 September for a design-and-build contract for permanent upgrade works on Highway 55 in the kingdom’s Oxagon region.
The first phase of the project includes constructing 14 kilometres of road, with two lanes in each direction. It also includes one bridge and three interchanges.
The project duration is 22 months.
Highway 55 connects the Red Sea coast with the mainland in northwestern Saudi Arabia. It is currently the only road providing north-south connectivity between Duba and the Neom region.
MEED reported exclusively in August 2025 that contractors had submitted responses to an expression of interest notice that Neom had issued earlier that month.
The project is expected to support cargo movement from Duba Port to other parts of the kingdom and the wider region.
Last year, Neom tested a pilot initiative by handling a shipment that travelled from Cairo via the Port of Safaga, across the Red Sea to the Port of Neom, and then inland to Erbil, Iraq.
In a statement, Neom said: “The shipment travelled through an intermodal corridor spanning over 900 kilometres, marking a significant milestone in the kingdom’s transformation into a regional and global logistics hub.”
The Port of Neom is located on the Red Sea near the Arar border, a key entry point into Iraq.
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Lebanon sets October deadline for power generation projects Administrator23 September 2026
Lebanon’s Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) has extended the deadline for private sector companies to submit expressions of interest (EoIs) for several upcoming power generation projects.
The new deadline is 15 October. The original deadline was 30 September.
The regulator said the extension follows “requests received from interested applicants for additional time to finalise and submit the required documentation”.
The EoI covers up to five grid-connected solar photovoltaic projects with a combined installed capacity of 350 megawatts-peak. The projects are also expected to include battery energy storage systems with a combined capacity of 1,000 megawatt-hours.
The regulator is also seeking proposals for distributed dual-fired thermal power plants with net capacities ranging from 20MW to 100MW. The plants are expected to run on natural gas as the primary fuel and heavy fuel oil as a backup.
The ERA invited companies to submit EoIs at the beginning of August.
On 11 August, the ERA issued its first set of clarifications following queries regarding the EoI. The clarifications confirmed that “proposed dual-fired plants should be gas-ready”, with natural-gas infrastructure planned but no implementation timeline yet available.
The ERA also said key power purchase agreement (PPA) terms, including duration, tariff structure and indexation mechanisms, will be determined “during a future procurement process”.
Electricity reforms
The EoI comes as the government advances wider reforms to Lebanon’s electricity sector. On 4 September, the Higher Council for Privatisation and Partnership discussed steps to transform the state utility Electricite du Liban (EDL) into a company, including creating a new entity, transferring its assets, and taking measures to protect employees’ rights during the transition.
The government said the restructuring aims to improve the financial sustainability of the electricity sector, recover costs and improve electricity supply.
On 18 September, the council discussed a draft decree to establish the new EDL company, evaluate its assets and separate its activities. However, it deferred a decision for further study.
The ERA was established earlier this year, more than two decades after it was envisaged under Law No. 462/2002 but not implemented due to political delays. The Energy & Water Ministry and EDL previously oversaw the electricity sector.
Lebanon’s electricity sector continues to face insufficient generation capacity, fuel supply constraints, ageing generation assets and limited grid flexibility. These challenges have led to prolonged electricity shortages and increased reliance on private diesel generation and distributed solar systems, prompting the government to seek additional private investment in new generation capacity.
According to the EoI document, the projects are expected to be structured as independent power producer (IPP) schemes. The competent public authority will determine any future contractual arrangements, including PPAs, under the applicable legal framework.
The ERA said the EoI is open to private investors, IPP operators, engineering, procurement and construction contractors, equipment suppliers and consortiums. It aims to assess market interest, identify potential generation projects, and evaluate the technical and financial capabilities of prospective developers.
Respondents must provide information on their technical and financial capabilities, proposed project locations, grid connection plans and relevant project experience.
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