Road project gets go-ahead

Riyadh: Construction of a 70-km road between Riyadh/Khamis Mushayt Road has been awarded to a local company, Al A-Ayuni Trading & Contracting Company.

Mobilisaton work, including surveying, is in progress, according to reports.

The SR88.5 million ($23.6 million) project calls for the construction of a dual carriageway and involves extending an existing road of two lanes.

When completed, the section will be of two lanes, each being 3.65 m in width. In addition, asphalted paved shoulders at each outer side will be 2.50 m wide and the width of internal asphalted paved shoulders will be 2.00 m.

Construction will take three years to complete and the road is scheduled to be ready by April 2006.

EPCC head office deal awarded

Dammam: AA Turki Corporation (ATCO) has been awarded the construction supervision contract for Eastern Province Cement Company's (EPCC) new head office building and annexes on Al Khobar-Dammam highway.

The project consists of two 17-storey buildings and external works. The office building will have a basement level, a ground floor, a technical floor and 14 typical office floors.

The external works are mainly the parking area and related landscaped areas including service block.

Radicon-Gulf Consult is the consultant for this 12-month project, which will be completed by April 2004.

Carbon black plant planned

Jubail: AH Al-Zamil Group has awarded US' Jacobs Engineering the front-end engineering and design (FEED) package for 20,000 tonnes per year (tpy) carbon black plant, whose output is an additive used to manufacture black rubber products.

Tenders for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build the carbon black plant at Jubail are out and eight companies have been shortlisted.

The $60 million project is scheduled to come on stream in late 2005.

Riyadh: Riyadh-based Al Saif Development Company is working on a SR133 million ($35.4 million) contract to build a new cheese factory in Al Kharj for Almarai Company Limited.

The project is being implemented in three stages. The first phase covers the building, the second stage will see the installation of equipment and the third phase will involve starting up the factory.

Energy services firm formed

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has announced it had created a publicly-held energy services firm with capital of SR533.3 million ($142.2 million) to help attract more private and foreign investment to its huge energy industry.

An industry and trade Ministry statement said the holding firm, Industrialisation and Energy Services Company, would provide operations and services to the petroleum, petrochemical, power and water desalination sectors, including Saudi Aramco.

Saudi Arabia has said it is considering privatising some of the operations of state-owned Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil producing firm. Industry sources have said they believe the plans would involve Saudi Aramco's non-core, ancillary operations and not the Kingdom's key oil and gas facilities.

The Ministry said the new firm's capital was divided into 10.66 million shares with a value of SR50 each.

'Founders subscribed for all the shares and paid the capital in full,' said the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. It said shares would not be traded before the firm posted profits for two 12-month years.

Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al Naimi first unveiled the plan to set up the energy services firm in 2001. It would be similar, but not identical, to industrial giant Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic).

Work starts on boys school

Yanbu: Mobilisation work is under way on a project which involves the construction of a boys school in Yanbu. The school will comprise a one-storey precast building with a footprint area of 5,876 sq m and a yard.

The facility will include an administration office, 26 classrooms, a computer room, a laboratory room, a drafting room, a multipurpose hall, an audio-visual aids room and a clinic.

Parking spaces are provided for 58 cars and 14 buses.

The project, which is due for completion in April 2005, is being built by Fast Contracting Company.

The client is the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu.

Riyadh: Saudi Gulf Environmental Protection Company (Sepco) is setting up three medical waste treatment projects in the Kingdom.

The plants in Jeddah, Riyadh and Makkah will cost SR250 million ($66.67 million).

The SR120 million Jeddah project will treat more than 600 tonnes of medical waste daily and is expected to start operations next June. A plant in Riyadh with similar capacity will start follow the launch of the Jeddah facility. The Makkah unit will have a daily capacity of 300 tonnes.