SEC signs $204m contracts
THE Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has signed five contracts worth SR766.3 million ($204.3 million) with local firms to boost power installations.

The deals cover various regions in the kingdom and aim to build and expand substations as well as installing a power grid.

SEC plans to invest $80 billion to boost capacity to at least 70,000 MW by 2020 from an installed capacity of 50,000 MW to meet domestic demand rising at eight per cent annually.

Kale opens concept store in Iraq
KALE Group has launched the biggest concept store in a foreign country, located in Erbil in northern Iraq.

The new store will be managed by Diwan Company, the northern Iraq distributor of the Kale Group. The store on Shoresh Street, which leads to the city of Selahattin where the Presidential Palace is located, will cover 530 sq m. It will be the first and only store in northern Iraq offering sanitary ceramics, faucets, bathroom furniture, bathtubs, construction chemicals.

Zeynep Bodur Okyay, the president of the Kale Group, said: “We see that the global economy is shifting towards the east. At Kale Group, we are shaping our strategies accordingly and by increasing our dominance in priority markets we will continue to present our innovative products. We aim to increase our market share in the fast developing countries like Lebanon, Azerbaijan, the UAE and Iraq.”

MWH names new director
MWH said that John Parry has joined its management team as senior business development director for strategic programmes in the Middle East.

Parry brings over 20 years of wet infrastructure experience to MWH, which is a global leader in wet infrastructure sector and provider of environmental engineering, construction and strategic consulting services. He spent the previous four years in the Middle East in executive roles within the water and wastewater sector.

Qapco awards plant deal
QATAR Petrochemical Company (Qapco) has awarded a contract to The Shaw Group of the US to provide basic engineering services for the expansion of a 720,000 tonne-per-year (tpy) ethylene plant in Mesaieed, Qatar.

The project will provide the design needed for expanding the plant’s capacity by up to 25 per cent.

Shaw has provided services to Qapco at this plant for nearly 10 years. The undisclosed value of the basic engineering services contract will be included in Shaw’s Energy & Chemicals segment’s backlog of unfilled orders in the second quarter of fiscal year 2011. Shaw has provided technology, design, engineering and/or construction services for more than 120 plants.

DSC to build $533m research centre
DRAKE & Scull Construction (DSC) Saudi Arabia has won a contract to build a SR2 billion ($533.28 million) research centre in Riyadh.

Developed by Saudi Aramco, the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Centre (Kapsarc) is a research and policy centre committed to energy and environmental exploration and analysis.

The project is headquartered in an iconic complex near King Khalid International Airport designed by world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid, and is composed of a network of three-dimensional, six-sided cells with many junctions and bonds. Drake & Scull Saudi will commence works on the project immediately with a target completion date being August 2012.

Wastewater project 50pc complete
HALF of a wastewater project that aims to serve 7,700 houses in the wilayat of Seeb has been completed, according to Oman’s Environment and Water Resources Ministry of Regional Municipalities.

Under construction by Galfar Engineering and Contracting, the development is progressing as planned, according to project director Philip Wayne.

Most wastewater main lines are installed at internal roads, open areas or wadis, and Galfar has tried its best to install them on sides of the roads for easy access, he said.

Arcadis framework gets green light
ARCADIS, an international consultancy, design, engineering and management services company, said the regulatory framework it designed for Saudi Arabia’s Railways Commission has been approved and is being moved into the implementation phase.

The Railway Commission will oversee the efficient running of a greatly expanding railway industry in the kingdom. The commission will regulate a world-class transport structure that will handle demands of domestic and international traffic, passenger and freight as well as the infrastructure for high-speed trains.

“This is a significant project for Saudi Arabia which will ensure safety and reliability of the rail network,” said Peter Vince, Arcadis CEO in the UK.

Qatar completes $45m tunnel
WORK on Qatar’s longest sewer tunnel has been completed. Korean builder Ultra Construction and Engineering held a ceremony marking the completion of the Northern Sewage Treatment and Associated Works Interception Sewer CP682/3 in Duhail.

Built at a cost of $45 million, the 33-km-long tunnel connects the northern area of Doha from Markhiya to Umm Salal Ali. It has 98 deep shafts in diameters ranging between 100 and 2,400 mm. The project, which was launched in May 2008, marks another significant contribution of Korean companies to the infrastructural projects in Qatar.