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Kuwait said it’s working with Saudi Arabia to resume oil production in the neutral zone between them that has been shuttered for at least four years.

Saudi Minister of State for Energy Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman visited Kuwait Wednesday. The two sides will discuss a resumption after the “completion of all technical issues required,” Tareq Al-Mezrem, a Kuwaiti government spokesman, told Kuwait’s state-run KUNA news agency.

The zone can produce as much as 500,000 barrels a day, equal to about 4% of the countries’ combined output last month. No timeline for a resumption was given, nor was it clear if the additional production would be offset by lower output elsewhere. Both countries are subject to quotas set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The two sides have resolved the major issues and those outstanding are technical in nature, according to a person familiar with the discussions, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The talks are the most advanced they’ve ever been, the person said.

Desert dispute
Years of negotiations have so far failed to bring about a resolution. The two Gulf nations have held a number of private meetings since 2015, at one point even coming close to signing an agreement before pulling back at the last minute over wording in the final documents regarding contentious sovereignty issues.

The neutral zone hasn’t produced anything since fields there were shut down after spats between the two countries in 2014 and 2015. The barren strip of desert straddling Saudi Arabia and Kuwait – a relic of the time when European powers drew implausible ruler-straight borders across the Middle East – can pump about as much as OPEC-member Ecuador.

It’s not clear whether the neutral zone will add much oil to global markets in the near term because OPEC has extended production cuts into early 2020. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait split the crude produced from the neutral zone within their respective OPEC output quotas.

The neutral zone, spread over 5,700 square kilometres –an area a bit smaller than Delaware — was created by a 1922 treaty between Kuwait and the fledgling Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In the 1970s, the two nations agreed to divide the area and incorporate each half into their territory, while still sharing and jointly managing the petroleum riches. The region contains two main oil fields: the onshore Wafra and the offshore Khafji.

The disagreement between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait started on the Wafra field, which is operated by Chevron Corp., the second-largest energy company in the U.S. In 2009, Saudi Arabia extended the original 60-year-old concession of the field, giving the American company rights over Wafra until 2039. Kuwait was furious over the announcement and claims Riyadh never consulted it about the extension.

The importance of the fields is now higher due to the impact of sanctions on Venezuela and Iran, which has tightened the supply of so-called sour-heavy crude — precisely the kind of oil that the neutral zone produces. U.S. diplomats had been pressing both sides to reach an agreement.

SOurce:https://www.arabianbusiness.com/energy/424543-kuwait-working-with-saudis-on-resuming-neutral-zone-oil-output

Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO) has revealed that it has raised $312.3 million in equity from its latest rights issue.

The board of directors approved the capital increase in January, with the aim of growing KIPCO’s businesses through continuing to invest in its core portfolio companies, which include Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company, Kamco, Kuwait Hotels Company, OSN, United Networks and American University of Kuwait.

The rights issue saw a 17 percent oversubscription in the 452,748,662 new ordinary shares that were on offer, with the amount raised representing an approximate 29.3 percent rise on KIPCO’s former issued share capital. KIPCO’s issued share capital now stands at $657m (KD200m).

The offer price was set at 210 fils per issue share.

KIPCO’s last capital increase was in 1996. KAMCO Investment Company acted as the issuance advisor and subscription agent.

In November KIPCO hired bankers to sell its 60.50 percent stake in OSN.

Source:https://www.arabianbusiness.com/banking-finance/424547-kipco-raises-over-312-million-from-rights-issue

A consortium of EDF Renewables and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has completed the financing of the Dumat Al Jandal utility-scale wind project in Saudi Arabia, with the backing of Saudi and international banks.

With an installed capacity of 400 megawatts (MW), the Dumat Al Jandal project will be Saudi Arabia’s first wind farm and the largest in the Middle East.

Led by EDF Renewables and Masdar, a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, project construction will begin shortly and commercial operations are due to start in the first quarter of 2022, a statement said.

Vestas is the contracted wind-turbine technology provider and responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract while TSK will be responsible for the balance of plant, and CG Holdings will provide the substations and high-voltage solutions, it added.

“We are delighted to take part in the first wind project in the country, which is set to be the most powerful wind farm in the Middle East. This new step reflects the quality of our partnership with Masdar, which has enabled us to jointly submit the most competitive bid. Wind power is now representing a renewable and economical solution in the energy mix,” said Bruno Bensasson, EDF Group senior executive president responsible for Renewable Energies, and chairman and CEO of EDF Renewables.

“This new project demonstrates our ambitions in the country and represents another step forward under the EDF Group’s Cap 2030 strategy, which aims to double its renewable energy capacity by 2030 – both in France and worldwide – to 50GW.”

“The award of Saudi Arabia’s first and the Middle East’s largest wind farm during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in January was a momentous occasion for our company and our partners,” added Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar.

“It also illustrated the depth of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to realise its bold strategy to substantially increase the contribution of renewables in its total energy mix to 27.3GW by 2024, from wind as well as solar energy. The over-subscribed financing of the Dumat Al Jandal project further illustrates the confidence of local and international lenders, and the investment community, in the economy of the Kingdom and its potential as a hub for highly cost-effective renewable energy development.”

The Dumat Al Jandal wind farm will supply electricity according to a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Saudi Power Procurement Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Electricity Company.

The wind farm will be located 560 miles north of Riyadh, in the Al Jouf region of Saudi Arabia.

The Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) of the Saudi Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources (MEIM) awarded the $500 million Dumat Al Jandal wind farm in January following a call for tenders in August 2017.

The winning consortium submitted the most cost-competitive bid of $21.3 per megawatt hour (MWh).

Source:https://www.arabianbusiness.com/energy/424335-uaes-masdar-edf-secure-financing-for-saudi-wind-farm-project

A consortium of EDF Renewables and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has completed the financing of the Dumat Al Jandal utility-scale wind project in Saudi Arabia, with the backing of Saudi and international banks.

With an installed capacity of 400 megawatts (MW), the Dumat Al Jandal project will be Saudi Arabia’s first wind farm and the largest in the Middle East.

Led by EDF Renewables and Masdar, a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, project construction will begin shortly and commercial operations are due to start in the first quarter of 2022, a statement said.

Vestas is the contracted wind-turbine technology provider and responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract while TSK will be responsible for the balance of plant, and CG Holdings will provide the substations and high-voltage solutions, it added.

“We are delighted to take part in the first wind project in the country, which is set to be the most powerful wind farm in the Middle East. This new step reflects the quality of our partnership with Masdar, which has enabled us to jointly submit the most competitive bid. Wind power is now representing a renewable and economical solution in the energy mix,” said Bruno Bensasson, EDF Group senior executive president responsible for Renewable Energies, and chairman and CEO of EDF Renewables.

“This new project demonstrates our ambitions in the country and represents another step forward under the EDF Group’s Cap 2030 strategy, which aims to double its renewable energy capacity by 2030 – both in France and worldwide – to 50GW.”

“The award of Saudi Arabia’s first and the Middle East’s largest wind farm during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in January was a momentous occasion for our company and our partners,” added Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar.

“It also illustrated the depth of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to realise its bold strategy to substantially increase the contribution of renewables in its total energy mix to 27.3GW by 2024, from wind as well as solar energy. The over-subscribed financing of the Dumat Al Jandal project further illustrates the confidence of local and international lenders, and the investment community, in the economy of the Kingdom and its potential as a hub for highly cost-effective renewable energy development.”

The Dumat Al Jandal wind farm will supply electricity according to a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Saudi Power Procurement Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Electricity Company.

The wind farm will be located 560 miles north of Riyadh, in the Al Jouf region of Saudi Arabia.

The Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) of the Saudi Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources (MEIM) awarded the $500 million Dumat Al Jandal wind farm in January following a call for tenders in August 2017.

The winning consortium submitted the most cost-competitive bid of $21.3 per megawatt hour (MWh).

Source:https://www.arabianbusiness.com/energy/424335-uaes-masdar-edf-secure-financing-for-saudi-wind-farm-project

Iran and Turkey have finalized an agreement to restart direct train services between Tehran and Ankara and also to run tourist trains, an official announced.

Iran’s Deputy Minister of Road and Urban Development Saeed Rasooli said at a press conference on Sunday that Iranian and Turkish delegations have finalized plans, following reciprocal visits, to launch train services between the two capitals.

As of late June, once-weekly trains between Tehran and Ankara will get rolling, he added.

At the same time, train services will be operated between Tehran and Turkey’s eastern city of Van once a week, the deputy minister said.

In addition to the Tehran-Ankara and Tehran-Van trains, tourist trains will also be operated between the two countries, Rasooli added.

He went on to say that Iran and Turkey have finalized an agreement on the tariffs on cargo trains travelling between the two countries.

Iran and Turkey have set a $30-billion annual trade target, signing several agreements to enhance cooperation in various areas.

Turkey is one of Iran’s major trading partners in the region which has come under pressure from Washington to stop working with Tehran under a fresh wave of US anti-Iran sanctions.

Source:http://www.iran-bn.com/2019/06/16/iran-turkey-restart-direct-train-services/

The National Petrochemical Company of Iran finalized a plan on Monday to construct the country’s third petrochemical hub across a coastal region in the southern province of Hormozgan.

In a meeting in Tehran on Monday, the CEO of the National Petrochemical Company of Iran, CEO of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation (IMIDRO), and governor of Hormozgan signed a cooperation agreement on the construction of Iran’s third petrochemical hub in a region known as Parsian Energy Intensive Industries Special Economic Zone (PEISEZ).

Located in the westernmost part of Hormozgan and only 30 kilometers east of Assaluyeh which hosts giant energy projects and gas fields, PEISEZ is spread out over an area of around 10,000 hectares.

The officials signing the agreement on development of the new petrochemical hub referred to it as a project complementing Assaluyeh or even a new Assaluyeh.

IMIDRO director told reporters that the agreement to set up the new hub has been finalized after 15 rounds of talks, noting that construction of the infrastructures in the plant had begun in 2015.

He noted that 2,000 hectares of the whole area of the zone has been allocated to the petrochemical industries, predicting that the new hub will be producing 15 to 18 million tons of petrochemicals each year.

The finalized plan to develop petrochemical industries in PEISEZ came a few days after the US Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on Iran’s petrochemical group PGPIC (Persian Gulf Chemical Industry Company).

The PGPIC group holds 40 percent of Iran’s total petrochemical production capacity and is responsible for 50 percent of the country’s petrochemical exports, the US said.

The US has ratcheted up pressure on Iran since last year after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Source:http://www.iran-bn.com/2019/06/18/iran-to-set-up-new-petrochemical-hub-in-coastal-region/

Official delegations from Iran and Iraq held the second meeting of a joint commission for coordination on Arvand Rud, a border river flowing in Iran’s southwestern province of Khuzestan.

The Tuesday meeting was held in Tehran within the framework of an agreement signed by the heads of the two states.

The meeting was co-chaired by the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s director general for legal and international affairs and the Iraqi foreign minister’s advisor.

In the gathering, attended by the representatives of various Iranian and Iraqi ministries and organizations, the two sides discussed the general framework of the arrangements for dredging and clean-up of Arvand Rud, and agreed that the joint operational ideas would be submitted to the high-ranking officials of the two countries to be agreed upon and implemented.

Prior to the talks, the interim technical task force on dredging Arvand Rud had held a meeting, during which technical experts from the two countries held negotiations on a timetable for the operations regarding the clean-up of Arvand Rud, according to the Foreign Ministry’s official website.

Back in May, Iranian and Iraqi authorities signed the proceedings of a meeting that had been held to study the technical issues of dredging Arvand Rud.

Tehran and Baghdad have already signed an agreement to resolve disagreements over Arvand Rud based on the 1975 Algiers Accord, which deals with border issues and norms of good neighborliness.

SOurce:http://www.iran-bn.com/2019/07/05/iran-iraq-coordinate-plans-to-dredge-border-river/

High-ranking officials from Iran, Syria, and Iraq have agreed to create “a multimodal transport corridor” a part of efforts to boost trade relations between the three Muslim nations.

“The three friendly and brotherly countries of Iran, Iraq, and Syria have good and growing business relations,” Iranian Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Shahram Adamnejad told the Tasnim News Agency.

“Given the actual and potential capacities created by the bilateral agreements between the three countries as well as the prospect of increasing these exchanges in the near future, we will witness a new chapter of trade prosperity in the territories of the three countries,” he added.

“Accordingly, the three countries have agreed to establish a multimodal transport corridor on the route from Iran to Iraq and Syria, and vice versa,” the deputy minister went on to say.

Speaking at a trilateral meeting between the state-owned Iraqi Republic Railways (IRR) and its Iranian and Syrian counterparts, the IRR Managing Director Talib Jawad Kazim praised Iran’s achievements in the railroad industry and said the sanctions have made Iran archive great successes.

He further pointed to the railroad project connecting Iran’s Shalamcheh to Iraq’s Basra and said his country is willing to speed up the project so that the two countries’ rail networks are connected to each other and then connected to Syria.

During Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Iraq in March, the two countries signed five deals to promote cooperation in various fields.

The documents entail cooperation between Iran and Iraq concerning the Basra-Shalamcheh railroad project, visa facilitation for investors, cooperation in the health sector, and agreements between the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade of Iran and Ministry of Trade of Iraq, and another one in the field of oil between the petroleum ministries of the two countries.

Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Reza Rahmani has said that Tehran and Baghdad have agreed to reach the target of raising the value of annual trade exchange to $20 billion within two years.

Source:http://www.iran-bn.com/2019/07/04/iran-iraq-syria-to-create-transport-corridor/

TEHRAN, Iran – U.S. sanctions have targeted Iran’s government, its paramilitary forces and the oil exports that fund them. Now they are hitting its vital steel, aluminum, copper and iron industries.

The new sanctions, imposed as Tehran announced its partial withdrawal from its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, seem to be moving ever closer to directly affecting the country’s 80 million people, rather than the leadership. The metals industry is a major employer and a rare bright spot for Iran’s anemic economy.

Many Iranians already feel the vise squeezing ever tighter around the country, which has caused its currency, the rial, to depreciate rapidly and push the price of nearly everything beyond the reach of ordinary consumers.

“I don’t think (the U.S.) can, or wants to fight Iran … because wars are no longer a thing,” said Ahmad Hashemi, who sells steel products like sheet metal and beams in southern Tehran. “Nowadays, wars are economic wars. Look at these sanctions. It’s so easy.”

U.S. President Donald Trump issued his executive order Wednesday announcing the sanctions. That came just after Iran threatened to enrich its uranium stockpile closer to weapons-grade levels in 60 days if European leaders fail to negotiate new terms of the nuclear deal to protect Iran’s ability to trade on the global market.

The new sanctions are part of Trump’s maximalist policy targeting Iran after he pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal a year ago. The United States, Germany, Britain, France, Russia, China and the European Union signed the deal in 2015, lifting international sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program.

But the Trump administration contends that the deal, reached under former President Barack Obama, should have included limits on Iran’s ballistic missile program and curbed its regional influence. Supporters of the deal describe it as an important measure freezing Iran’s nuclear program while offering a step toward further negotiations.

“We have imposed the toughest sanctions ever on this Iranian regime,” said Brian Hook, a U.S. envoy for Iran. “We have designated nearly 1,000 individuals and entities since the beginning of the administration. We have taken Iran’s oil exports to historic lows. And we have stopped issuing oil waivers to those who import Iranian oil, which means zeroing out the purchases of Iranian crude.”

Iran’s domestic metal industry includes dozen of steel mills, mainly government-owned, that employ about 50,000 workers. Of the 25 million tons of steel produced, Iran exports over 30%, earning nearly $4 billion yearly. Its top markets have been Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Indonesia, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

About 3,000 factories and workshops produce goods for Iran’s domestic market ranging from kitchen utensils and building frames to offshore oil rigs and military vehicles. It also feeds into Iran’s domestic car manufacturing plants.

Metal-related industries employ about 10 percent of the country’s 22 million workers, a report by Iran’s parliament said. How the sanctions will affect Iran’s miners remains unclear. About 6 percent of its 8,840 mines produce raw materials such as iron, copper and aluminum.

Tehran-based economic analyst Gholamreza Kiamenhr said he believed that the sanctions on the metals industry “possibly affects employment and production lines,” although it won’t be as crippling as those on Iran’s oil industry.

Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, the founder of the Iranian economic website Bourse & Bazaar, said the measures appear aimed at stoking further unrest in the country. At the end of 2017 through the start of 2018, economic protests swept across 75 cities and towns, lasting for days and resulting in the deaths of dozens of people and the arrest of hundreds more.

Some demonstrations have already hit steel mills. In December, authorities detained an unspecified number of steelworkers after five weeks of protests over delays in paying salaries.

“Creating the conditions for mass unemployment — especially among the blue collar workers employed by state-owned enterprises who form the backbone of Iran’s economy — is the likely aim of the Trump administration’s latest round of sanctions,” Batmanghelidj wrote.

It’s also weakening the position of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the relatively moderate cleric whose signature accomplishment was the nuclear deal.

“The president should bravely admit the obvious defeat of his recent six years of strategies and resign,” said Abdolreza Davari, a close adviser to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hard-liner. “This will quickly prepare the ground for taking office by a new government that is capable to control the country in this current critical situation.”

After the U.S. withdrew from the nuclear accord, it restored the crippling sanctions, exacerbating Iran’s economic crisis. The rial, which traded at 32,000 to $1 at the time of the accord, traded Thursday at 156,500, creeping further downward.

“Even before the latest sanctions, the previous ones already impacted our daily lives and have been effective,” said a 52-year-old engineer who gave his name as Afshin. “If we say they had no effect we are deceiving ourselves. I can say that my family has gone from a middle-class family to a lower-class family. The situation is much worse than before.”

Many believe the situation will only get worse as time goes on. Many of those who are young and unmarried discuss fleeing the country with friends. Those who are older simply shrug and watch as prices of everything from meat to medicines climb out of reach.

“We made a mistake when we shut down our nuclear program. As an Iranian, I say that was a mistake. If we start again and they impose sanctions, then we can at least say we are under sanctions for the nuclear program,” said Hashemi, the steel products merchant. “Now we are wondering why we are under sanctions. We shut down the nuclear program, so why we are being punished with sanctions?”

Source:https://www.foxnews.com/world/us-sanctions-to-hit-irans-metals-industry-a-major-employer

The Ministry of Electricity is please to invite local, regional and international Independent Power Producers (IPP) to submit Expressions of interest (EOI) to embark into a proposed reverse auctioning round for SEVEN (7) Green field solar PV IPP projects (each a “project”) with a potential combined capacity of 755MWp.

A project involves the design, finance, construction operation and maintenance of a utility scale solar power project to the Ministry on a Build, Own and Operate (BOO) basis. A dedicated Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) shall be established to undertake the construction and operation of each project.

The Ministry, in its commercial capacity as a grid operator, will connect the SPV to the Iraqi transmission grid under a Transmission Connection Contract (TCC) and, in its capacity as owner of the land, will lease the land to the SPV under a Land Lease Contract (LLC). Also, the Ministry will purchase produced electricity from the SPV under the terms of the power purchase Contract (PPC).

The Ministry expects these project(s) to employ around 1300 people in the Republic of Iraq and supply more than 250,000 households with critically needed electricity supply.

The following projects are available :

Sawa-1 Solar PV IPP with a capacity of 30 MWp to be located in Muthana Province,
Sawa-2 Solar PV IPP with a capacity of 50 MWp to be located in Muthana Province,
Khidhir Solar PV IPP with a capacity of 50 MWp to be located in Muthana Province,
Iskanariya Solar PV IPP with a capacity of 225 MWp to be located in Babil Province,
Jissan Solar PV IPP with a capacity of 50 MWp to be located in Wassit Province,
Karbala Solar PV IPP with a capacity of 300 MWp to be located in Karbala Province,
Al-Diwania Solar PV IPP with a capacity of 50 MWp to be located in Diwania Province,
The above project(s) may, at the Ministry’s discretion, be tendered on a standalone basis or grouped. For the proposed tender, the Ministry will conduct a transparent, fair and competitive reverse auctioning process to select a developer or a consortium for a single or a group of project(s).

Parties interested in participating (the “respondent”) in the process must fulfill the following pre- requisites for short listing:

Successful, proven and verifiable technical and financial capability and experience of no less than 10 years in developing renewable energy IPP Project(s) of no capacity less than 50 MW on an individual and not collective project basis, particularly utility scale solar PV projects.
An average annual turnover of more than US$ 10 Million for the last three years solely from revenues obtained via renewable energy projects development and operatorship, preferable majorly from solar PV projects.
Previously awarded projects should have been tendered according to the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model on similar auctions regionally or globally.
The respondent must have registered and licensed official regional and international offices.
The respondent must demonstrate previous initiative towards social responsibility and willingness to contribute to capacity building, to integrate local content, and to support the nascent renewable energy manufacturing and service sectors in the republic of Iraq.
The respondent must have never been barred by the Government of the Republic of Iraq, or any entity controlled or regulated by them, from participating in any project or conducting work of any form in the Republic of Iraq, including the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Also this applies to any other government, or any entity controlled or regulated by any other government.
Respondents that fulfill the requirements above shall express their interest to participate in the tender process by 29 April.2019 and the finnnal time to receive the (IPP) documentation 60 days from the announced date.

The number call of is MOE- HQ5/ 2019 An package (the “package”) must be sent in electronic copy format (a single PDF file) from an official business email address to 32_contracts@moelc.gov.iq

The requirements set herein;

Name of the respondent
Name and contact details (Postal address, telephone number, and email address) for the appropriate point of contact (Point of Contact) to whom future correspondence may be sent; and
Where the respondent is considering potential consortium partners, an indication of such intention and details of potential consortium partners (to the extent it is known).
The Ministry will not consider any proposals or packages submitted by mail, in person, or via liaison.

The following submission of the EOI, and after passing this stage this stage the respondent will bay the documentation (RFQ). The RFQ will include further information, including a description of the project(s), an outline of the tender process and eligibility criteria for pre- qualification.

The announcement shall not constitute in any way a commitment by the Ministry to proceed with the next stage, hold the proposed reverse auction, announce the tender, award any project or comply with the information provided herein. The Ministry retains the right to amend the scopes of the project(s), modify, extend, cancel or suspend the project(s), at any time for any reason without clarification or any liabilities for the Ministry or any other entity of the Government of the republic of Iraq.

This announcement shall be considered a complementary and integral part of the Project(s) Documentation.

Source:https://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2019/05/09/investment-opportunities-7-solar-energy-projects/