Oman’s hydrogen ambitions have a named customer

OQ Alternative Energy and Asyad Group have signed an offtake term sheet, Oman Observer reports, where Asyad will explore drawing hydrogen from OQAE’s Duqm project to power its logistics operations. The term sheet mentions no price, volume target or investment figure.

This is OQAE’s first end-to-end green hydrogen deployment — spanning renewable power, production, certification, handling and commercialization — but it’s built to produce just 400 kg of hydrogen a day, meaning it’s not at commercial scale. A dedicated refuelling station in Duqm is the next milestone, if the pilot works. The project sits inside the Duqm Special Economic Zone specifically so production and end-use can be tested within one industrial ecosystem.

It’s also a round two: OQ, Asyad, the transport ministry, Oman Oil Marketing Company, and Air Liquide signed a similar concept-study pact back in 2023 for Duqm hydrogen fuelling stations. Three years later, that concept has a named counterparty and a delivery mechanism.

More caught in the crosshairs

Washington sanctioned Istanbul-based investment bank Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi and its two subsidiaries — asset manager Golden Global Portfoy Yonetimi and asset-leasing firm Golden Global Varlik Kiralama — for allegedly funneling Iranian oil revenue between China and Iran’s IRGC Qods Force, Reuters reports. The US Treasury alleges that Golden Global let Iran convert oil revenue into cash and gold via money exchangers, and offered correspondent banking to Iranian institutions tied to the IRGC.

The bank itself is small — about USD 516.6 mn in total assets in 2025 — but the message is aimed past it. “As the Gulf gets shut down, Turkey is the obvious place for this money to move next, and the Treasury is already there,” Miad Maleki of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies told Reuters. Any foreign bank still transacting with Golden Global risks secondary exposure, which he called “the real point” of the action.

It’s the second bank hit in the US’ escalating “Operation Economic Outcast,” but the first NATO-country lender to be affected by the sanctions campaign. Last week, Treasury moved to sever five UAE branches of Egypt’s Banque Misr from US correspondent banking under Section 311, alleging USD 1.8 bn moved for 103 suspect Iranian shadow-banking firms — a move Egypt and the UAE jointly pledged to manage without disrupting normal banking.

Menzies eyes Gulf scale

Menzies Aviation is chasing more in the Gulf: The Agility Global-owned group handler is eyeing an growth in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and possibly Kuwait, The National News reports, citing the company’s CEO Hassan El-Houry. Syria is also under consideration as its aviation market reopens, while Menzies plans to keep expanding in the US, where its footprint has doubled over the past two years to 108 airports.

Menzies was already talking about a GCC wide expansion in 2024 including Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Saudi ground handling in particular comes with strong existing players — as Saudi Ground Services this year landed a SAR 6.3 bn five-year Saudia contract, on top of existing agreements with Flynas and Riyadh Air, while dnata maintains an extensive ground-handling presence in the UAE.

And Menzies is still pressing the accelerator even as its airline customers squeeze the cost base. El-Houry says Gulf carriers have restored their networks to roughly 90% of prewar levels, but higher fuel costs and operational uncertainty are pushing airlines to cut weaker routes and revisit supplier contracts. The company itself describes its overall growth as aggressive with 2Q revenue rising 31% y-o-y to USD 908 mn, helped by new contracts and its USD 305 mn acquisition of US aviation services player G2.