Abu Dhabi's power company plans to provide electricity to the oil sector in southern Iraq to help to fuel the nation's ambitious crude production targets.
Abu Dhabi National Energy (Taqa) hopes by next year to announce the details of a power project at one of the south's massive oilfields.
"We're working on a project with partners that we've put together," said Frank Perez, Taqa's executive officer for power and water. "The oil and gas majors, particularly in the south, have huge concessions and have huge power needs, and they need someone to build some plants for them and provide them energy within their area of influence and the area of their concessions."
Royal Dutch Shell, BP and China National Petroleum Corporation are among the oil majors that secured rights to gigantic oilfields after the latest war and are helping to increase pumping levels from today's 3.3 million barrels per day (bpd) to as much as 12 million by 2020, according to initial oil ministry targets.
Taqa, which bought into a 1,000 megawatt power plant in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region in April, is moving in the opposite direction of many oil companies that have abandoned the south for the north in the past year. ExxonMobil, Chevron and Total have all abandoned or run the risk of losing venture opportunities in the south by signing exploration contracts with the semi autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government.
Baghdad enforces a blacklisting policy against companies that sign oil production contracts in the north, although it has not penalised contractors or power companies. Taqa is in a delicate position, however, because it holds a one-fifth stake in WesternZagros, which mainly pumps oil in Kurdistan.
Last month David Cook, Taqa's executive officer for oil and gas, gave up his seat on the board of WesternZagros, although Taqa has the right to name another director.
"As Abu Dhabi we're big investors in the country, and Taqa certainly is comfortable supporting both - all the activity in the region," said Mr Perez in an interview at the company's headquarters. Taqa's current plans echo hopes in 2008 of setting up a subsidiary in Iraq to rebuild the nation's power grid. At the time, the then chief executive, Peter Barker-Homek, said that the subsidiary, to be named Taqa Babylon, would invest US$100 million (Dh367m) in Fallujah, Basra and Baghdad.
Mr Barker-Homek left the company in 2009 and since then the company has shifted its strategy from far-flung acquisitions in Canada and the Caribbean to regional expansion.
Providing power for oil majors is also safer than building plants for local communities, which can be vulnerable to attacks, said Mr Perez.
Taqa's joint venture plant in the Kurdish town of Sulemanieh is also making progress. Next year Taqa will add a further 500MW to its 1,000MW capacity by making gas use more efficient and recovering waste heat to use to drive additional turbines.
Supplying power to central Iraq is also a possibility for the Kurdistan Regional Government, which distributes the electricity from the plant to consumers, added Mr Perez. Last year, Kurdistan began selling power to Kirkuk, a neighbouring province that both central Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government lay claim to.
In separate arrangement Abu Dhabi signed an agreement today in Ankara with the Turkish government supporting cooperation on power generation and mining development there.
The governments hope to complete negotiations on an agreement for Taqa and Turkey's Electricity Generation on investing in a power plant there and building new ones.
"Turkey has great growth dynamics and is keen to attract foreign direct investment to develop its indigenous energy resources," Carl Sheldon, the chief executive of Taqa, said in a statement.
ayee@thenational.ae
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The specs: 2018 Jaguar F-Type Convertible
Price, base / as tested: Dh283,080 / Dh318,465
Engine: 2.0-litre inline four-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 295hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm @ 1,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.2L / 100km
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Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
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Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5