Related Articles

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  Oman invites Wadi Sahtan water network bids

  27 August 2024

  Oman’s Nama Water Services has invited firms to bid for a contract to build water distribution networks in Wadi Sahtan in Al-Batinah South Governorate.

  The project’s first phase requires the construction of new water distribution networks to cover the areas and villages at Wadi Sahtan in Rustaq province.

  The main scope of work for the selected contractor comprises the procurement and construction of the following:

  • Three pumping stations in Tabaqa tanker filling station (TFS) and elevated tank compound
  • A new water supply compound including a ground reservoir with a capacity of 8,000 cubic metres; one elevated tank with a capacity of 300 cm, with provision for a second ET to be constructed in future; a TFS, five pumping stations including the power supply and standby generator
  • A 300-cm elevated tank at Dahrat El-Qillin
  • 16-kilometre (km) transmission ductile iron with a 300-millimetre (mm) diameter pipeline from Tabaqa pumping station to Umq ground reservoir
  • 6km transmission ductile iron, 10mm diameter pipeline from Umq Pumping Station to Dahrat El-Qillin elevated tank
  • Dharat El-Qilin distribution network to serve the villages of Dharat El-Qilin, Anaid, Al-Maqumah and Al-Mabo
  • Nine booster pumping stations with variable frequency drives

  The scope also includes the construction of wadi and road crossings and house connections, among others.

  The client expects to receive bids for the contract by 23 September.

  Photo for illustrative purposes only

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/12418325/main.jpg

  Jennifer Aguinaldo
• 
  EBRD and IFC acquire stakes in Bank of Palestine

  27 August 2024

  London-headquartered European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) are making equity investments in Bank of Palestine, which accounts for over 30% of the Palestinian banking sector.

  Under the new investment agreement, Bank of Palestine will issue additional shares, with the EBRD acquiring a stake of up to 3.92% and the IFC taking a stake of up to 5% through primary issuance.

  The respective investments aim to support the Palestinian economy in challenging times, EBRD said in a statement on 27 August.

  
  Photo credit: EBRD

  It added: “The EBRD’s investment will help Bank of Palestine to proceed with its plan to expand in the region and support the bank’s financial inclusion work in the Palestinian economy.

  “Bank of Palestine is the leading banking group in the West Bank and Gaza and is deeply committed to financial inclusion, with a strong focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the empowerment of women and young people.”

  The Palestinian economy has faced numerous challenges since the latest war in Gaza started in October 2023.

  While the economic outlook for 2024 remains uncertain, a further contraction is expected.

  According to EBRD, the country’s GDP is set to shrink by anywhere between 6.5% and 9.6% owing to employment losses and rising security tensions, which are continuing to affect mobility and business activity.

  Francis Malige, the EBRD’s managing director for financial institutions, said: “We are fully committed to supporting the Palestinian economy. Our aim with this investment is to help Bank of Palestine maintain its position as the leading local institution, leaving it well placed to capture any future growth stemming from reconstruction efforts.”

  The two banks’ equity investment investments help “boost our capital … enabling us to support the economic recovery that will be required after the devastating war and economic crisis that our economy is enduring,” said Hashim Shawa, chairman of the Bank of Palestine Group.

  “This investment is important for our future growth, sending a message of hope and partnership, confidence in the future role that the bank intends to play in the local economy and faith in the bank’s planned regional expansion.”

  Since the start of its activities in the West Bank and Gaza in 2017, which are conducted through a trust fund, the EBRD has approved 27 transactions worth a total of €142m.

  Main photo: Pixabay, for illustrative purposes only

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/12418052/main.jpg

  Jennifer Aguinaldo
• 
  Ras Al-Khaimah plans sewage treatment plant PPP

  27 August 2024

  

   

  Ras Al-Khaimah's Public Services Department (PSD) and Investment and Development Office (IDO) have invited prequalified companies to bid for a contract to develop and operate a sewage treatment plant (STP) in the UAE's northern emirate.

  The proposed plant can treat 60,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of sewage, expandable to 150,000 cm/d.

  According to a source close to the project, the scope of the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) project will include extensive sewerage and distribution works.

  It is understood that PSD and IDO expect to receive bids from prequalified developers by the end of November.

  It is the first STP public-private partnership (PPP) that is being developed in Ras Al-Khaimah.

  Etihad Water & Electricity (Etihad WE) met with developers in July to discuss another potential utility PPP project for the northern emirate.

  The project involves extending an existing seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant in Ghalilah, which became operational in 2015. 

  If successfully procured, it will be the first independent water project in Ras Al-Khaimah.

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/12417891/main.jpg

  Jennifer Aguinaldo
• 
  The beginning of the end

  27 August 2024

  Commentary
  Edmund O'Sullivan
  Former editor of MEED

  On 10 November 1942, UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared, following a British victory in Egypt, that: “[T]his is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

  This epigram can be applied to events in the Middle East this autumn.

  There have always been only four possible solutions to the Palestine tragedy. The first – a continuation of the occupation that has prevailed since 1967 – has always flown in the face of international law and Palestinian and Arab wishes. But what has killed it is Israel’s response to last year’s assault from Gaza. The majority in Israel is now rejecting occupation in the form that existed before and wants something different.

  The second option – a two-state solution – enjoys almost universal international support, but this too is moribund. It was always fanciful that an agreement could be reached that dealt with the borders and powers of a Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem, demands for the right of return of Palestinian refugees, and the growing number of Israelis living in the West Bank who have vowed never to leave.

  The most credible attempt to deliver a Palestinian state, launched in Madrid in October 1991, was wrecked more than 30 years ago by former US president Bill Clinton. It was buried with the election of Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time, in 1996. 

  Nothing in human affairs is inevitable. But hard choices are unavoidable

  In July this year, Israel’s parliament voted against the establishment of a Palestinian state, but that is unsurprising. Only a minority of Israelis have ever been prepared to accept it in a form that satisfies even the lowest Palestinian aspirations.

  The reality is that there are only two options, though it will take at least a generation for that to be finally acknowledged.

  A single state where citizens have equal rights looks hopelessly impractical in light of entrenched views on all sides. Its advocates are deemed to be naive, stupid or malign – and probably all three.

  But nothing can be more unacceptable than option four: ethnic cleansing and the brutality it must entail.

  It will soon be the first anniversary of the 7 October 2023 attacks. A year is a short time in the Middle East. And yet there has been change in a process that too many still believe – despite all evidence – will not end in catastrophe.

  Nothing in human affairs is inevitable. But hard choices are unavoidable.

  If we have learned anything since last autumn, it is that however bad the options are, they will be inescapable in due course.

  Recognising this truth is not the end, nor even the beginning of the end. But it is not a bad start.

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  Connect with Edmund O’Sullivan on X

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  More from Edmund O’Sullivan:

  > The death of political risk
  > Italy at centre of new reduced Europe
  > US foreign policy approach remains adrift
  > Rainmaking in the world economy
  > New shock treatment for Egypt’s economy
  > Syria’s long march in from the cold
  > Lebanon’s pain captured in a call from Beirut
  > Troubled end to 2023 bodes ill for stability
  > The Holy Land and delusions it inspires
  > Region to mark golden jubilee of 1973 war

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  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/12397480/main.jpg

  Edmund O’Sullivan
• 
  Mitsubishi Power to supply Najim gas turbine

  27 August 2024

  Japan's Mitsubishi Power has received an order from South Korea's Samsung C&T Corporation to provide its M501JAC hydrogen-ready combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) for the Najim industrial steam and electricity cogeneration plant in Jubail in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

  Assembled in Dammam, the M501JAC gas turbine will enable the new cogeneration plant to generate up to 475MW of power and approximately 452 tonnes an hour of steam.

  According to Mitsubishi Power, its J-class gas turbines have an efficiency rate of more than 64%. This will provide the new plant with "flexibility, faster startup times, and load-following capabilities to help balance electricity supply and demand, ensuring a stable low-carbon power supply and supporting Saudi Arabia's industrial growth and decarbonisation targets".

  Samsung C&T is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the project, which is being developed by a team comprising Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) and Japanese power generation company Jera.

  Taqa owns a 51% stake in Najim Cogeneration Company, the special-purpose vehicle for the project, while Jera owns the remaining 49%. 

  The project was previously called the Amiral cogeneration independent steam and power plant.

  The team announced reaching financial close on the project on 22 August.

  Saudi Aramco Total Refining & Petrochemical Company (Satorp) entered into a power and steam purchase agreement with the developer team in March this year.

  The 25-year build, own, operate contract is extendable by five years on mutual agreement.

  Regional project tracker MEED Projects estimates that the scheme will require an investment of at least $400m.

  Taqa and Jera will also undertake the plant's operation and maintenance (O&M) through an O&M special purpose entity.

  The Naim cogeneration plant is expected to be operational by 2027. It will cater to the Amiral petrochemicals complex in Jubail.

  Steam cracker complex

  Integrated with the existing Satorp refinery in Jubail, the new complex aims to house one of the largest mixed-load steam crackers in the Gulf, capable of producing up to 1,650 kilotonnes a year of ethylene and other industrial gases.

  This expansion is expected to attract more than $4bn in additional investment in various industrial sectors, including carbon fibres, lubricants, drilling fluids, detergents, food additives, automotive parts and tires. It is also expected to create about 7,000 local direct and indirect jobs.

  Saudi Aramco owns a 62.5% stake in Satorp, while France's TotalEnergies holds 37.5%.

  Photo credit: MHI

   

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/12417542/main5721.jpg

  Jennifer Aguinaldo