TENDERS have been invited for the main building works for the new Duqm Airport by Oman’s Special Economic Zone Authority at Duqm (Sezad).

PHASE Seven – the final phase of expansion – of Oman’s Sohar Industrial Estate has moved a step forward with 16 firms having submitted technical offers for the project. According to the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE), which floated the tenders in August, most of the bidders have included local companies.

SAUDI Arabia’s construction and building sector played a big role in the kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the third quarter of 2013, the Central Department of Statistics said in a report. While GDP grew 3.19 per cent in current prices compared with a 2.

QATAR has announced one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects, comprising three bridges interconnected by subsea tunnels, to be completed before the soccer World Cup finals in 2022.

STRABAG Oman has been selected to build a section of the 400-km road between the city of Sinaw and the industrial zone in Duqm in southern Oman. The subsidiary of Austrian construction group Strabag has been appointed by the Ministry of Transport and Communication to undertake the 100-km project under a $120-million deal.

SAUDI ARABIA registered an impressive surge in contract awards during the third quarter of 2013 amounting to a total of SR148.9 billion ($39.7 billion), bringing the total value of contracts for the first three quarters to SR251.6 billion ($67 billion), according to the National Commercial Bank of Jeddah.

Eaton appoints Mideast manager POWER management company Eaton has appointed Frank Ackland as its Middle East general manager who will be in charge of the company’s operational and commercial business across the region.

SIGNIFICANT progress has been made on Qatar’s integrated railway network, with Qatar Railways Company (Qatar Rail), the firm overseeing its construction, having awarded contracts worth more than $32 billion to date to speed up the project, said a top official.

DRAKE & Scull Qatar (DSI Qatar), a wholly owned subsidiary of Drake & Scull International (DSI), has won a QR400-million ($109 million) mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) contract for the upcoming Mall of Qatar in the Al Rayyan district of Qatar. UrbanCon Trading and Development is the main contractor on this commercial development.

BIDS have been invited by Kuwait’s Ministry of Public Works for the construction and completion of a new passenger terminal at the Kuwait International Airport (Terminal Two). The scope of work includes construction and completion, furnishing and maintenance of the terminal, said the ministry.

WORK on Oman’s largest shopping and entertainment destination will begin this year, developer Majid Al Futtaim Properties said. The Mall of Oman will be built on an area of 157,000 sq m and at a cost of RO180 million ($49.

CNH Industrial has boosted its presence in the Gulf with the establishment of a Middle East office in Dubai, UAE, to represent its Case brand in the region.

A JOINT venture of the British company Petrofac and Korea’s Daelim Industrial has secured a $2.1-billion order from the Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) for a refinery improvement project at Sohar, Oman.

TENDERS for a $1.6-billion power grid that will enable Egypt and Saudi Arabia to share electricity will be launched early this year and construction will start in 2015, Egypt’s electricity and energy ministry said. “Construction would take two years to complete,” said ministry spokesman Latham Khalil.

A NEW business unit has been formed in Saudi Arabia under a franchise agreement signed between the local Almaymanah for Trading and Ecotherm Austria. Known as Ecotherm Saudi Arabia, the unit started operations last month in Jeddah and Riyadh.

SAUDI ARABIA has projected a balanced budget of $228 billion for 2014. The budget – the sixth since the global financial crisis – continues the expansionary path the kingdom has taken since then, with substantial additional outlays for education, health and infrastructure, despite the decline in oil revenue.

QATAR Petroleum and Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) have jointly awarded a front-end engineering and design (Feed) contract to Tecnimont, a leading engineering and construction company, for its upcoming Al Sejeel Petrochemical Complex. Qatar Petroleum owns a 80 per cent stake in the mega-petrochemical complex, while Qapco owns the rest.

THE Oman office of Atkins has been appointed the supervisor for the infrastructure works on site at the $600-million Saraya Bandar Jissah, the newest integrated residential and leisure development in Muscat, Oman.

KiCE Construction Equipment, a Saudi-based specialist in the manufacture of equipment for concrete and block production, has launched a project that aims to transform its operations and ensure customer satisfaction.

THE GCC construction market retained its value at around $2.6 trillion (ongoing projects only), according to Zawya Projects. Saudi Arabia continues to lead with projects worth $933 billion, accounting for some 36 per cent of the total market value, followed by the UAE ($818 billion) and Qatar ($356 billion).

SOUTH KOREA’S Hyundai Heavy Industries and France’s Sidem have together won an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth $1.4 billion to build to the first phase of the Az-Zour North Independent Water and Power Project (IWPP) in Kuwait.

A MULTI-MILLION-dollar project to revolutionise the treatment of wastewater in Bahrain is now complete. The upgrading of the wastewater treatment plant at Tubli Water Pollution Control Centre (WPCC) is one of the largest schemes of its kind in the GCC and increases its capacity by 50 per cent.

THE Bahrain government’s subsidies on asphalt are to be scrapped. The prices were expected to be deregulated as of January 1 for lack of economic viability, the National Oil and Gas Authority announced. The price trends in world markets will be used as benchmarks to fix the cost of locally sold asphalt.