Middle East

In Brief

Fujairah Phase 3 refinery design ready

FUJAIRAH: Brooge Energy (Formerly Brooge Holdings), through its subsidiary Brooge Petroleum and Gas Investment Company (BPGIC), has announced that the final basic design for the company’s planned Phase III oil storage terminals and 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery has been completed by MUC Oil & Gas Engineering Consultancy and handed over to the group.

The completion of the basic design progresses BPGIC's plan to develop up to 3.5 million cu m of storage capacity, the equivalent of 22 million barrels. It is targeting the Phase III facility to be operational in late 2022.

"Once Phase III is completed, this would bring our total storage capacity up to 4.5 million cu m, which is the equivalent of 28.3 million barrels of oil," Nicolaas L Paardenkooper, CEO of Brooge Energy and BPGIC, said:

The company had in April appointed MUC Oil & Gas Engineering Consultancy to complete the basic design and front-end engineering design (FEED) study.


Oman raises power sector funding

MUSCAT: Oman’s government will step up funding for the Sultanate’s electricity sector to RO605.2 million ($1.56 billion) in 2020, as against the actual subsidy of RO601.9 million paid to the sector in 2019.

In 2018, subsidy allocations rose 23 per cent to reach RO536.29 million, up from RO456 million 2017, reported Oman Observer.

"It is anticipated that 2020 will witness the first overall negative growth in supply since the restructuring of the electricity sector in 2005, a sharp fall from the decade after restructuring which saw consistent double-digit annual growth rates in supply," Oman’s Authority for Electricity Regulation (AER) was quoted as saying in the report.

Subsidy for the Main Interconnected System, covering the northern half of Oman, is estimated at RO451 million for 2020, up from RO431.1 actually paid out in 2019. For Dhofar Power System, catering to parts of Dhofar Governorate, subsidy is projected to climb to around RO50 million in 2020, up from RO43.8 million in 2019.


Kuwait scraps $1.4bn solar project

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait has cancelled plans to construct the Al Dabdaba solar plant, which would have provided 15 per cent of the oil sector’s needs from renewable sources, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, reported Reuters.

The plant was set to come up at Al-Shagaya renewable energy complex, nearly 100 miles west of the capital Kuwait City and near to the Saudi border. Once completed, it would have been one of the largest photovoltaic solar facilities in the region generating 2,500 GWh of electricity per year

The lowest bid for the project was KD439 million ($1.4 billion), Kuwait’s Alrai newspaper said on July 5.

Set to be developed by the Kuwait National Petroleum Company, the project was initially being planned for operational launch in February next year. However, the project was repeatedly delayed due to bureaucratic procedures, it added.