Saudi data center pipeline grows as Edarat lands SAR 197.8 mn AI facility contract

Riyadh is adding another data center project: Saudi-listed Edarat Communication and Information Technology has secured a SAR 197.8 mn award from Al Moammar Information System (MIS) to provide design, construction supervision, testing, and commissioning services for an AI data center with 200 MW of planned capacity, according to a Tadawul disclosure. The company received a separate SAR 72.4 mn AI data center award from MIS in March — covering the same engineering and commissioning services, according to a separate disclosure.

The latest award adds another 200 MW to Saudi’s fast-growing data center pipeline. MIS said it would invest USD 1.2 bn to expand its data centers to 192 MW, while NHC Innovation committed USD 880 mn for 65 MW at Khuzam Digital Valley. Humain and DataVolt also started construction on the first 100 MW of DataVolt's planned 1.5 GW Oxagon campus.

Iraq wants more

Iraq wants OPEC+ to treat it as a 6 mn barrel-a-day producer — nearly 1.6 mn bpd above its current 4.4 mn bpd quota — as the group’s external auditor reviews members’ sustainable capacity ahead of setting 2027 targets, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The audit wraps by month-end, with oil ministers ratifying new quotas in November.

The request comes as OPEC again lowered its expectation for global oil demand growth this year, bringing the figure down to 380k bbl / d, Reuters reports. The revision marks the fifth consecutive month that the cartel has brought down its forecast. The group expects demand to pick up next year.

Iraq pumped just 2.9 mn bpd in August — well under its existing quota — as Iran’s war-driven disruption of Strait of Hormuz shipping throttled exports. The IEA pegs Iraq’s real sustainable capacity at 4.9 mn bpd, which is 1.1 mn bpd short of Baghdad’s number.

Iraq’s move comes months after the UAE quit OPEC entirely in May — hit by the same Iranian strikes and Hormuz squeeze — over an identical quota grievance. Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer, floated the same exit threat in June. A capacity finding that falls short of Baghdad’s ask will show whether that threat was leverage or a real fault line.

Test bed

Morocco just made a second fuel-export bet on Tan-Tan, this time on a technology that skips hydrogen altogether. Swiss solar-fuels company Synhelion signed an MoU with the Moroccan government to build a large-scale synthetic fuel plant in Tan-Tan, in the country’s southern region, according to a company statement. The planned facility would produce 100k tons of renewable fuel per year. No construction timeline, production start date, or investment figure were disclosed.

Tan-Tan is becoming Morocco’s power-to-X test bed. The province is already the site of Chbika, the USD 1.5 bn green hydrogen and ammonia project from TE H2, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and A.P. Moller Capital, which is still working through land rights and offtake negotiations two years after signing. The two projects give Morocco parallel routes to the same European fuel demand, with different bottlenecks in each.

Why the technology split matters: Synhelion concentrates solar heat and combines it with biogenic waste to make syngas, avoiding the electrolyser capex and power-price maths that has stalled PtX final investment decisions across the region.

Upstream, elsewhere

Qatar is expanding its overseas upstream portfolio with two new Angolan offshore blocks. The state energy giant, along with Shella and Angola’s Sonangol E&P, signed a production sharing agreement with Angola’s National Agency for Oil, Gas, and Biofuels that gives QatarEnergy 30%, Shell 50% as operator, and Sonangol 20%, according to Qatar Peninsula.

Qatar’s hydrocarbon sector is reeling from the US-Iran war. Qatar shipped just 18 LNG cargoes in the war’s first six months vs 509 a year earlier — a 96% drop worth ~USD 24 bn in foregone gas sales. LNG tanker crossings through Hormuz briefly recovered to 40 in June after a US-Iran memorandum before falling to 17 in July and 9 in August, according to Kpler. Angola fits a broader push to build overseas upstream capacity beyond the Gulf.

Hi, Clauze

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