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• 
  Oman tenders three major distribution deals

  19 June 2025

  

   

  Oman Electricity Transmission Company (OETC) has tendered three significant contracts to build new substations in the sultanate.

  The first contract, estimated at about $100m, covers the construction of the Majan 400/220/132kV grid station along with an associated 400kV line-in line-out underground cable from Sohar Free Zone to the Sohar Interconnector Station.

  The second deal, worth about $35m, covers the construction of the Sultan Haitham City 132/33kV grid station and associated 132kV line-in line-out underground cables running 4 kilometres from Mabella to Mabella Industrial Zone.

  The bid submission deadline for both tenders is 3 July.

  A tender deadline of 1 July has been set for the construction of the Surab 400/33kV grid station and an associated 400kV line-in line-out cable from the Duqm grid station to the Mahout grid station. Like the Majan substation, the Surab facility has an estimated contract value of about $100m.

  In addition, OETC, part of the government-owned Nama Group, is evaluating bids for a number of other major substation construction tenders. These include:

  • The 400kV Ras Madraka wind farm grid station
  • The 132kV Sadah wind farm grid station
  • The 400/132kV Wadi Latham grid station

  China Energy Engineering Group Shanxi Electric Power Construction Company recently won the deal to upgrade the 220/132kV Sohar Free Zone grid station, while Oman National Engineering & Investment Company won a contract to build the Mahadha 220kV substation.

  In 2024, OETC awarded more than $1.2bn worth of transmission and distribution work. Major signed contracts included:

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  READ THE JUNE 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Gulf accelerates AI and data centre strategy; Baghdad keeps up project spending, but fiscal clouds gather; Banking stocks rise despite lower global oil prices

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the June 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA 1: Data centres churn investments > AGENDA 2: Gulf seizes AI opportunities > SYRIA: US announces lifting of Syria sanctions > MEED TOP 100: Middle East stocks defy lower oil prices > TOURISM: Abu Dhabi hopes bigger is better with Disney theme park > TRADE: Emerging Gulf-Asia corridor grows despite headwinds  > SAUDI ARABIA: Riyadh confirms capital expenditure cuts > INTERVIEW: Mena crucial to Veolia’s growth plan > IRAQ REPORT:  Iraq maintains its pace, for now > GULF PROJECTS INDEX: Gulf projects index leaps 4.3% > CONTRACT AWARDS: Region sees third month of weak awards activity > ECONOMIC DATA: Data drives regional projects > OPINION: Dealmaking trumps the Truman Doctrine

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  Edward James
• 
  PIF forms new subsidiary to deliver Expo 2030 Riyadh

  19 June 2025

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  Saudi sovereign wealth vehicle the Public Investment Fund (PIF) has launched Expo 2030 Riyadh Company (ERC) as a wholly-owned subsidiary to build and operate facilities for Expo 2030.

  In a statement, the PIF said: “During its construction phases, Expo 2030 Riyadh and its legacy are projected to contribute around $64bn to Saudi GDP and generate approximately 171,000 direct and indirect jobs. Once operational, it is expected to contribute approximately $5.6bn to GDP.”

  The masterplan for Expo 2030 Riyadh encompasses an area of 6 square kilometres, making it one of the largest sites designated for a World Expo. Situated to the north of the city, the expo site will be located near the future King Salman International airport, providing direct access to various landmarks within the Saudi capital.

  Countries participating in Expo 2030 Riyadh will have the option to construct permanent pavilions, contributing to the event's legacy. This initiative is expected to create opportunities for business and investment growth in the region.

  The expo is projected to attract over 40 million visitors. After the event concludes, ERC plans to convert the expo's secured area into a global village, to serve as a multicultural centre for retail and dining. This development will also include an international residential community with various amenities, with a focus on sustainable tourism practices.

  Expo 2030 Riyadh will run from 1 October 2030 to 31 March 2031.

  In mid-May, MEED reported that Riyadh had begun talks with various stakeholders in preparation for the start of the construction works for the event.

  The discussions were understood to have been held with the Royal Commission for Riyadh City and the PIF.

  German architectural firm Lava Architects and US-based engineering firm Jacobs are assisting with the project masterplan and the design of infrastructure for the site.

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  READ THE JUNE 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Gulf accelerates AI and data centre strategy; Baghdad keeps up project spending, but fiscal clouds gather; Banking stocks rise despite lower global oil prices

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the June 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA 1: Data centres churn investments > AGENDA 2: Gulf seizes AI opportunities > SYRIA: US announces lifting of Syria sanctions > MEED TOP 100: Middle East stocks defy lower oil prices > TOURISM: Abu Dhabi hopes bigger is better with Disney theme park > TRADE: Emerging Gulf-Asia corridor grows despite headwinds  > SAUDI ARABIA: Riyadh confirms capital expenditure cuts > INTERVIEW: Mena crucial to Veolia’s growth plan > IRAQ REPORT:  Iraq maintains its pace, for now > GULF PROJECTS INDEX: Gulf projects index leaps 4.3% > CONTRACT AWARDS: Region sees third month of weak awards activity > ECONOMIC DATA: Data drives regional projects > OPINION: Dealmaking trumps the Truman Doctrine

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  Colin Foreman
• 
  Kharafi wins Egypt wastewater deal

  19 June 2025

  

   

  Kuwaiti contractor Mohamed Abdulmohsin Al-Kharafi & Sons has won a €69m ($79m) contract to design and build a new wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Tanta with a capacity of 100,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d). 

  Four other international and local contractors bid for the 30-month contract tendered by Gharbia Company for Water & Wastewater.

  The aim of the project is to have an installed flow rate of 100,000 cm/d by 2037, expanded under a later phase to 150,000 cm/d by 2057. 

  The scheme is a core component of the $730m Kitchener Drain Depollution project funded by the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development.

  The programme’s aim is to depollute the Kitchener Drain, also called the Main Gharbia Drain, one of the main agricultural drains in the Nile delta. Some 69 kilometres long, the drain is the main source of irrigation water for about 193,000 hectares of agricultural land. 

  However, it is highly polluted due to poorly or untreated domestic wastewater discharge; uncontrolled municipal solid waste disposal into and along the banks of the drain; industrial wastewater discharges; and agricultural runoff.

  Other significant projects under the programme include a $28m contract awarded in March 2024 to rehabilitate the Umm Tahoun, Arbaeen and Al-Suyah canals; a separate $40m deal to rehabilitate bridges across the drain and depollute the Beshbish, Sanbara and Shemy canals; and an estimated $70m contract to build new mechanical and biological treatment facilities with total capacity of 1,800 tonnes a day in the city of Defra, for which tender evaluation is under way.

  Tanta is one of many WWTP projects tendered or awarded in Egypt over the past five years. Recently, a general procurement notice was issued for the fourth-phase design-build expansion of the giant Abu Rawash WWTP in Giza, while in late May, a grouping of the local Hassan Allam Construction and UAE-headquartered Metito won an estimated $200m contract to upgrade and expand the Alexandria West WWTP.

  The world’s largest WWTP, the 7.5 million cm/d New Delta Irrigation plant, was completed in 2023. It was preceded by the 5 million cm/d Bahr El-Baqr facility commissioned two years earlier.  

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  READ THE JUNE 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Gulf accelerates AI and data centre strategy; Baghdad keeps up project spending, but fiscal clouds gather; Banking stocks rise despite lower global oil prices

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the June 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA 1: Data centres churn investments > AGENDA 2: Gulf seizes AI opportunities > SYRIA: US announces lifting of Syria sanctions > MEED TOP 100: Middle East stocks defy lower oil prices > TOURISM: Abu Dhabi hopes bigger is better with Disney theme park > TRADE: Emerging Gulf-Asia corridor grows despite headwinds  > SAUDI ARABIA: Riyadh confirms capital expenditure cuts > INTERVIEW: Mena crucial to Veolia’s growth plan > IRAQ REPORT:  Iraq maintains its pace, for now > GULF PROJECTS INDEX: Gulf projects index leaps 4.3% > CONTRACT AWARDS: Region sees third month of weak awards activity > ECONOMIC DATA: Data drives regional projects > OPINION: Dealmaking trumps the Truman Doctrine

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  Edward James
• 
  Oman receives dams funding

  18 June 2025

  

   

  The Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) has extended a $632m loan to the Ministry of Agricultural, Fisheries Wealth & Water Resources to fund the construction of four major flood protection dams in the sultanate.

  The dam projects are:

  • The Wadi Al-Khoud Flood Protection Dam (AK01) in Seeb
  • The Wadi Rijma Flood Protection Dam (R2A) in Liwa
  • The Wadi Majlas Flood Protection Dam in Qurayat
  • The Wadi Ahin Flood Protection Dam in Saham North

  Each of the dam schemes will be open to bids from both local and international contractors, although it is unclear at this stage when the tenders will be issued.

  Separately, contractors are preparing to submit technical and commercial bids by 23 June for the ISDB-funded project to build two flood protection dams at Wadi Al-Ansab, called ANS-02 and ANS-03.

  The estimated $80m contract involves the following scope of work for each dam:

  • An embankment dam with geomembrane sealing at the upstream face
  • A plinth at the upstream toe of the dam and plastic concrete cut-off wall at the foundation 
  • Curtain/consolidation/contact grouting works along the cut-off wall, plinth at the abutments, spillway ogee structure and bottom outlet
  • A reinforced concrete spillway located at the left abutment and composed of approach channel, crest, chute and tailwater channel slabs and walls
  • Shotcrete and slope stabilisation works for open excavations
  • Bottom outlet system with intake tower, conduit, energy dissipation basin and access bridge to the intake tower
  • Bottom outlet control gates
  • Dam monitoring system
  • Restitution works at the reservoir area
  • Providing electricity supply for operation of the gates
  • Access road, fencing and access gates

  Potential bidders include:

  • Strabag Oman
  • Arab Contractors (Egypt)
  • Serka Taahhut Insaat (Turkiye)
  • Khimji Ramdas (local)
  • Galfar (local)
  • Sarooj Construction Company (local)
  • Al-Jafar Contracting Company (Jordan)

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  READ THE JUNE 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Gulf accelerates AI and data centre strategy; Baghdad keeps up project spending, but fiscal clouds gather; Banking stocks rise despite lower global oil prices

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the June 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA 1: Data centres churn investments > AGENDA 2: Gulf seizes AI opportunities > SYRIA: US announces lifting of Syria sanctions > MEED TOP 100: Middle East stocks defy lower oil prices > TOURISM: Abu Dhabi hopes bigger is better with Disney theme park > TRADE: Emerging Gulf-Asia corridor grows despite headwinds  > SAUDI ARABIA: Riyadh confirms capital expenditure cuts > INTERVIEW: Mena crucial to Veolia’s growth plan > IRAQ REPORT:  Iraq maintains its pace, for now > GULF PROJECTS INDEX: Gulf projects index leaps 4.3% > CONTRACT AWARDS: Region sees third month of weak awards activity > ECONOMIC DATA: Data drives regional projects > OPINION: Dealmaking trumps the Truman Doctrine

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  Edward James
• 
  Contractors submit prices for QatarEnergy NGL train project

  18 June 2025

  

  Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

  Contractors have submitted commercial bids to QatarEnergy for a project to add a fifth natural gas liquids (NGL) train at its NGL complex in Qatar’s Mesaieed Industrial City.

  The objective of the project, which is estimated to be worth $2.5bn, is to build a fifth NGL train (NGL-5) with the capacity to process up to 350 million cubic feet a day of rich associated gas from QatarEnergy’s offshore and onshore oil fields.

  Contractors submitted commercial bids for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works on the NGL-5 project by the deadline of 15 June, according to sources.

  The following contractors are understood to be participating in the project’s main contract tendering process:

  • ⁠CTCI Corporation (Taiwan)
  • Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India)
  • McDermott (US)
  • Saipem (Italy)
  • Samsung E&A (South Korea)
  • ⁠Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)
  • Tecnimont (Italy)

  QatarEnergy initially set a deadline of the end of May for the submission of prices for the project.

  MEED previously reported that QatarEnergy had received technical bids for the project from contractors by the deadline of 13 April.

  QatarEnergy issued the expression of interest (EoI) document for the NGL-5 project in early June of last year, with contractors submitting responses by 24 June 2024, MEED previously reported.

  QatarEnergy eventually issued the main EPC tender for the NGL-5 project in November 2024.

  ⁠In the EoI document, QatarEnergy said that it had begun site preparation works for the project in the fourth quarter of 2023 and expected work to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.

  Turkish contractor Iris Insaat is performing site preparation work on the project, according to regional projects tracker MEED Projects.

  QatarEnergy intends to start operations at the NGL-5 facility by the second quarter of 2028.

  Project scope

  Associated gas from the PS1, PS2 and PS3 offshore fields and the Dukhan onshore field is processed at existing facilities in the NGL complex at Mesaieed – the FSP, NGL-1 and Qapco ERU units.

  The planned NGL-5 facility will replace these three units at the Mesaieed complex and process gas from the PS1, PS2 and Dukhan fields.

  The scope of work on the project involves EPC work on units for the following functions:

  • Feed gas compression
  • Slug handling
  • Gas sweetening
  • Dehydration
  • Mercury removal
  • NGL fractionation
  • NGL recovery
  • Product treatment
  • Propane refrigeration
  • Acid gas enrichment
  • Sulphur recovery
  • Anti-flaring
  • Utilities
  • Boil-off gas recovery
  • Drains and collection networks
  • Effluent water treatment plant
  • Carbon dioxide treatment and sequestration/ export
  • Brownfield modifications
  • Product rundown pipelines

  QatarEnergy is understood to have divided the scope of work on the NGL-5 project into five EPC packages.

  ALSO READ: QatarEnergy receives bids for new NGL train project

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  READ THE JUNE 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Gulf accelerates AI and data centre strategy; Baghdad keeps up project spending, but fiscal clouds gather; Banking stocks rise despite lower global oil prices

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the June 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA 1: Data centres churn investments > AGENDA 2: Gulf seizes AI opportunities > SYRIA: US announces lifting of Syria sanctions > MEED TOP 100: Middle East stocks defy lower oil prices > TOURISM: Abu Dhabi hopes bigger is better with Disney theme park > TRADE: Emerging Gulf-Asia corridor grows despite headwinds  > SAUDI ARABIA: Riyadh confirms capital expenditure cuts > INTERVIEW: Mena crucial to Veolia’s growth plan > IRAQ REPORT:  Iraq maintains its pace, for now > GULF PROJECTS INDEX: Gulf projects index leaps 4.3% > CONTRACT AWARDS: Region sees third month of weak awards activity > ECONOMIC DATA: Data drives regional projects > OPINION: Dealmaking trumps the Truman Doctrine

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  Indrajit Sen