
Kuwait opens financial bids for $3.9bln Az-Zour North IWPP Phases 2 & 3
The session was attended by representatives of the qualified bidders, the post said.
Az-Zour North IWPP Phases 2 & 3 involve the financing, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and transfer of a combined power and desalination plant with a minimum capacity of 2,700 megawatts (MW) of power and 120 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD) of desalinated water, according to previous KAPP statements.
The facility will use Liquefied Natural Gas and high-pressure natural gas, with gas oil as a backup fuel, and will connect to the national grid via a 400 kV transmission substation.
Three consortiums and two companies were qualified to bid for the project, according to the project's Request for Proposal (RFP) notice. These were:
• Consortium led by TAQA (Abu Dhabi National Energy Company) with local company A.H Al Sagar & Brothers Co and Japan's JERA as members
• Saudi's ACWA Power as lead, with local firm Gulf Investment Corporation
• China Power International Holding as lead, with Malaysia's Malakoff International and Saudi Arabia's Abdul Aziz Al Ajlan Sons Co as members.
• In addition, Qatar's Nebras Power and Japan's Sumitomo Corporation were among the qualified companies.
The project will be implemented by the winning bidder under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement extending up to 27 years and 8 months (investment period). The project company will sign a 25-year Energy Conversion and Water Purchase Agreement (ECWPA) with the Ministry of Electricity & Water & Renewable Energy (MEWRE) starting from the project's commercial operation date.
The project is estimated to cost 1.2 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($3.9 billion), a January 2025 report by Zawya Projects said.
It will be located adjacent to the existing Az-Zour North Phase 1 facility and Az-Zour South power complex, around 100 kilometers south of Kuwait City.
The tendering process was launched with an Expression of Interest (EOI) in July 2018. The qualified bidders were announced on 3 December 2023 followed by Request for Proposal (RFP) on 27 March 2024.
KAPP and MEWRE are supported by Ernst & Young as lead and financial advisor, Addleshaw Goddard as legal advisor, and Atkins as technical and environmental advisor.
(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)
(anoop.menon@lseg.com)
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Zawya
36 minutes ago
- Zawya
ITFC reports strong results and sustainability progress in 2024 Annual Development Effectiveness Report
JEDDAH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia -- The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) ( a member of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, announced the release of its 2024 Annual Development Effectiveness Report (ADER). The ADER serves as an essential reporting and transparency tool, enabling ITFC to measure, communicate, and continually refine its strategies and interventions for achieving sustainable development outcomes. The 2024 report highlights ITFC's expanding role as a driver of sustainable trade, economic resilience, and inclusive growth across its member countries. 'The ADER showcases ITFC's ability to provide innovative, impactful solutions that address the complex needs of our member countries,' said Eng. Adeeb Y. Al Aama, Chief Executive Officer of ITFC. 'While we celebrate key milestones, we are also assessing our interventions to ensure we continue advancing toward a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future.' Key Highlights of 2024 ADER In 2024, ITFC delivered tangible results, demonstrating its focus on resilience and economic inclusion. The key highlights include: Filling Trade Finance Gaps. ITFC allocated US$2.66 billion, 38% of its total portfolio, to LDMCs, supporting inclusive growth. Additionally, US$268 million directly benefited over 380,000 smallholder farmers, enabling the procurement of 840,000 metric tons of local agricultural products. Securing Critical Supply Chains. Disbursements to the energy sector amounted to US$4 billion, bringing reliable electricity to approximately 13.8 million households. Food security interventions provided over 5.6 million metric tons of essential commodities worth US$1.45 billion, benefiting more than 30 million households. Strengthening Private Sector Participation. ITFC financed 312 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and corporates through partnerships with 23 financial institutions, promoting financial inclusion and economic diversification. Fostering Regional Integration. Intra-OIC trade financing reached US$4.8 billion. Through strategic programs such as the Arab Africa Trade Bridges (AATB) and the Aid for Trade Initiative for Arab States (AfTIAS), ITFC strengthened regional value chains and institutional capacities. Investing in Capacity Development. Technical assistance and training initiatives reached over 3,100 individuals, a 32% increase from the previous year, with nearly 40% women participants. Embedding Sustainability into Core Operations The Corporation adopted its first Environmental and Social (E&S) Policy and launched a Ten-Year E&S Action Plan. A new governance structure was also introduced to guide implementation, laying the foundation for more responsible trade finance operations. Empowering Growth through the SDGs ITFC made significant strides in advancing multiple Sustainable Development Goals through its trade finance and development initiatives. Its efforts have helped reduce poverty (SDG 1), strengthen food security (SDG 2), and expand access to clean and affordable energy (SDG 7). By supporting smallholder farmers, empowering local economies, and promoting intra-OIC trade, ITFC has also played a key role in fostering strong global partnerships to accelerate sustainable development across member countries (SDG 17). The 2024 ADER affirms ITFC's deepening commitment to transparency, sustainability, and measurable impact. As the Corporation looks ahead, it remains focused on bold innovation, collaborative partnerships, and leveraging Islamic finance to build a more inclusive and sustainable global trade ecosystem. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC). Contact us: E-mail: ITFC@ Social media: Twitter: Facebook: LinkedIn: International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) ( About the International Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC): The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) is the trade finance arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group. It was established with the primary objective of advancing trade among OIC member countries, which would ultimately contribute to the overarching goal of improving the socio-economic conditions of the people across the world. Commencing operations in January 2008, ITFC has provided more than US$83 billion of financing to OIC member countries, making it the leading provider of trade solutions for these member countries' needs. With a mission to become a catalyst for trade development for OIC member countries and beyond, the Corporation helps entities in member countries gain better access to trade finance and provides them with the necessary trade-related capacity-building tools, which would enable them to successfully compete in the global market. SOURCE: International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC)


Tahawul Tech
3 hours ago
- Tahawul Tech
network operation Archives
Amer Sethi, Executive Territory Manager, Cisco Meraki and Sherif Azzam, Business Unit Manager, Comstor, Saudi Arabia outline the benefits of Cisco Meraki and how it enables a unified vision for future-ready workplaces in the KSA and beyond.


Campaign ME
3 hours ago
- Campaign ME
PIF-backed HUMAIN's Acting CMO on Saudi Arabia as a global AI powerhouse
As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly reshapes industries worldwide, Saudi Arabia has set its sights on becoming an AI powerhouse, positioning itself as a global leader at the heart of the transforming AI-driven economy. At the heart of this movement stands HUMAIN – a PIF-backed AI company envisioned by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud to place the Kingdom, and the greater Middle East region, front and centre in its development of AI infrastructure, Arabic large language models (LLMs) and cloud services. At the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in July 2025, Campaign Middle East spoke exclusively to Steve Plimsoll, Chief Strategy Officer and Acting Chief Marketing Officer, HUMAIN, about going beyond the headlines and billion-dollar deals to answer crucial questions: What makes AI truly transformative for businesses and brands? How do data quality, cultural context and clearly defined use cases determine the real impact of AI strategies on brand, marketing and the society at large? At the core of AI lies data and used cases At the outset, Plimsoll told Campaign Middle East, 'In the same way that Aramco has led the region and the world in the oil sector, HUMAIN was established to lead the world in artificial intelligence. HUMAIN will be global first, but sovereign by design. We will power and enable AI from the ground up, creating capabilites in the region for the world, and this includes data centres, tokens, LLM models and applications built on top of it.' Since its launch in May 2025, the company has already signed deals worth more than $23 billion with global AI leaders such as Nvidia, AMD, Amazon Web Services, and Qualcomm. Plimsoll added, 'HUMAIN will power global AI moves with data centres and large language models. We will enable AI infrastructure while delivering on global demand and the sovereign needs of Saudi Arabia and the region from a data protection, security and capabilities perspective. This includes storing data, processing data and managing it in our data centres in Saudi Arabia – for the region and for the rest of the world.' However, brand and marketing leaders in the region leaning into artificial intelligence who are evaluating the effectiveness of AI strategies have stated that these strategies are only as good as the insights derived from AI analytics, which in turn are only as effective as the quality of first-party and third-party data that feeds AI. When questioned about data integrity and clean data, Plimsoll responded, 'Unfortunately, this is one of the less-asked questions and, yet, one of the most important ones. AI is trained on data. If you train AI on bad data, you get bad AI. If you then feed a bad AI model with bad data again, you get even worse answers. Sure, data remains one of the most important aspects in all of this.' He added, 'But more important than the data is the used case. Why are we using AI? What are we using it for? While it's easy to say that AI is going to change the world, we need to understand how and why.' Plimsoll uses the story of a drill as a metaphor to 'drill the point home'. We buy a drill to drill a hole; we need the hole to put a nail in; we need the nail to put a painting up on the wall – so essentially we bought a drill to put a painting up on the wall. However, AI is like double-sided sticky tape that we buy to put up the painting instead, which metaphorically disrupts the 'drill' and 'nail' industry. 'This is why we've got to ask ourselves, what is the problem that I'm trying to solve?' Plimsoll explained. 'We've got several tools at our disposal, and with the right data and approach, we can solve any problem. We can make any industry more efficient. We can make any human better. We can take the interdependency of human creativity and AI's precision and power, and bring them together to create a unique force that is better than what it is today.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Campaign Middle East (@campaignmiddleeast) Arabic large language models: Built in Saudi Arabia, but for the world Building on the conversation of making the brand and marketing industry better, Plimsoll also addressed the untapped potential of Arabic large language models (LLMs) targeting users in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East – especially given growing conversations around the localisation of content and connecting brands with communities by leveraging the languages in which consumers think. 'In the Middle East, and specifically in Saudi Arabia, it's important to understand that tradition, culture and heritage are embedded in everything we do, but most LLMs that we use are built of generic content available globally that are meant for everyone, everywhere. They don't understand cultural nuance or the several sub-dialects of the Arabic language. It's important to understand that the 400 million Arabic speakers in the world don't all speak the same way,' Plimsoll said. He added, 'This is why we need to train AI and large language models based on how people speak and choose to ask questions in their language. Then we need to train LLMs to create generative content that is relevant, contextual and culturally nuanced enough to accurately and efficiently respond to a query set in a hyper-local context.' Through the conversation, he went on to add that global campaigns 'converted', 'translated', 'created' or 'generated' to suit the Middle East region may look appropriate to a global audience, but completely inappropriate to audiences in the region due to its misrepresentation of national attire, colloquial language, cultural etiquette – all of which need to be addressed not only by creatives, but also by those developing LLMs for the region. 'We need to build the best Arabic large language models from the region that aren't just about Arabic, but are about understanding the Middle East in all its facets, including religion, culture, tradition, heritage, customs, behaviours, preferences, intent and, most importantly, people – and that's how we're going to change LLMs and the future of marketing,' Plimsoll concluded.