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Saudi Arabia retains civil nuclear ambitions, despite Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 and the debate over Iran’s atomic development. According to King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (K.A. Care)’s 2013 white paper (see main story), its strategy to provide 51GW of alternative energy includes the installation of 18GW of nuclear power as a long-term alternative to oil, with the kingdom’s first three nuclear power reactors scheduled to come on line in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Riyadh’s continued interest in exploring a nuclear option is said by some analysts to be a driver of its recent rapprochement with Russia.

King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (K.A.CARE) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chinese National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) on 7 August, promising to enhance co-operation in peaceful nuclear energy. K.A.CARE officials including president Hashim Abdullah Yamani and vice-president Waleed Hussein Abu Al-Faraj visited China on 5-8 August and held various high-level meetings. The MoU was signed on the Chinese side by CNNC chief financial officer Hwan Min Gang at a ceremony in Shanghai. K.A.CARE was established in April 2010 with the aim of developing substantial alternative energy resources.

Finland’s Wärtsilä Corporation has received an order to supply a turnkey power plant to the Umm Al-Qura Cement Company, Wartsila said on 18 June. “The 47MW captive power plant will be located in the mountain desert close to Taif city. The equipment will be fast-track delivered by February 2015 and the project will enter commercial operation by October 2015,” the company said.

After the 1991 uprisings in Iraq, the Kurdish regions – Erbil, Sulemaniyah and Dohuk – were cut off from the national grid. For the rest of the nineties, Erbil and Sulemaniyah had to rely on supply from the hydroelectric power stations at Lake Dokan and Lake Derbandikhan, capable jointly of generating approximately 300-400MW during the summer months when conditions permit (i.e. there has been sufficient rain during the winter); Dohuk, meanwhile, was able to obtain limited power from Mosul.

Iraqis used to point to electricity supply problems as an endemic issue under Saddam Hussein, but they did not go away with the US-led invasion. Shortfalls in power services have added to disillusionment with Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s government, and are now challenging the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which – along with Sunni allies – has seized large swathes of Iraq, renaming itself the Islamic State, and triumphantly claiming its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, is the caliph of Muslims everywhere.

Saudi Arabia, a non-nuclear member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 1962, has committed to purchasing already enriched fuel on the international market (instead of aiming to master the nuclear fuel cycle), and is a partner in a number of international agreements that support the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Most recently, in 2009, Saudi Arabia signed a Safeguard Agreement with the IAEA, which begins the process of international collaboration to help the kingdom build a civilian nuclear programme. It has not signed the IAEA’s Additional Protocol, which gives the IAEA additional inspection authority.

Qatar has set up a $1bn fund to invest in energy infrastructure assets overseas. On 20 May, sovereign wealth fund Qatar Holding (QH), state-owned Qatar Petroleum International (QPI), and Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC) – 43% of which is owned by the government – signed a shareholders’ agreement to establish Nebras Power. QEWC will own 60%, with the other two stakeholders each taking 20%.

Oman’s two turnkey combined-cycle power plant (CCPP) projects Sohar 2 and Barka 3 have been completed and commissioned. In a press release on 25 April, Siemens Energy and its consortium partner GS E&C said both plants – which went into operation in simple-cycle mode in 2012 – started combined-cycle configuration in April, in time to meet the peak electricity demand this summer.

AK ruler Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al-Qasimi issued a decree on 14 March stating that the new Ras Al-Khaimah Electricity and Water Authority (Rakewa) is to have financial, administrative and legal autonomy. Water and power infrastructure in the northern emirates is lagging way behind, causing problems for property developers and putting off investors.

France’s Alstom has won a E750m ($976m) contract to supply equipment for the Yanbu 3 power and desalination plant on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast. The plant, which will run on heavy fuel oil (HFO), is due to enter commercial operation in 2016. It will produce 3,100MW, and supply sweet water and feed the grid in the western part of the country, which includes Jeddah, Yanbu, Medina and Mecca.

With the perception that even the richest oil exporters must re-gear their energy supply/demand profiles, the old saying that ‘the best source of new energy is the energy we don’t use’ finds itself high on the agenda as Riyadh seeks to avert a future supply crisis.

Halfaya oil field raises production; ABB wins $120m Kurdish contract

Abu Dhabi has agreed a framework for the short- and medium-term planning for technical co-operation between the UAE and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

A dispute between Taqa and its former boss has revived speculation about a contract to expand Morocco’s biggest power plant, fanned by politicking over the issue in Morocco, as the kingdom works through its own Arab Spring.

Sinohydro Corporation has signed a $2bn deal with the local Farabi company to build a 1,500MW hydroelectric dam in south-west Iran, state media reported on 21 March.