KUWAIT National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has begun shortlisting contractors to build a new KD4-billion ($14.4 billion) oil refinery and upgrade two existing refineries at a total cost of KD8.6 billion ($30.8 billion), according to a report.

OMAN'S Transport and Communications Ministry has awarded 11 infrastructure contracts worth RO158.37 million ($411 million). The agreements were signed by Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications. The projects include the construction of the Al Batinah Expressway (45.5 km) at a cost of RO138.92 million ($361.

NASS Commercial, a subsidiary of Nass Corporation and the sole distributor of Case equipment and machinery in Bahrain, recently took delivery of the first Case 695ST backhoe loader to the kingdom. “We have sold several backhoe loaders in Bahrain but the 695ST is the first,” said Bashar Nass, Nass Commercial general manager.

AL FAWZAN Contracting Company in Saudi Arabia has been awarded a contract to execute three key medical projects in the capital Riyadh at a total cost of more than SR967.52 million ($257 million).

BAHRAIN awarded 33 tenders worth BD29 million ($77 million) in the first quarter of 2012 while inviting bids for 20 tenders worth BD29.69 million (78.6 million). The Tender Board awarded nine tenders worth BD7.58 million ($20.08 million) in January while it invited bids for 10 at a cost of BD17.01 million ($45.

SAUDI ARABIA tops the list of high-value project awards in the region followed by the UAE, according to a new report.

BAHRAIN is to build its first public roof garden at a cost of more than BD1 million ($2.65 million). The garden, covering an area of 2,000 sq m, is to be built atop a public car-park near the Al Hala Club in Muharraq, according to Ghazi Al Murbatti, representative of the area on the Muharraq Municipal Council.

WORK is set to resume on a government housing project in Juffair, Bahrain, which has been delayed for several months amid a dispute among government departments about who owned the land. However, the number of apartments planned has been more than halved from an initial 100 down to 46.

Damac completes Cairo mall DAMAC Properties, the Middle East’s largest private developer, has completed the first phase of a mega mall in Cairo, Egypt. Park Avenue on Cairo Alex Desert Road will be Cairo’s premier boutique retail and commercial destination, with 657 retail units and 84 office units over 120,625 sq m of developed land.

PLANS to revive a scheme that would turn a public park in Bahrain’s Muharraq area into a ‘miniature Disneyland’ is under way – two years after councillors scrapped it.

BAHRAIN’S cultural sector is set for a major boost with the country’s first national theatre due to open later this year.Construction of the BD19.1-million ($50.6 million) waterfront facility, near the Diplomatic Area, has been ongoing for nine months and is expected to be completed in November.

WORK on Oman Aluminium Rolling Company’s 160,000-tonne-per-year (tpy) project in Sohar is on target and will be ready for commissioning by August 2013, according to the project’s contractor. “We are now working to complete civil and building works.

A RO55-MILLION ($15 million) project will breathe new life into a delayed expansion at Salalah port in Oman that is expected to stimulate economic activity in the Dhofar region and in turn attract foreign investments to Salalah.

KUWAIT is planning to build five new hospitals at a cost of KD900 million ($3.2 billion), the tenders for which will be floated by August, said a senior official of the Ministry of Public Works.

THE Qatari unit of global powerhouse Siemens has signed two major contracts with Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) that will aim to enhance the power infrastructure in and around Doha and enable the monitoring and optimisation of energy consumption in the capital.

A TOP government official has put the cost of Haramain Railway’s terminal in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, at SR3.2 billion ($853 million), following an inspection of the site.

CONSTRUCTION work on a major manufacturing and service plant for Siemens in Saudi Arabia is set to start this month. The facility, based in Dammam Industrial City, will manufacture gas turbines, compressors and heat recovery steam generators, and provide repair and service works for the Saudi market.

SAUDI Arabia’s King Abdullah last month laid the foundation stone for the second phase of university campus projects worth SR81.5 billion ($21.73 billion), even as he inaugurated the first phase of the project in different regions, a report said.