KRG hit with $100 million court order

KRG hit with $100 million court order An engineer looks out over gas processing facilities at the Khor Mor field, which is operated by the Emirati companies Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas, in 2013. (JACOB RUSSELL/Iraq Oil Report/Metrography) By PATRICK OSGOOD of Iraq Oil Report Published Monday, November 23rd, 2015 A British court has ordered the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to pay gas consortium Pearl Petroleum $100 million for condensates and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) produced at the Khor Mor gas field over the past two years.If the KRG doesn't settle up or apply to appeal within 14 days, the government, and potentially its senior officials, could be held liable.Executives from several international oil companies invested in Kurdistan have told Iraq Oil Report they are taking a keen in =============================== The world's tallest building planned – in ex-warzone Basra At 1,152 metres high, the Bride of the Gulf in Iraq is set to dwarf even the Burj Khalifa. But is size really everything? The 1,152-metre-tall Bride of the Gulf tower in Basra takes the nickname given to the city’s historically fertile land by the locals. Sky high ... the proposed 1,152-metre-tall Bride of the Gulf tower in Basra. Photograph: AMBS Architects Steve Rose Saturday 21 November 2015 01.15 AEDT Last modified on Saturday 21 November 2015 01.19 AEDT We’re used to the crown of “world’s tallest building” following the world’s economic centre of gravity: the US for most of the 20th century, then the Far East (Malaysia’s Petronas Towers, Taiwan’s Taipei 101), and now Dubai, with the Burj Khalifa due to be superseded by Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Tower in about 2019. But now comes a tower to eclipse them all – in Iraq. Yes, you read that right: the world’s tallest building is due to be in Basra, southern Iraq. It is called The Bride of the Gulf, and it will be 230 storeys – 1,152 metres – high. That’s roughly the Burj Khalifa with the Shard on top of it. You’ll probably be able to see it from the Burj Khalifa. But height is not the goal, according to its designers, British-Iraqi architecture firm AMBS. Instead, they want to create a “vertical city”, with four interlinked towers of varying heights, containing not just offices and hotels and the usual stuff, but also “its own transport systems, schools, clinics and neighbourhoods”. There’s also a vast canopy over a public area at the base of the towers, called “The Veil”. Bride, veil – see what they did there? There’s a security aspect to their plan, too, architect Marcos De Andres explains: 9/11 exposed the weakness of the standalone skyscraper when it came to escape routes, so a cluster of interconnected towers is far safer. Space efficiency ... The tower will have its own transport systems, schools, clinics and neighbourhoods. Photograph: AMBS Architects Hopefully that won’t be necessary, though. If your mental image of Basra is still the war zone it was in 2003, when British and American troops first entered Iraq, it’s clearly in need of an update. Basra is a prosperous and relatively peaceful city these days, “more like Kuwait than Baghdad”. The tentacles of the Islamic State are at least 600km away. There’s oil money sloshing around. There are new cars on all the new roads. Five-star hotels and a new sports stadium recently opened (Basra is football-crazy, apparently). The government is working on a new masterplan for the growing city, of which the publicly funded Bride would be the centrepiece. The Bride of the Gulf is actually a local nickname for the city. Basra was once considered one of the most beautiful and cosmopolitan places in the Gulf – before Saddam Hussein punished its mostly Shia population, then the Iraq war further scarred it. It was also the supposed location of the Garden of Eden. There’s still plenty of time for this Bride to be jilted at the altar, though. There’s no definite site for the building yet, or a completion date. But it’s a rare piece of positive news from a country invariably associated with violence. “If you go there today, people just want normality,” says De Andres. “They want to get on with their lives and play football. Hopefully the whole of the Middle East will be like this one day.”

Saudi’s Kingdom Tower set to go skywards as it aims for world’s tallest building tag

The iconic Kingdom Tower project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Above ground work is set to begin on the tower which is expected to be taller than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Rendering courtesy EC Harris/Mace Saudi’s Kingdom Tower set to go skywards as it aims for world’s tallest building tag Above ground construction work due to start next week in Jeddah, after months of testing and preparation work. Lucy Barnard April 20, 2014 Updated: April 20, 2014 16:46:00 Save this article Above-ground construction work on what is expected to be the world’s tallest building, the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is due to start next week. Related In pictures: The world’s ten tallest residential buildings ■ Residences with a view: Dubai hosts seven of the world’s top 10 tallest residential towers In pictures: Abu Dhabi's newest, tallest place to live Video: Spire rises in the ashes of Twin Towers in New York ■ Kingdom Tower, Burj Khalifa and the era of the megatall buildings Topic Saudi Arabia, The world’s largest construction firm, Saudi Binladin Group (SBL), is set to start building the long-awaited 1 kilometre-tall tower on April 27 after months of testing. Piling and other preparatory work on the tower, which has been valued at 4.6 billion Saudi riyals (Dh4.51bn), officially started last April after Kingdom Holding, the developer controlled by Prince Al Waleed, appointed the contractors Mace and EC Harris to work on the project. In February, SBL appointed Advanced Construction Technology Services (Acts) to carry out high-level tests on a half-million cubic metres of concrete and about 80,000 tonnes of steel set to be used in the building. The tower would overtake the 828-metre Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the world’s tallest building when it is expected to be completed in 2018. Kingdom Holding struck a deal with SBL in August 2011 to build the tower and help finance the project after various construction delays had led to speculation that the development had stalled. Kingdom Tower is the centrepiece of the planned 5.2 sq km Kingdom City urban centre along the Red Sea coast, which will comprise homes, shops, hotels and schools located around a series of lakes and canals. The project was originally announced in 2008. The following year it was announced that Dubai’s Emaar Properties would develop the tower and supervise its construction. But the tie-up was shelved as the global financial crisis hit the Arabian Gulf, and the fate of the tower itself hung in the balance until three years ago when Kingdom Holdings struck a deal with SBL to build the tower, which included SBL taking a stake in the mega-scheme. Kingdom Holding has repeatedly refused to specify the exact planned height of the Kingdom Tower to avoid tipping off competitors. lbarnard@thenational.ae Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/business/industry-insights/property/saudis-kingdom-tower-set-to-go-skywards-as-it-aims-for-worlds-tallest-building-tag#ixzz2zUd2ybtu Follow us: @TheNationalUAE on Twitter | thenational.ae on Facebook ==================================================================== Saudi Binladin seeks loan extension after Grand Mosque payment delay Reuters DUBAI: Saudi Binladin Group has asked for an extension on a 817 million riyal ($217.8 million) Islamic loan that matured last week and which was being used to fund construction work on the kingdom's Grand Mosque site, according to sources aware of the matter. The request to delay the payment, originally due on July 15, was because the Saudi government had yet to reimburse the construction firm for works carried out on Islam's holiest location, the sources said on condition of anonymity due to the subject's sensitivity. The company has been hit by government spending cuts and by its suspension from receiving new state contracts since September last year, when a crane accident killed 107 people at Makkah's Grand Mosque. Binladin declined to comment. Dubai Islamic Bank, which originally helped arrange the Islamic loan, declined to comment. A spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Finance couldn't be reached for comment.

Kingdom Tower or Burj al Mamlakah (Mile-High Tower) under construction in Jeddah

Kingdom Tower or Burj al Mamlakah, previously known as Mile-High Tower, is a skyscraper currently under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at a preliminary cost of SR4.6 billion (US$1.23 billion). It will be the centrepiece and first phase of a SR75 billion (US$20 billion) proposed development known as Kingdom City that will be located along the Red Sea on the north side of Jeddah. If completed as planned, the tower will reach unprecedented heights, becoming the tallest building in the world, as well as the first structure to reach the one-kilometre mark. The tower was initially planned to be 1.6-kilometre (1 mi) high; however, the geology of the area proved unsuitable for a tower of that height. As a direct consequence of this appointment our client has an immediate need for a seasoned planning manager to work in Jeddah == IDB supplies adahi coupons: The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank said Friday that it is the only organization authorized by the Saudi government to issue and market coupons for sacrificial animals (adahi) during Haj.IDB, which supervises the Kingdom’s adahi program, markets five types of coupons for pilgrims to sacrifice animals.The green coupon is for pilgrims who perform Haj through “Tamattu” and “Qiran” methods ... ========== Assad says Turkey will pay for backing Syrian rebels Fri, Oct 04 15:56 PM EDT By Ece Toksabay ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told Turkey it will pay a heavy price for backing rebels fighting to oust him, accusing it of harboring "terrorists" along its border who, he said, would soon turn on their hosts. In an interview with Turkey's Halk TV due to be broadcast later on Friday, Assad called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan "bigoted" and said Ankara was allowing terrorists to cross into Syria to attack the army and Syrian civilians.

"It is not possible to put terrorism in your pocket and use it as a card because it is like a scorpion which won't hesitate to sting you at the first opportunity," Assad said, according to a transcript from Halk TV, which is close to Turkey's opposition. "In the near future, these terrorists will have an impact on Turkey and Turkey will pay a heavy price for it."

Turkey, which shares a 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria and has NATO's second-largest deployable armed forces, is one of Assad's fiercest critics and a staunch supporter of the opposition, although it denies arming the rebels. It shelters about a quarter of the 2 million people who have fled Syria and has often seen the conflict spill across its frontier, responding in kind when mortars and shells fired from Syria have hit its soil. It has allowed rebel fighters to cross in and out of Syria but has grown alarmed, along with Western allies opposed to Assad, by divisions among their ranks and the deepening influence of radical Islamists in Syria. Last month, the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant seized Azaz, about 5 km (3 miles) from the border with Turkey, and has repeatedly clashed with the local rebel Northern Storm brigade since then. "Right now, Syria is headed for a sectarian war," Erdogan said in an interview on Turkish television late on Thursday. "This is the danger we are facing." Turkey has bolstered its defenses and sent additional troops to the border with Syria in recent weeks. Its parliament voted on Thursday to extend by a year a mandate authorizing a military deployment to Syria if needed. Russia, Assad's most powerful ally, pointed to the seizure of Azaz as evidence Islamists are gaining the upper hand and said states that want his overthrow had helped make that happen.

"The balance of power among the opposition fighting forces is stacking up decisively in favor of the Islamists," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. "We are by no means gloating about this - clearly a dangerous new act in the bloody tragedy is unfolding. "We warned of such a turn of events at the very beginning of the Syrian epic, when our opponents, hoping for the regime's swift fall ... were ready to support any forces calling for the government's overthrow."

UNDECIDED ON ELECTIONS Assad accused Erdogan, whose AK Party has its roots in conservative Islamist politics, of having a sectarian agenda.

"Before the crisis, Erdogan had never mentioned reforms or democracy, he was never interested in these issues ... Erdogan only wanted the Muslim Brotherhood to return to Syria, that was his main and core aim," he said.

Erdogan's government strongly denies any such agenda. His aides point to his cultivation of good relations with Assad for years before the conflict and say Turkey does not see Syria's Sunni Muslims and its Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ism to which Assad belongs, as fixed blocs. Assad said he had not yet decided whether to run in presidential elections next year because the situation on the ground was changing rapidly, adding that he would only put himself forward if Syrians wanted him to. The picture will become clearer in the next 4-5 months, Assad said. The United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011 and has been notified of at least 14 chemical attacks. The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution last week that demands the eradication of Syria's chemical weapons and endorses a plan for a political transition in Syria agreed on at an international conference in Geneva last year. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after the vote that major powers hoped to hold a second peace conference on Syria in mid-November in Geneva. In his interview, Assad again denied his forces had used chemical weapons and blamed such attacks on the rebels. Asked whether he expected the Geneva process to accelerate if Syria handed over its chemical weapons, Assad said he saw no link. "Practically these issues are not related. Geneva II is about Syria's own domestic political process and cutting neighboring countries' weapons and financial support to terrorists," he said. (Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Orhan Coskun in Ankara and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Andrew Roche) ==============