ABB wins $11m Kuwait order
ABB has secured a $11 million deal with Kuwait’s Ministry of Water and Electricity (MEW) to supply power transformers as part of an upgrade project for the Doha East power plant. The order was booked in the second quarter. Located 15 km east of Kuwait City, the Doha East power plant is one of five main base load plants serving Kuwait. The upgrade to the plant aims to help new residential areas cope with the considerable population growth in the country.

PDO awards $60m contract
OMAN’S state-owned Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has awarded leading engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company Al Hassan Engineering Company (AHEC) with an contract worth almost $60 million for the implementation of a 252 MW gas-fired open cycle power plant project at PDO’s facility in Amal. The facility will consist of two units of 126 MW each. The project will be executed on a lumpsum turnkey basis and is scheduled for completion within 24 months. Under the contract conditions, PDO will supply AHEC with the gas turbine generator and associated accessories and controls.

36 bids in for housing projects
As many as 36 bids have been received for two housing contracts in Hamad Town, Bahrain, according to reports. The projects are being undertaken by the Ministry of Housing.
Nineteen contractors have submitted bids to construct 198 townhouses, ranging between $27.3 million from Technical Construction and $82 million from Bahrain Motors Company. The second contract is to construct 80 townhouses at a neighbouring site. A total of 17 contractors have put in bids including Al Shaheen Construction and Al Nasir Construction both with bids around $9.25 million and Bahrain Motors Company with $28.2 million.

Masy holds in-house seminar
Bahrain’s Masy Holding held an in-house seminar last month for all its divisions. The seminar was held in light of the group’s expansion, diversification and introduction of several new products to its existing lines, and to acquaint staff with one another.
 The seminar was attended by staff from all six of Masy’s divisions, which included Masy Shades, Sepalumic, Masy Maintenance, Masy Alusys, Masy Ecowash and Masy International.
Masy director Safa Sharif said it was of vital importance to introduce the business scope and activities of every division to each staff member.
“Each employee is a business partner and his interest in work should broaden to include marketing other divisions   as well  to his clients, not solely his division,” he said.

Cables firm wins certification
bahra Cables Company, a new cable factory in Saudi Arabia and a member of CPC Group of Companies, has received Kema certification for its range of 0.6/1-kV power cables. The test certification by the Netherlands-based Kema Quality BV – an independent authority in quality testing and certification of power distribution and electrical equipment – is a major endorsement of Bahra Cables’ quality processes, says CEO Talal Idriss.

Bahrain Bay reaches new milestone
bahrain Bay, a $2.5-billion landmark waterfront community, has been handed back the Manama High Street trough by contractor Nass, Murray and Roberts. The trough, which supports the Manama High Street, the main street running through the Raffles City Bahrain project, passes above two basement car-parking levels and distributes all of the development’s utility services between the north and south islands including the district cooling, which runs under the roadway. The first layers of backfill has now been placed within the trough, which has allowed for the laying of the district cooling pipes by AMA, the contractor for Bahrain Bay Utilities.

Cement business picks up
Gulf cement firms recovered in the second quarter of 2009 but ended the first half down by nearly 24.4 per cent because of slackening construction projects, a newspaper reported.
The UAE and Kuwait recorded the steepest fall in the first half of 2009 compared with the first half of 2008, while Qatar and Oman maintained growth and Saudi Arabia recorded a relatively small drop, Emirates Business 24/7 said, quoting statistics from a Global Investment House (GIH) report.
From around $1.2 billion in the first half of 2008, the net  income of cement companies listed in GCC bourses shrank to about $922.2 million in the first half of this year, the Kuwaiti bank report said.

Hanwha wins Saudi contract
leading South Korean engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm Hanwha Engineering and Construction has secured a contract worth $720 million  to set up two 250-MW power plants in Yanbu industrial city in Saudi Arabia. The power plants are  part of the fifth and sixth phases of the proposed Yanbu power plant expansion project.

Qatari firm wins certification
Qatar’s Imperial Trading and Contracting Company, a part of the Sasco Group, has been awarded ISO-9001-2008 for quality management, ISO-14001-2004 for environmental management and OHSA 18001-2007 for occupational health and safety management from Bureau Veritas Qatar.

KOC issues $800m tender
kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has issued a $800-million tender for the construction of an oil booster station in the west of the country, according to a report by Meed. The contract being offered by the state-controlled hydrocarbons giant will cover the construction of three high and low-pressure gas trains that will be fed sour gas from a number of different gathering centres. The gas will then be processed at a rate of around 125 million cu ft a day.
While Kuwait has delayed a number of projects, especially in the downstream sector, it has committed to various upstream ventures this year.

Carillion to build Oman Majlis
The UK-based Carillion said its business in Oman, Carillion Alawi, has secured a contract to build the Majlis, a new parliament building in the centre of Muscat, with an estimated construction value of £275 million ($299 million).
Work will start immediately and will be carried out in two phases, with the Majlis Oman completed by September 2011 and the remaining works, including an information centre, library, offices and other support facilities, by September 2012.
Chief executive John McDonough said: “We are delighted to have been awarded a further prestigious contract and look forward to building on the close working relationship we have established with the Royal Court Affairs to deliver this latest landmark project.”

Contractors vie for Oman oil work
contractors last month submitted prequalification bids for up to $7 billion in contracts to work on the Oman’s oilfields. State-run Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) had extended the deadline from July 28 to August 12, to give it more time to evaluate the bids after receiving a bigger than expected response.
There are four contracts on offer, two each on fields in the country’s north and south. One contract in each area covers engineering and maintenance at fields, each with annual turnover of up to $200 million. Two other contracts worth up to $150 million a year cover work offsite from the oilfields, such as hooking up pipelines, again one in the north and one in the south.
Meanwhile, Meed reported that Oman Oil Company (OOC) is to invite bids for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, worth between $300 million and $500 million, for the construction of an oil and gas pipeline and processing plant in Musandam in northern Oman.
The contract will involve the construction of a processing plant which will be connected to the offshore West Bukha field, off the Strait of  Hormuz via a 1-km-long pipeline.

Oman to evaluate airport bids
oman will now evaluate bids for the construction of a new terminal at Muscat’s main airport, having extended a tender deadline until the end of last month for international firms – including France’s Vinci and India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) – to bid for the project. The extension was to allow bidders more time to prepare for the new changes. The tender, which contractors say is worth about $1.4 billion, has already been pushed back twice this year.

Work starts on $50m Bahrain theme park
construction of a BD19-million ($50.3 million) theme park, described as a miniature Disneyland, in Bahrain has started. The project in Muharraq, which will feature rides, a miniature train, and the country’s longest walkway, has been delayed by six months.
Kuwaiti company Salah Al Rumaih Group began construction after Muharraq Municipal Council officials gave out an ultimatum last month to start work or lose the contract. Designs also include the biggest bowling alley in the Middle East, with 45 lanes.

Pan Gulf appoints European director
Pan Gulf Industrial Systems, a division of Pan Gulf Holdings, a leading Saudi industrial company, has appointed John Robertson as its director of sales for Europe. Robertson has over 30 years of experience in various engineering and management roles within the fire, security and safety industry. During that time, he has worked in the North Sea, Middle East and more recently Asia. He will be based in Aberdeen, Scotland, focussing on promotion of the company’s integrated solutions to the oil and gas industry throughout Europe.

More than 260 homes complete at The Wave
The Wave, Muscat has announced the completion of its Sector One, where every one of 133 villas and 130 townhouses is either already a home or ready to move into.
“It’s a terrific achievement to complete Sector One and it encompasses everything we wanted with The Wave,” says Nick Smith, CEO of The Wave, Muscat. “It has its own community, a feeling of exclusivity, an extremely high standard of design and development and a great quality of life.”
Work on The Wave began in April 2007. The properties are among the first to be available for sale on a freehold basis following a royal decree issued specifically for the The Wave, Muscat in September 2006. 

L&T wins $217m Gulf contracts
INDIA’S Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has won four orders from Qatar, the UAE and Oman aggregating $217.45 million for the construction of electrical substations for prestigious customers. The contracts, for Qatar Petroleum, Kahramaa, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) and Oman Electricity Transmission Company (OETC), will be executed by Electrical & Gulf Projects Operating Company (E&GP OC) – part of L&T’s construction division.