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Establishment of a specialised bank to encourage more investment into the petrochemicals industry is being considered, according to officials quoted by the official Shana news agency. The development emerged during a meeting of the Majlis-e Shura-ye Eslami (Islamic Consultative Assembly – parliament) Industries and Mines Committee, which was addressed by National Petrochemical Company managing director and deputy petroleum minister for petrochemical affairs Marziyeh Shahdaei. According to committee member Saeid Bastani, Shahdaei told the MPs the government is considering plans for the specialised bank as part of efforts to engage foreign investors and major petrochemical companies.

Muscat is considering the privatisation of some state-owned downstream energy assets, including Salalah Methanol Company and a drilling firm, oil minister Mohammed Al-Rumhy told an event in Abu Dhabi in April. The sale of upstream assets has been ruled out.

The Equate joint venture – 42.5% held by each of state-owned Petrochemical Industries Company and US giant Dow Chemical, with the local Boubyan (9%) and Qurain (6%) – has raised $500m from a debut sukuk. The first Sharia-compliant bond issue to be approved by the Capital Market Authority under new legislation was seven times over- subscribed with an order book of $3.7bn. The seven-year issue matures in February 2024. Global co-ordinators were Citigroup, JPMorgan, HSBC, NBK Capital and KFH Capital. More borrowing is expected as Equate rolls out its development programme.

Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS)’s comments to The Economist held out the promise that the housing crisis afflicting many poorer Saudi families could be tackled when land “in Mecca, Medina, in rural areas and in urban areas” – among the state’s many unutilised assets – is finally offered for investment (see above). “We have 4m m2 in Mecca alone. Jeddah for example: there is land, total area about 5m m2, right on the beach front in the heart of Jeddah. It is owned by the air defence. The value of the land itself is about $10bn,” MBS said, in a transcript published by The Economist.

Royal Dutch Shell has signed an $11bn deal to build the Nebras petrochemical facility in southern Iraq, Iraqi industry minister Nasser Al-Essawi said on 28 January. Essawi said the plant, slated to come on line in five to six years, is expected to produce 1.8m tonnes of petrochemical products per year, though a Shell spokesman would not confirm production capacity. Iraq’s cabinet gave the project – feasibility studies for which were conducted in 2012 – the go-ahead on 13 January, and Shell said it had subsequently signed a heads of agreement with the Iraqi government.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) and Royal Dutch Shell have scrapped plans to expand a petrochemicals joint venture in Jubail, after disappointing feasibility studies. In a statement to the Tadawul stock exchange, Sabic said the decision to stop pursuing further development of the Saudi Petrochemical Company joint venture would not have a financial impact. “Sabic announces that they are not going to pursue this investment further because the studies’ results were not encouraging, but asserts that their relations will continue to develop through the exploration of any other expansion opportunities,” the statement said.

The cabinet has approved a licence for the Saudi Arabian Company for Industrial Investments, which has a capital of SR2bn ($533m) and is a joint venture between the finance ministry’s Public Investment Fund, state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic). In a statement on state news agency SPA on 24 March, the cabinet said the company’s goals were to exploit basic products and invest them in manufacturing and supporting industries; to invest in strategic economic sectors with the aim of developing manufacturing industries in all industrial sectors.

Another of the string of cases related to bribery at Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) wrapped up on 9 January, when Alcoa World Alumina LLC agreed to plead guilty and pay $223m in criminal fines and forfeiture for having violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), as well as $161m to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).The case, brought by the Department of Justice (DoJ), follows investigations begun in 2008 into allegations that, to secure contracts, Alcoa paid millions of dollars of bribes through an international middleman in London to officials at Alba.

The government has proposed plans to revamp the organisational structure of Iran’s oil industry to grant the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) more autonomy.

The Middle East project finance market has been boosted by recent deals in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and the opening of US export credit agency Export-Import Bank in Iraq

A cluster of new financing facilities has raised well over $10bn, boosting the GCC’s project finance market

Dubai-based Topaz Engineering has been awarded a $45m engineering, procurement and construction contract from Sharjah-based Gulf Petrochem.

The Islamic Development Bank group’s International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation has signed a Dh73m ($19.8m) trade finance agreement