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Adnoc finds elixir for its oil fields
Adnoc finds elixir for its oil fields
Tamsin Carlisle, THE NATIONAL
Last Updated: May 08. 2008 10:11PM UAE / May 8. 2008 6:11PM GMT
Abu Dhabi’s quest to become a global hub for energy technology took a step forward yesterday when Linde Group, the German technology company, announced an US$800 million (Dh2.9 billion) joint venture with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) to extract nitrogen from air and pump it into ageing oil fields.
The initial project of the companies’ “Elixier” joint venture would be among the largest in the world to use nitrogen on an industrial scale to boost oil production.
It calls for the construction of a US$65 million air-separation plant at the Ruwais industrial complex on Abu Dhabi’s coast, which would produce nearly 600,000 cubic feet of nitrogen gas a day for injection into oil fields from late 2009. The plant would also supply liquefied nitrogen and oxygen to industrial customers at Ruwais.
Nitrogen, an inert gas, is the major constituent of air, comprising nearly 80 per cent of the earth’s atmosphere. It is also one of several gases that oil producers around the world are increasingly employing to coax more crude from big deposits with falling production.
Nitrogen’s big advantage for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects is its ready availability: air is everywhere. That means the gas can be produced close to big oil fields, avoiding high transportation costs.
The drawback is the cost of the technology used to separate air into its constituent parts, a complex engineering process that involves passing gases through “molecular sieves” as they are cooled, reheated and compressed.
But Adnoc hopes to recoup that cost by pumping more of the natural gas found in oil reservoirs. Without the injection of another gas, such as nitrogen, the natural gas would have to be left underground to maintain the pressure required to push oil into producing wells.
The commercial use of nitrogen for EOR is not new, and in the US dates back to the 1980s.
Still, the economics of such projects were often shaky. Now, soaring oil prices accompanied by rising natural gas prices on international markets are making the technology more economically viable, and much more in demand.
For Linde, the Abu Dhabi project could open the possibility of supplying other customers in the Middle East, said Stefan Metz, a company spokesman.
Indeed, Linde is already building eight air-separation plants at Ras Laffen in Qatar to supply oxygen to the Pearl project, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and the Anglo-Dutch energy company Royal Dutch Shell to make petroleum fuel products from natural gas.
In that project, scheduled for completion in 2010, nitrogen from the air-separation process is considered a by-product.
That is not the case with the world’s biggest air-separation plant, located in Mexico. At the end of the last millennium, output from Mexico’s Cantarell oilfield complex, site of one of the planet’s biggest crude deposits, had begun to falter.
In 2000, the country’s national oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), built an air-separation plant to pump out 1.2 billion cubic feet a day of high-pressure nitrogen for injection into the big offshore fields.
Oil production from Cantarell shot up 75 per cent over the next four years, peaking at 2.1 million barrels a day in 2004, when it accounted for nearly half of Pemex’s total output.
Although Cantarell crude production is again declining, billions of barrels of oil were pumped from the fields that otherwise would have stayed trapped below the seabed. Mexico, which had been slow to develop its large gas reserves as it expanded its industrial base, also reaped substantial economic benefits from producing Cantarell’s gas. The parallels between the UAE’s current circumstances and Mexico’s a few years back are striking: both countries are among the biggest oil producers in their respective hemispheres and, indeed, in the world.
The UAE today, like Mexico earlier this decade, is in the midst of an unforeseen industrial and population boom that has increased domestic gas demand faster than supply.
Other GCC countries have similar problems. Mr Metz said Linde was in negotiations to supply nitrogen to several potential new customers in the region, either from the Abu Dhabi plant or from additional air-separation plants that the firm hopes to build.
The German company’s clients already include Borouge, an Adnoc petrochemicals venture with the Austrian chemicals producer Borealis. In 2006, Linde was awarded a contract to build a large ethylene plant at Ruwais. Borouge may soon begin using oxygen supplied by Elixier.
tcarlisle@thenational.ae
Tamsin Carlisle, THE NATIONAL
Last Updated: May 08. 2008 10:11PM UAE / May 8. 2008 6:11PM GMT
Abu Dhabi’s quest to become a global hub for energy technology took a step forward yesterday when Linde Group, the German technology company, announced an US$800 million (Dh2.9 billion) joint venture with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) to extract nitrogen from air and pump it into ageing oil fields.
The initial project of the companies’ “Elixier” joint venture would be among the largest in the world to use nitrogen on an industrial scale to boost oil production.
It calls for the construction of a US$65 million air-separation plant at the Ruwais industrial complex on Abu Dhabi’s coast, which would produce nearly 600,000 cubic feet of nitrogen gas a day for injection into oil fields from late 2009. The plant would also supply liquefied nitrogen and oxygen to industrial customers at Ruwais.
Nitrogen, an inert gas, is the major constituent of air, comprising nearly 80 per cent of the earth’s atmosphere. It is also one of several gases that oil producers around the world are increasingly employing to coax more crude from big deposits with falling production.
Nitrogen’s big advantage for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects is its ready availability: air is everywhere. That means the gas can be produced close to big oil fields, avoiding high transportation costs.
The drawback is the cost of the technology used to separate air into its constituent parts, a complex engineering process that involves passing gases through “molecular sieves” as they are cooled, reheated and compressed.
But Adnoc hopes to recoup that cost by pumping more of the natural gas found in oil reservoirs. Without the injection of another gas, such as nitrogen, the natural gas would have to be left underground to maintain the pressure required to push oil into producing wells.
The commercial use of nitrogen for EOR is not new, and in the US dates back to the 1980s.
Still, the economics of such projects were often shaky. Now, soaring oil prices accompanied by rising natural gas prices on international markets are making the technology more economically viable, and much more in demand.
For Linde, the Abu Dhabi project could open the possibility of supplying other customers in the Middle East, said Stefan Metz, a company spokesman.
Indeed, Linde is already building eight air-separation plants at Ras Laffen in Qatar to supply oxygen to the Pearl project, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and the Anglo-Dutch energy company Royal Dutch Shell to make petroleum fuel products from natural gas.
In that project, scheduled for completion in 2010, nitrogen from the air-separation process is considered a by-product.
That is not the case with the world’s biggest air-separation plant, located in Mexico. At the end of the last millennium, output from Mexico’s Cantarell oilfield complex, site of one of the planet’s biggest crude deposits, had begun to falter.
In 2000, the country’s national oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), built an air-separation plant to pump out 1.2 billion cubic feet a day of high-pressure nitrogen for injection into the big offshore fields.
Oil production from Cantarell shot up 75 per cent over the next four years, peaking at 2.1 million barrels a day in 2004, when it accounted for nearly half of Pemex’s total output.
Although Cantarell crude production is again declining, billions of barrels of oil were pumped from the fields that otherwise would have stayed trapped below the seabed. Mexico, which had been slow to develop its large gas reserves as it expanded its industrial base, also reaped substantial economic benefits from producing Cantarell’s gas. The parallels between the UAE’s current circumstances and Mexico’s a few years back are striking: both countries are among the biggest oil producers in their respective hemispheres and, indeed, in the world.
The UAE today, like Mexico earlier this decade, is in the midst of an unforeseen industrial and population boom that has increased domestic gas demand faster than supply.
Other GCC countries have similar problems. Mr Metz said Linde was in negotiations to supply nitrogen to several potential new customers in the region, either from the Abu Dhabi plant or from additional air-separation plants that the firm hopes to build.
The German company’s clients already include Borouge, an Adnoc petrochemicals venture with the Austrian chemicals producer Borealis. In 2006, Linde was awarded a contract to build a large ethylene plant at Ruwais. Borouge may soon begin using oxygen supplied by Elixier.
tcarlisle@thenational.ae
Plastic fantastic
Plastic fantastic
Last Updated: May 10. 2008 9:48PM UAE / May 10. 2008 5:48PM GMT
The process by which Abu Dhabi’s natural gas is transformed into a Chinese car bumper more than 6,000km away is an unknown method to most people.
But governments in the Gulf are betting that by the end of the next decade, many consumers around the world will drive cars made, in part, from plastics manufactured in the region. The UAE and Saudi Arabia, in particular, are hoping that massive investments in chemical infrastructure and technology will diversify the revenue base for their oil-dependent treasuries.
Abu Dhabi’s plans to produce plastics for the Chinese car market illustrates how complex that wager will be.
First, natural gas must be harvested from wells in the Western Region and piped to Ruwais, where ethane is separated from the mix of compounds that occurs in natural gas.
The ethane gas is “cracked” with blasts of steam at high temperatures for short periods, producing ethylene. That is converted to propylene, then a catalyst is introduced to create polypropylene.
The little pellets of tough plastic that emerge will eventually be shipped to a planned compounding plant in Shanghai, where reinforcements, other modifiers and colouring will be added. Next, they are trucked to a factory, where they will be moulded into the bumpers and interior panelling of a Chinese-made car.
Car bumpers are but one piece of a strategy to develop a sophisticated, multi-step chemicals industry.
Last month, Borouge, the Abu Dhabi-based plastics maker, announced it would consider building a third plant at Ruwais that would more than double the company’s annual output of plastics. With its new plant in Shanghai and hefty stakes in two European chemical companies, Borouge wants to go global and grab a piece of the huge profits that come with selling more sophisticated products that require a highly skilled workforce.
The company’s expansion is one small piece of a global shift in the petrochemical industry from established bases in North America and Europe to the Middle East and Asia, where they gain a cost advantage in hydrocarbon feedstock at a time of rising energy prices.
Jean-François Seznec, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC and an expert on Gulf chemicals, said governments had realised they could employ more people and make more money by selling sophisticated products derived from crude oil and natural gas. So-called “downstream” operations enable producers to sell each part of their precious resource at a premium.
“Everybody in the region realises – at least the leadership in the region realises – they cannot just keep producing oil or just gas in Qatar,” Dr Seznec said. “Sooner or later, it’s going to run out.”
Abdulaziz Alhajri, the chief executive of Borouge, said regional petrochemicals producers were bringing advanced stages of plastics and chemicals production to the Gulf that were traditionally undertaken overseas.
“Today, the compounding and the downstream and some of the ingredients that we use in our industry are imported from outside,” he said.
But he noted that the model was steadily changing. “I see the future as very bright for the UAE, the overall Middle East,” he said.
In addition to the Borouge expansion, the International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic), a Government investment fund, and Borealis, one of Borouge’s parent companies, announced plans earlier this year to build the largest integrated chemicals and plastics complex in the world at Taweelah, near the border between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The plant will use naphtha, a derivative of crude oil, as a feedstock and produce plastics, petrol and basic chemicals.
The UAE is not the only one working on such a plan. In Saudi Arabia, the government plans to make the kingdom the largest producer of chemicals in the world in less than five years.
But building a sophisticated chemicals industry takes more than new plants, as companies have to either acquire or develop the catalysts and specialised equipment that allow them to compete in a market that is well established in the West.
Saudi Arabia’s drive to reach the top is being put into action by the twin behemoths Saudi Aramco and Saudi Arabia Basic Industries, or Sabic, which began laying the groundwork for its rise in the 1990s. Aramco has focused its downstream operations on refining and petrochemicals based on crude oil, while Sabic has steadily moved towards higher-end chemical products derived mainly from natural gas.
Sabic’s petrochemicals growth has been driven and sustained by access to cheap ethane feedstock, according to John Vautrain, a senior vice president at the petrochemical research firm Purvin and Gertz. He noted that Sabic pays US$0.75 for a million BTUs of ethane, 15 times cheaper than some competitors. The historic average price for ethane in the United States has hovered just above US$4.50 per million BTUs.
“They have a powerful platform for growth. Cheap ethane gives them an enormous cash flow,” he said. “They have such an enormous advantage, no one else can touch them.”
Sabic’s ambitions are well known. In 2006, the chief executive, Mohamed al Mady, announced that Sabic wanted to “be the preferred world leader in chemicals” by 2020.
Mr Seznec said the company had steadily moved into more and more sophisticated chemicals in the past 10 years, with a two-pronged strategy of signing joint ventures with Western companies and also buying up the companies themselves, along with the patented technology and skilled workers.
The strategy required a large cash reserve and a disciplined company leadership that had been able to set its sights on the long-term horizon, Mr Seznec said.
“This is really due to the vision of people. Money by itself is important, but it is not a sufficient variable to really create this growth,” he said. “I mean, Iran has the money, but they don’t do anything with it.”
The company’s headline-grabbing move came last summer, when it bought GE Plastics, a US-based company, to give itself more exposure to advanced chemicals technology.
Abu Dhabi has made its own moves to acquire sophisticated technology. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) created Borouge from a joint venture with the European chemical company Borealis. Ipic then bought a 65 per cent stake in Borealis itself and a 19.6 per cent share in OMV, the largest refiner and petrochemicals company in Austria.
Even with these investments, however, Mr Seznec noted that Saudi Arabia’s technology remained far ahead of the curve.
“I think the Saudi products will be a lot more downstream because, as they go into fine chemicals, they’ll be way beyond the more basic chemicals that are going to be produced by Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Qatar,” he said.
Mr Vautrain, the Purvin and Gertz analyst, noted the industry was entering a down cycle in terms of profit margins due to a glut of petrochemical products coming on to market, and the low-cost producers in the Middle East would increase their advantage.
“Overseas assets may become cheaper,” he said. “This is the time to do deals.”
Mr Seznec said the drive to develop a chemicals industry was not merely fuelled by a need to diversify the region’s economies, nor simply about making more money. It is also an effective strategy for conserving the region’s vast hydrocarbon reserves.
“At the end of the day, instead of having Saudi Arabia sell US$200 billion [Dh734.6bn] of oil, for instance, they will be selling maybe US$100 billion of oil, but then they’ll start selling US$100 billion worth of petrochemicals,” he said. “In the process, they will need to produce only one-fifth as much oil because there’s so much value into this business.”
Unfortunately, other GCC states face more challenges in entering the chemicals market. Bahrain, for instance, already has diversified industries, with several large refineries and the largest aluminium smelter in the world, but now has perhaps only eight years of natural gas left.
Dr Seznec said Kuwait half-heartedly moved downstream in a venture with Dow Chemical. But he said it lacked large natural gas reserves and had not moved towards using crude oil as a feedstock. It is now experiencing political infighting that could upend any attempts at large-scale economic reform. And despite recent announcements, Qatar was more concerned with managing lucrative LNG exports than committing to a large-scale petrochemicals expansion, he said.
But in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Mr Seznec has been following events closely and is hopeful, almost gleeful, about the future.
“What they’re trying to do is go into value-added productions, knowledge-based industries, basically, and that’s going to make them able, first of all to use a lot less of their resources to make a lot more money,” he said. “And in the process create employment for the locals, and in the long term make these countries major industrial producers in the world by 2020.”
@Email:cstanton@thenational.ae
Last Updated: May 10. 2008 9:48PM UAE / May 10. 2008 5:48PM GMT
The process by which Abu Dhabi’s natural gas is transformed into a Chinese car bumper more than 6,000km away is an unknown method to most people.
But governments in the Gulf are betting that by the end of the next decade, many consumers around the world will drive cars made, in part, from plastics manufactured in the region. The UAE and Saudi Arabia, in particular, are hoping that massive investments in chemical infrastructure and technology will diversify the revenue base for their oil-dependent treasuries.
Abu Dhabi’s plans to produce plastics for the Chinese car market illustrates how complex that wager will be.
First, natural gas must be harvested from wells in the Western Region and piped to Ruwais, where ethane is separated from the mix of compounds that occurs in natural gas.
The ethane gas is “cracked” with blasts of steam at high temperatures for short periods, producing ethylene. That is converted to propylene, then a catalyst is introduced to create polypropylene.
The little pellets of tough plastic that emerge will eventually be shipped to a planned compounding plant in Shanghai, where reinforcements, other modifiers and colouring will be added. Next, they are trucked to a factory, where they will be moulded into the bumpers and interior panelling of a Chinese-made car.
Car bumpers are but one piece of a strategy to develop a sophisticated, multi-step chemicals industry.
Last month, Borouge, the Abu Dhabi-based plastics maker, announced it would consider building a third plant at Ruwais that would more than double the company’s annual output of plastics. With its new plant in Shanghai and hefty stakes in two European chemical companies, Borouge wants to go global and grab a piece of the huge profits that come with selling more sophisticated products that require a highly skilled workforce.
The company’s expansion is one small piece of a global shift in the petrochemical industry from established bases in North America and Europe to the Middle East and Asia, where they gain a cost advantage in hydrocarbon feedstock at a time of rising energy prices.
Jean-François Seznec, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC and an expert on Gulf chemicals, said governments had realised they could employ more people and make more money by selling sophisticated products derived from crude oil and natural gas. So-called “downstream” operations enable producers to sell each part of their precious resource at a premium.
“Everybody in the region realises – at least the leadership in the region realises – they cannot just keep producing oil or just gas in Qatar,” Dr Seznec said. “Sooner or later, it’s going to run out.”
Abdulaziz Alhajri, the chief executive of Borouge, said regional petrochemicals producers were bringing advanced stages of plastics and chemicals production to the Gulf that were traditionally undertaken overseas.
“Today, the compounding and the downstream and some of the ingredients that we use in our industry are imported from outside,” he said.
But he noted that the model was steadily changing. “I see the future as very bright for the UAE, the overall Middle East,” he said.
In addition to the Borouge expansion, the International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic), a Government investment fund, and Borealis, one of Borouge’s parent companies, announced plans earlier this year to build the largest integrated chemicals and plastics complex in the world at Taweelah, near the border between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The plant will use naphtha, a derivative of crude oil, as a feedstock and produce plastics, petrol and basic chemicals.
The UAE is not the only one working on such a plan. In Saudi Arabia, the government plans to make the kingdom the largest producer of chemicals in the world in less than five years.
But building a sophisticated chemicals industry takes more than new plants, as companies have to either acquire or develop the catalysts and specialised equipment that allow them to compete in a market that is well established in the West.
Saudi Arabia’s drive to reach the top is being put into action by the twin behemoths Saudi Aramco and Saudi Arabia Basic Industries, or Sabic, which began laying the groundwork for its rise in the 1990s. Aramco has focused its downstream operations on refining and petrochemicals based on crude oil, while Sabic has steadily moved towards higher-end chemical products derived mainly from natural gas.
Sabic’s petrochemicals growth has been driven and sustained by access to cheap ethane feedstock, according to John Vautrain, a senior vice president at the petrochemical research firm Purvin and Gertz. He noted that Sabic pays US$0.75 for a million BTUs of ethane, 15 times cheaper than some competitors. The historic average price for ethane in the United States has hovered just above US$4.50 per million BTUs.
“They have a powerful platform for growth. Cheap ethane gives them an enormous cash flow,” he said. “They have such an enormous advantage, no one else can touch them.”
Sabic’s ambitions are well known. In 2006, the chief executive, Mohamed al Mady, announced that Sabic wanted to “be the preferred world leader in chemicals” by 2020.
Mr Seznec said the company had steadily moved into more and more sophisticated chemicals in the past 10 years, with a two-pronged strategy of signing joint ventures with Western companies and also buying up the companies themselves, along with the patented technology and skilled workers.
The strategy required a large cash reserve and a disciplined company leadership that had been able to set its sights on the long-term horizon, Mr Seznec said.
“This is really due to the vision of people. Money by itself is important, but it is not a sufficient variable to really create this growth,” he said. “I mean, Iran has the money, but they don’t do anything with it.”
The company’s headline-grabbing move came last summer, when it bought GE Plastics, a US-based company, to give itself more exposure to advanced chemicals technology.
Abu Dhabi has made its own moves to acquire sophisticated technology. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) created Borouge from a joint venture with the European chemical company Borealis. Ipic then bought a 65 per cent stake in Borealis itself and a 19.6 per cent share in OMV, the largest refiner and petrochemicals company in Austria.
Even with these investments, however, Mr Seznec noted that Saudi Arabia’s technology remained far ahead of the curve.
“I think the Saudi products will be a lot more downstream because, as they go into fine chemicals, they’ll be way beyond the more basic chemicals that are going to be produced by Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Qatar,” he said.
Mr Vautrain, the Purvin and Gertz analyst, noted the industry was entering a down cycle in terms of profit margins due to a glut of petrochemical products coming on to market, and the low-cost producers in the Middle East would increase their advantage.
“Overseas assets may become cheaper,” he said. “This is the time to do deals.”
Mr Seznec said the drive to develop a chemicals industry was not merely fuelled by a need to diversify the region’s economies, nor simply about making more money. It is also an effective strategy for conserving the region’s vast hydrocarbon reserves.
“At the end of the day, instead of having Saudi Arabia sell US$200 billion [Dh734.6bn] of oil, for instance, they will be selling maybe US$100 billion of oil, but then they’ll start selling US$100 billion worth of petrochemicals,” he said. “In the process, they will need to produce only one-fifth as much oil because there’s so much value into this business.”
Unfortunately, other GCC states face more challenges in entering the chemicals market. Bahrain, for instance, already has diversified industries, with several large refineries and the largest aluminium smelter in the world, but now has perhaps only eight years of natural gas left.
Dr Seznec said Kuwait half-heartedly moved downstream in a venture with Dow Chemical. But he said it lacked large natural gas reserves and had not moved towards using crude oil as a feedstock. It is now experiencing political infighting that could upend any attempts at large-scale economic reform. And despite recent announcements, Qatar was more concerned with managing lucrative LNG exports than committing to a large-scale petrochemicals expansion, he said.
But in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Mr Seznec has been following events closely and is hopeful, almost gleeful, about the future.
“What they’re trying to do is go into value-added productions, knowledge-based industries, basically, and that’s going to make them able, first of all to use a lot less of their resources to make a lot more money,” he said. “And in the process create employment for the locals, and in the long term make these countries major industrial producers in the world by 2020.”
@Email:cstanton@thenational.ae
Shell out of Iran gas deal
Shell out of Iran gas deal
Tom Bergin, THE NATIONAL
Last Updated: May 10. 2008 8:50PM UAE / May 10. 2008 4:50PM GMT
Royal Dutch Shell has pulled out of a planned US$10 billion (Dh36.7bn) gas project in Iran, after coming under pressure not to participate from US lawmakers who were concerned about the country’s nuclear programme.
A spokesman said yesterday that the world’s second-largest oil company by market capitalisation was pulling out of Phase 13 of the giant South Pars gas field, but may yet join later stages of the field’s development.
Shell, Spain’s Repsol and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a memorandum of understanding in January 2002 to develop Phase 13 in a project known as Persian LNG.
At the time, Shell said deliveries of liquefied natural gas – gas cooled to liquid under pressure for transportation in special tankers – could begin in 2007.
However, United Nations sanctions on Iran related to its nuclear programme, which it claims is for power generation, but which the US and European states believe is aimed at developing weapons, and criticisms of the deal from US politicians and investors, slowed progress.
Meanwhile, Iran grew impatient and threatened Shell with eviction from the project if it did not commit formally. The spokesman for the Anglo-Dutch company said: “We have agreed the principal of substitution of alternative later phases for the PLNG project so that NIOC can proceed with the immediate development of Phase 13.”
She would not give a reason for the decision. Repsol was not available for comment.
Iran will now need to find new partners for the project. Media reports have suggested Russia’s Gazprom, Indian Oil Corporation and Chinese companies could join, as they were expected to be less susceptible to US political pressure, but the companies have limited experience of LNG.
Shell and Repsol began negotiating with the Iranian government to pull out of the natural gas project at the beginning of this month. The companies wanted Iran to agree to drop their current development plans for block 14 of the South Pars field, but to allow them to bid for other parts of the field in the future if the international political climate improved.
On May 3, a Repsol spokesman declined to comment on the report. Shell and Repsol had planned to export South Pars gas via ship in liquefied form as part of the Persian LNG project. Now, it is more likely the gas will supply the Iranian market or be exported by pipeline.
The US discourages Western companies from investing in Iran, which it accuses of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusation.
* Reuters
Tom Bergin, THE NATIONAL
Last Updated: May 10. 2008 8:50PM UAE / May 10. 2008 4:50PM GMT
Royal Dutch Shell has pulled out of a planned US$10 billion (Dh36.7bn) gas project in Iran, after coming under pressure not to participate from US lawmakers who were concerned about the country’s nuclear programme.
A spokesman said yesterday that the world’s second-largest oil company by market capitalisation was pulling out of Phase 13 of the giant South Pars gas field, but may yet join later stages of the field’s development.
Shell, Spain’s Repsol and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a memorandum of understanding in January 2002 to develop Phase 13 in a project known as Persian LNG.
At the time, Shell said deliveries of liquefied natural gas – gas cooled to liquid under pressure for transportation in special tankers – could begin in 2007.
However, United Nations sanctions on Iran related to its nuclear programme, which it claims is for power generation, but which the US and European states believe is aimed at developing weapons, and criticisms of the deal from US politicians and investors, slowed progress.
Meanwhile, Iran grew impatient and threatened Shell with eviction from the project if it did not commit formally. The spokesman for the Anglo-Dutch company said: “We have agreed the principal of substitution of alternative later phases for the PLNG project so that NIOC can proceed with the immediate development of Phase 13.”
She would not give a reason for the decision. Repsol was not available for comment.
Iran will now need to find new partners for the project. Media reports have suggested Russia’s Gazprom, Indian Oil Corporation and Chinese companies could join, as they were expected to be less susceptible to US political pressure, but the companies have limited experience of LNG.
Shell and Repsol began negotiating with the Iranian government to pull out of the natural gas project at the beginning of this month. The companies wanted Iran to agree to drop their current development plans for block 14 of the South Pars field, but to allow them to bid for other parts of the field in the future if the international political climate improved.
On May 3, a Repsol spokesman declined to comment on the report. Shell and Repsol had planned to export South Pars gas via ship in liquefied form as part of the Persian LNG project. Now, it is more likely the gas will supply the Iranian market or be exported by pipeline.
The US discourages Western companies from investing in Iran, which it accuses of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusation.
* Reuters
Test run of the Dubai Metro begins
Test run of the Dubai Metro begins
Staff Report Published: May 12, 2008, 10:18
Dubai: Officials from the Dubai Road and Transport Authority (RTA) have tested a five-car Metro train on a stretch of completed track near Jebel Ali on Monday.
Witnesses said the train, which can reach speeds of up to 40km per hour, passed through an uncompleted station a number of times.
The first line of Dubai’s Dh15.5 billion Metro system is expected to be complete by September next year. The second will be ready by March 2010.
The RTA said more Metro trains will be seen travelling up and down the test stretch in the coming months as testing continues.
Temperatures soar in the UAE
Temperatures soar in the UAE
By Mahmood Saberi, Senior Reporter Published: May 12, 2008, 13:51
Dubai: It was extremely hot and dry throughout the emirates on Monday, with the mercury going past 44 degrees Celsius in Abu Dhabi and 45 degrees Celsius in Jebel Ali and Minhad Air Base in the desert.
“Summer is here officially,” said the duty forecaster at National Centre for Metereology and Seismology in Abu Dhabi.
In Dubai and Sharjah the temperature was hovering around 44 degrees Celsius and dropped slightly as a north-westerly wind developed.
“The temperature has reached a high this month.” said the duty forecaster in Sharjah. The wind blew up dust reducing visibility to 3000 meters, but not dusty enough to affect flights.
When cool sea breezes mix with the high surface temperatures usually it throws up dust, according to the forecaster.
The sea breeze blowing inland will drop temperatures to 38 degrees Celsius over the weekend making it pleasant in the evenings, said Dr S.K. Gupta, duty forecaster at the Dubai Met Office. The Comfort Index is at 2 as humidity is low between 24 to 30 percent.
It was cloudy over Qatar on Monday with a few spots of rain but the cloud cover was unlikely to head for the UAE.
By Mahmood Saberi, Senior Reporter Published: May 12, 2008, 13:51
Dubai: It was extremely hot and dry throughout the emirates on Monday, with the mercury going past 44 degrees Celsius in Abu Dhabi and 45 degrees Celsius in Jebel Ali and Minhad Air Base in the desert.
“Summer is here officially,” said the duty forecaster at National Centre for Metereology and Seismology in Abu Dhabi.
In Dubai and Sharjah the temperature was hovering around 44 degrees Celsius and dropped slightly as a north-westerly wind developed.
“The temperature has reached a high this month.” said the duty forecaster in Sharjah. The wind blew up dust reducing visibility to 3000 meters, but not dusty enough to affect flights.
When cool sea breezes mix with the high surface temperatures usually it throws up dust, according to the forecaster.
The sea breeze blowing inland will drop temperatures to 38 degrees Celsius over the weekend making it pleasant in the evenings, said Dr S.K. Gupta, duty forecaster at the Dubai Met Office. The Comfort Index is at 2 as humidity is low between 24 to 30 percent.
It was cloudy over Qatar on Monday with a few spots of rain but the cloud cover was unlikely to head for the UAE.
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Top tips for the morning after
Top tips for the morning after
If in spite of your best intentions you end up drinking more than you should, there are a few things you can do to ease the morning after.
* Drink as much water as you can before going to sleep, and put some beside the bed too.
* A painkiller - soluble is best - helps with the headache
* Take an antacid to settle your stomach
* Alcohol is a depressant, so tea or coffee can perk you up (but it can dehydrate you, so keep up the water as well)
* Drinking lowers your blood sugar level, so eat as soon as you can. Bananas, cereal, or egg on toast are all good morning-after snacks
* Never ever do hair of the dog - you'll just prolong the agony
* Have 48 hours off the booze if it was a heavy session
And next time, follow our top tips for a great night out and you won't suffer again
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
YouTube launches India-specific site to tap local flavours
YouTube launches India-specific site to tap local flavours
Internet search firm Google Inc launched an India-specific version of its free video hosting site YouTube on Wednesday, aiming to be a traffic generator for everyone from media companies seeking new markets to small-time music bands seeking global glory.
Like its other offerings, the localised site (http://www.youtube.co.in) will differentiate content using its search technologies to throw up content relevant to India, which is the 20th in the series of country-specific YouTube sites that Google has launched. The global YouTube site already has 5 million Indian users.
It is not clear yet how YouTube will make money from its site which has established itself as the leading global hub for amateur videos.
For the moment it is experimenting with revenue-sharing with established media companies like Rajshri Films and UTV on a trial basis, while also carrying out in-house experiments on unobtrusive overlay advertisements on the videos. Revenue sharing is not available now for amateurs.
The challenge for Google is to evolve a mechanism to perfect revenue-sharing and payments, like it has done for its search-based ads and content for its Blogger.com site.
“Once we get to a point where we are comfortable, we’ll get there in a heartbeat,” Sakina Arsiwala, YouTube’s Mumbai-bred International Manager, told Hindustan Times in an interview.
YouTube, which is a company acquired by Google, is building volumes, while Google’s own video site (http://video.google.com) is focused on video search, Arsiwala said.
To help protect the copyrights of established media players and at the same time track users in a manner that could generate advertisement-friendly data, Google has developed audio and video “fingerprinting” technologies that can catch intellectual property thieves.
YouTube is for video streaming, not downloads, and has not evolved digital rights management (DRM) technologies that could help content generators make money by selling their videos through YouTube.
Internet search firm Google Inc launched an India-specific version of its free video hosting site YouTube on Wednesday, aiming to be a traffic generator for everyone from media companies seeking new markets to small-time music bands seeking global glory.
Like its other offerings, the localised site (http://www.youtube.co.in) will differentiate content using its search technologies to throw up content relevant to India, which is the 20th in the series of country-specific YouTube sites that Google has launched. The global YouTube site already has 5 million Indian users.
It is not clear yet how YouTube will make money from its site which has established itself as the leading global hub for amateur videos.
For the moment it is experimenting with revenue-sharing with established media companies like Rajshri Films and UTV on a trial basis, while also carrying out in-house experiments on unobtrusive overlay advertisements on the videos. Revenue sharing is not available now for amateurs.
The challenge for Google is to evolve a mechanism to perfect revenue-sharing and payments, like it has done for its search-based ads and content for its Blogger.com site.
“Once we get to a point where we are comfortable, we’ll get there in a heartbeat,” Sakina Arsiwala, YouTube’s Mumbai-bred International Manager, told Hindustan Times in an interview.
YouTube, which is a company acquired by Google, is building volumes, while Google’s own video site (http://video.google.com) is focused on video search, Arsiwala said.
To help protect the copyrights of established media players and at the same time track users in a manner that could generate advertisement-friendly data, Google has developed audio and video “fingerprinting” technologies that can catch intellectual property thieves.
YouTube is for video streaming, not downloads, and has not evolved digital rights management (DRM) technologies that could help content generators make money by selling their videos through YouTube.
World learns from Abu Dhabi
World learns from Abu Dhabi
James Bennett
Abu Dhabi has been identified as the ultimate “power city” of the next millennium in a survey of 130 global cities drawn up by one of the world’s largest property advisory firms.
In its fourth biennial World Winning Cities study, Jones Lang LaSalle unveiled Abu Dhabi as the “power city” that would become one of the world’s fastest growing “urban stars” and be on the “radar screen of the real estate industry” for the next decade.
The company also predicted that Abu Dhabi would be a “city of substance” by 2010, a “regional hub” by 2015 and a “world winning city” by 2020, a decade ahead of its proposed Plan 2030.
“In our first study in 2002, we highlighted Dubai, Dublin and Las Vegas as being among a new wave of city winners. However, this year’s winner is Abu Dhabi, [which] in the past used to learn from other cities, but now other cities are learning from Abu Dhabi and its approach and impressive vision for the future,” said Blair Hagkull, the managing director for the Middle East and North Africa at Jones Lang LaSalle.
“It now has a lot to teach the world and in a decade, it has gone from being a student to being a teacher,” Mr Hagkull said.
The company chose Abu Dhabi after extensive research assessing more than 130 countries and cities. It assessed 10 principles of city competitiveness: performance, population, planning, power, place making (events, culture, meeting places), purity (sustainability, quality of life, environment), people, physical and property.
The report stated that Abu Dhabi offered one of the most favourable combinations of ingredients to become an emerging world-winning city, as well as having a chance to learn from the successes and challenges of Dubai.
“The predominant factor is its ambition to become a truly sustainable world-class city based on massive infrastructure investment, large real estate development, world-leading cultural facilities and major events, underpinned by significant population and employment growth,” said Mr Hagkull.
The report said the city was fully embracing urban master-planning with the launch of Plan Abu Dhabi 2030. This, it said, was unique to the region and created a “structured and clearly articulated framework for the city’s long-term growth”.
It added that the city epitomised a fresh spirit of city building, which is almost “unmatched anywhere else in the world”.
“We believe that Abu Dhabi is a city to watch over the next decade with an importance and influence that is expected to extend well beyond its immediate geography,” Mr Hagkull said.
“It is not often you get a city of fewer than one million people that has so much global influence. How many countries with such a small population have as much power as Abu Dhabi? Virtually none. It is one of the most influential cities in the world in the fact that it is a city that is not only building itself, but also helping to build others around the world.
“Historically, it learnt lessons from other places around the world, but now people are coming to Abu Dhabi, international firms like ours, to learn from what it is doing. Its influence is now being applied to other cities around the world. It is not only the capital city that is growing, but it is emerging as a global investor.”
The report said Abu Dhabi was chosen as this year’s winning city despite Dubai’s growth and proximity.
“Abu Dhabi’s city planners have clearly watched Dubai’s less controlled growth and, arguably, an erosion of its local heritage to formulate their own expansion agenda,” the report said. “One that puts culture and community ahead of pure commercialisation.”
Mr Hagkull said: “Abu Dhabi is complementing Dubai. It is not often you get two very different cities 150km apart growing at such a rate. Both have different focuses. Abu Dhabi is in a unique position that it can learn from what Dubai has done well and the mistakes it has made and build on them.”
The research also identified the challenges ahead for the city and emirate.
The main challenges, said Mr Hagkull, would be for the city planners to carefully manage its ambitious expansion plans and, from a property perspective, to ensure the market was transparent.
The city would also have to cultivate indigenous growth and ensure sufficient differentiation in its offer from neighbouring Dubai, he said.
“Not only does a transparent market attract global property investors, but crucially it is a key constituent of an open and globally connected city,” the report said, adding that it was imperative the city attracted top quality multinational corporations to “feed” it with intellectual capital.
“The challenges for Abu Dhabi are that it is a very young and very fast growing city. There is a lot of pressure being put on some very young institutions and some that are only just being formed,” said Mr Hagkull.
“Infrastructure could hamper its progress. The challenge for any city is infrastructure.
“There are many things under one vision, but the key will be for that to be effectively distributed to the right people. It will need organisations like the Urban Planning Council to take the pressure off the leadership.
“Usually, the biggest risk is that ambition and capital don’t meet. Abu Dhabi has laid out a very clear and defined vision and the risk is not being able to achieve that. Abu Dhabi has the chance to be the epitome of a 21st century city, but you won’t have to wait until 2030 to see the city being completed. The majority of its ambitions will be achieved well before that date.”
jbennett@thenational.ae
James Bennett
Abu Dhabi has been identified as the ultimate “power city” of the next millennium in a survey of 130 global cities drawn up by one of the world’s largest property advisory firms.
In its fourth biennial World Winning Cities study, Jones Lang LaSalle unveiled Abu Dhabi as the “power city” that would become one of the world’s fastest growing “urban stars” and be on the “radar screen of the real estate industry” for the next decade.
The company also predicted that Abu Dhabi would be a “city of substance” by 2010, a “regional hub” by 2015 and a “world winning city” by 2020, a decade ahead of its proposed Plan 2030.
“In our first study in 2002, we highlighted Dubai, Dublin and Las Vegas as being among a new wave of city winners. However, this year’s winner is Abu Dhabi, [which] in the past used to learn from other cities, but now other cities are learning from Abu Dhabi and its approach and impressive vision for the future,” said Blair Hagkull, the managing director for the Middle East and North Africa at Jones Lang LaSalle.
“It now has a lot to teach the world and in a decade, it has gone from being a student to being a teacher,” Mr Hagkull said.
The company chose Abu Dhabi after extensive research assessing more than 130 countries and cities. It assessed 10 principles of city competitiveness: performance, population, planning, power, place making (events, culture, meeting places), purity (sustainability, quality of life, environment), people, physical and property.
The report stated that Abu Dhabi offered one of the most favourable combinations of ingredients to become an emerging world-winning city, as well as having a chance to learn from the successes and challenges of Dubai.
“The predominant factor is its ambition to become a truly sustainable world-class city based on massive infrastructure investment, large real estate development, world-leading cultural facilities and major events, underpinned by significant population and employment growth,” said Mr Hagkull.
The report said the city was fully embracing urban master-planning with the launch of Plan Abu Dhabi 2030. This, it said, was unique to the region and created a “structured and clearly articulated framework for the city’s long-term growth”.
It added that the city epitomised a fresh spirit of city building, which is almost “unmatched anywhere else in the world”.
“We believe that Abu Dhabi is a city to watch over the next decade with an importance and influence that is expected to extend well beyond its immediate geography,” Mr Hagkull said.
“It is not often you get a city of fewer than one million people that has so much global influence. How many countries with such a small population have as much power as Abu Dhabi? Virtually none. It is one of the most influential cities in the world in the fact that it is a city that is not only building itself, but also helping to build others around the world.
“Historically, it learnt lessons from other places around the world, but now people are coming to Abu Dhabi, international firms like ours, to learn from what it is doing. Its influence is now being applied to other cities around the world. It is not only the capital city that is growing, but it is emerging as a global investor.”
The report said Abu Dhabi was chosen as this year’s winning city despite Dubai’s growth and proximity.
“Abu Dhabi’s city planners have clearly watched Dubai’s less controlled growth and, arguably, an erosion of its local heritage to formulate their own expansion agenda,” the report said. “One that puts culture and community ahead of pure commercialisation.”
Mr Hagkull said: “Abu Dhabi is complementing Dubai. It is not often you get two very different cities 150km apart growing at such a rate. Both have different focuses. Abu Dhabi is in a unique position that it can learn from what Dubai has done well and the mistakes it has made and build on them.”
The research also identified the challenges ahead for the city and emirate.
The main challenges, said Mr Hagkull, would be for the city planners to carefully manage its ambitious expansion plans and, from a property perspective, to ensure the market was transparent.
The city would also have to cultivate indigenous growth and ensure sufficient differentiation in its offer from neighbouring Dubai, he said.
“Not only does a transparent market attract global property investors, but crucially it is a key constituent of an open and globally connected city,” the report said, adding that it was imperative the city attracted top quality multinational corporations to “feed” it with intellectual capital.
“The challenges for Abu Dhabi are that it is a very young and very fast growing city. There is a lot of pressure being put on some very young institutions and some that are only just being formed,” said Mr Hagkull.
“Infrastructure could hamper its progress. The challenge for any city is infrastructure.
“There are many things under one vision, but the key will be for that to be effectively distributed to the right people. It will need organisations like the Urban Planning Council to take the pressure off the leadership.
“Usually, the biggest risk is that ambition and capital don’t meet. Abu Dhabi has laid out a very clear and defined vision and the risk is not being able to achieve that. Abu Dhabi has the chance to be the epitome of a 21st century city, but you won’t have to wait until 2030 to see the city being completed. The majority of its ambitions will be achieved well before that date.”
jbennett@thenational.ae
Plans for tax on goods ready by end of 2008
Plans for tax on goods ready by end of 2008
Robert Ditcham, THE NATIONAL
Last Updated: May 07. 2008 1:56AM UAE / May 6. 2008 9:56PM GMT
The introduction of VAT is likely to be unpopular with Emiratis, residents and businesses, who have enjoyed years of tax-free conditions. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National
The UAE will be ready to introduce a system of value added tax (VAT) by the end of the year.
Abdul Rahman al Saleh, the executive director of Dubai Customs, said the “infrastructure” for an Emirates-wide taxation system would be put in place between October and December.
Dubai Customs was commissioned by the Government two years ago to look into a potential VAT and is finalising the strategy. If implemented, it would be the first time VAT, which is applied to the sale of goods and services and not income, has been imposed in a GCC nation.
However, a government source said although the mechanics would be in place, it was “very unlikely” that VAT would be introduced this year because Federal approval and GCC co-operation, on several related issues, would be required.
VAT would be introduced to replace customs duties, which the UAE must phase out as part of the free trade agreements (FTAs) it is signing with a number of major trading partners, Mr Saleh said.
The government source, who declined to be identified, said a GCC-wide agreement on these FTAs is still some way off.
Mr Saleh told a seminar at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai that VAT was likely to be set at a flat rate of between three and five per cent. It would be applied to all goods and services.
The introduction of VAT is likely to be unpopular with Emiratis, residents and businesses, who have enjoyed years of tax-free conditions.
If the UAE were to introduce it before other members of the GCC, analysts warned the tax could drive business away from the UAE.
Although the proposed three to five per cent rate is lower than in many other countries – the rate in the UK, for instance, is 17.5 per cent – residents are likely to oppose any measure that could increase already rising food and accommodation costs.
But Mr Saleh said prices were unlikely to climb because of the removal of customs duties.
“I don’t expect a negative reaction from the public because the providers of the services and the goods will take care of this [VAT expense],” he said.
“They would not be paying customs duty so they should not need to increase their prices.” Mr Saleh said if Federal authorities decided to press ahead with VAT, there would be a provision for tourists to claim back the tax they paid on purchases over a set amount. Small businesses with revenue of less than a specific annual figure – expected to be about Dh3.67 million (US$1m) – would also be exempt, he added.
Customs officials have said the VAT would be necessary to replace the “lost revenue” from the removal of customs duties. The funds would be required for investment in health, education and public infrastructure, they said.
The International Monetary Fund is backing the initiative.
Mr Saleh said Dubai Customs had been working for the past two years to develop a VAT system that could be applied across the Emirates.
He said research was conducted in countries such as the UK and New Zealand, many of which use different forms of the taxation system. While some countries apply a low flat rate to all goods and services, others tax certain goods heavily but exempt others.
“We will put in a low rate and have direct aids to the right people, rather than having exemptions. Products and services in certain areas, such as education and health, can be looked at by the Government.”
rditcham@thenational.ae
Robert Ditcham, THE NATIONAL
Last Updated: May 07. 2008 1:56AM UAE / May 6. 2008 9:56PM GMT
The introduction of VAT is likely to be unpopular with Emiratis, residents and businesses, who have enjoyed years of tax-free conditions. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National
The UAE will be ready to introduce a system of value added tax (VAT) by the end of the year.
Abdul Rahman al Saleh, the executive director of Dubai Customs, said the “infrastructure” for an Emirates-wide taxation system would be put in place between October and December.
Dubai Customs was commissioned by the Government two years ago to look into a potential VAT and is finalising the strategy. If implemented, it would be the first time VAT, which is applied to the sale of goods and services and not income, has been imposed in a GCC nation.
However, a government source said although the mechanics would be in place, it was “very unlikely” that VAT would be introduced this year because Federal approval and GCC co-operation, on several related issues, would be required.
VAT would be introduced to replace customs duties, which the UAE must phase out as part of the free trade agreements (FTAs) it is signing with a number of major trading partners, Mr Saleh said.
The government source, who declined to be identified, said a GCC-wide agreement on these FTAs is still some way off.
Mr Saleh told a seminar at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai that VAT was likely to be set at a flat rate of between three and five per cent. It would be applied to all goods and services.
The introduction of VAT is likely to be unpopular with Emiratis, residents and businesses, who have enjoyed years of tax-free conditions.
If the UAE were to introduce it before other members of the GCC, analysts warned the tax could drive business away from the UAE.
Although the proposed three to five per cent rate is lower than in many other countries – the rate in the UK, for instance, is 17.5 per cent – residents are likely to oppose any measure that could increase already rising food and accommodation costs.
But Mr Saleh said prices were unlikely to climb because of the removal of customs duties.
“I don’t expect a negative reaction from the public because the providers of the services and the goods will take care of this [VAT expense],” he said.
“They would not be paying customs duty so they should not need to increase their prices.” Mr Saleh said if Federal authorities decided to press ahead with VAT, there would be a provision for tourists to claim back the tax they paid on purchases over a set amount. Small businesses with revenue of less than a specific annual figure – expected to be about Dh3.67 million (US$1m) – would also be exempt, he added.
Customs officials have said the VAT would be necessary to replace the “lost revenue” from the removal of customs duties. The funds would be required for investment in health, education and public infrastructure, they said.
The International Monetary Fund is backing the initiative.
Mr Saleh said Dubai Customs had been working for the past two years to develop a VAT system that could be applied across the Emirates.
He said research was conducted in countries such as the UK and New Zealand, many of which use different forms of the taxation system. While some countries apply a low flat rate to all goods and services, others tax certain goods heavily but exempt others.
“We will put in a low rate and have direct aids to the right people, rather than having exemptions. Products and services in certain areas, such as education and health, can be looked at by the Government.”
rditcham@thenational.ae
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
Cool ideas to beat the heat
Cool ideas to beat the heat
Bradley Hope for THE NATIONAL
In recent history, property developers have had a pretty basic strategy for dealing with summer heat which can reach 50°C with 97 per cent humidity – air conditioning.
Buildings have blasted out an arctic-style chill to such a degree that some people need a sweater. But as the city evolves into a year-round destination for tourists and business travellers, and a permanent home for an increasing population, developers have been busy working on a slew of new technologies and techniques to mitigate the climate.
Not only have they been trying to create more energy-efficient indoor cooling systems, but they are also working to reduce the outside temperature as well. It is a far cry from the days when Emiratis just evacuated the city by camel to Al Ain in the summer.
The strategies range from the elementary – canopies, building layout, cool-water misters — to the complex, like mechanical roofs that respond to the temperature, or seawater circulating under pavements.
The latest project to go head-to-head with the heat has been planned for a 1.4 million square metre plot of parched desert near Zayed Sport City Stadium. The developer is Capitala, a partnership involving one of the Government’s local investment arms, Mubadala, and a Singapore developer, CapitaLand. Details of the project are expected to be announced next week during the three-day Cityscape Abu Dhabi conference at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, but the head of Mubadala’s property division, John Thomas, has released a few tantalising early details.
Mr Thomas said the project near the Zayed Sport City Stadium was partially inspired by Clarke Quay in Singapore: once a humid, nearly uninhabitable industrial quarter on the water. CapitaLand transformed Clarke Quay into a trendy shopping and nightlife district while the British firm, Alsop Architects, designed a system of canopies and umbrellas to shade the streets, placing misters and giant fans at different locations to create a cool, artificial breeze.
“It was an eye-opener,” said Mr Thomas. “It’s four or five degrees cooler. They know how to work with a climate similar to ours.”
What is more, if Capitala can make those technologies work in Abu Dhabi, it bodes well for what could become an entire industry devoted to weather mitigation. Developers and architects here could market their designs around the world, and even in nearby GCC countries, which are also undergoing a building boom thanks to an influx of money from high oil prices.
Some of the most dramatic solutions have been devised by the Abu Dhabi development company, Sorouh, and Arup, a UK-based design and architecture firm, on Shams Abu Dhabi. At the centrepiece of the island, which is an 84,500-square-metre green space with amphitheatres and activity areas called Central Park, the developer has planned to circulate seawater underground to cool the pavements and benches and hide misters in nooks and crannies on the exterior of buildings. Everything in the project will be crafted to take advantage of breezes and natural shading. Arup estimates that it can lower the temperature by at least 6°C.
Another firm at the forefront of this innovation is Foster & Partners, which has been designing the new Central Market, a residential development at Al Raha Beach, as well as Masdar, the zero-emissions project.
Gerard Evenden, a senior partner at the company, said that climate control starts with simple things like materials used in construction and the orientation of the building.
“It’s extremely important to consider the relationship of the building to the sun and the wind, and for Abu Dhabi, you have to think about the water supply and the dust,” Mr Evenden said.
For instance, in contrast to the wide avenues and tall buildings in Abu Dhabi, narrower spaces between buildings are shaded for longer periods of the day, which can prevent heat from generating in the walls.
“It’s called solar build-up,” Mr Evenden said, adding that heavy concrete walls should be in the shade because they absorb heat. But if kept cooler “the wall itself will radiate cooling”, he said. The effect can be felt in cathedrals, which are cold in the winter, cool during a summer’s day and warm at night.
At Central Market, Foster & Partners had designed a mechanical roof that can respond to weather and the time of day. In the summer, it can close to retain the air-conditioning, but in cooler months be opened to pull in a breeze.
“It’s about giving people choices in the way space changes throughout the year,” Mr Evenden said.
Building design itself can create a more energy efficient type of cooling. At Auto Mall, a development of three buildings in Dubai’s Business Park MotorCity, Union Properties has been using state-of-the-art architecture to reduce heat.
Adib Moubadder, the company’s director of facilities, said hot air was less likely to penetrate the Auto Mall because its design “reduces the cooling load by creating positive pressure on the whole building”.
Still, developers need to be wary of too many technological solutions, which can reduce the energy efficiency of a building, said Alan Paterson, Aldar’s head of planning. Air conditioning is inherently a wasteful way to cool a space, but cool water misters are not particularly efficient either, especially in a desert environment where water is scarce.
“Supplying the water to allow the misters and under-pavement supply may produce cooling locally but may be unsustainable generally,” he said.
Mr Paterson added that a major driver of smart cooling techniques was the increasing trend among developers, including Aldar, to use environmental standards like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) when making their plans.
“Although LEED covers all issues related to sustainability, this necessarily includes natural cooling and the reduction of energy requirements across the board,” Mr Paterson said. “All options are considered for each of our projects, but this has to be balanced against realistic and cost-effective proposals.”
bhope@thenational.ae
Bradley Hope for THE NATIONAL
In recent history, property developers have had a pretty basic strategy for dealing with summer heat which can reach 50°C with 97 per cent humidity – air conditioning.
Buildings have blasted out an arctic-style chill to such a degree that some people need a sweater. But as the city evolves into a year-round destination for tourists and business travellers, and a permanent home for an increasing population, developers have been busy working on a slew of new technologies and techniques to mitigate the climate.
Not only have they been trying to create more energy-efficient indoor cooling systems, but they are also working to reduce the outside temperature as well. It is a far cry from the days when Emiratis just evacuated the city by camel to Al Ain in the summer.
The strategies range from the elementary – canopies, building layout, cool-water misters — to the complex, like mechanical roofs that respond to the temperature, or seawater circulating under pavements.
The latest project to go head-to-head with the heat has been planned for a 1.4 million square metre plot of parched desert near Zayed Sport City Stadium. The developer is Capitala, a partnership involving one of the Government’s local investment arms, Mubadala, and a Singapore developer, CapitaLand. Details of the project are expected to be announced next week during the three-day Cityscape Abu Dhabi conference at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, but the head of Mubadala’s property division, John Thomas, has released a few tantalising early details.
Mr Thomas said the project near the Zayed Sport City Stadium was partially inspired by Clarke Quay in Singapore: once a humid, nearly uninhabitable industrial quarter on the water. CapitaLand transformed Clarke Quay into a trendy shopping and nightlife district while the British firm, Alsop Architects, designed a system of canopies and umbrellas to shade the streets, placing misters and giant fans at different locations to create a cool, artificial breeze.
“It was an eye-opener,” said Mr Thomas. “It’s four or five degrees cooler. They know how to work with a climate similar to ours.”
What is more, if Capitala can make those technologies work in Abu Dhabi, it bodes well for what could become an entire industry devoted to weather mitigation. Developers and architects here could market their designs around the world, and even in nearby GCC countries, which are also undergoing a building boom thanks to an influx of money from high oil prices.
Some of the most dramatic solutions have been devised by the Abu Dhabi development company, Sorouh, and Arup, a UK-based design and architecture firm, on Shams Abu Dhabi. At the centrepiece of the island, which is an 84,500-square-metre green space with amphitheatres and activity areas called Central Park, the developer has planned to circulate seawater underground to cool the pavements and benches and hide misters in nooks and crannies on the exterior of buildings. Everything in the project will be crafted to take advantage of breezes and natural shading. Arup estimates that it can lower the temperature by at least 6°C.
Another firm at the forefront of this innovation is Foster & Partners, which has been designing the new Central Market, a residential development at Al Raha Beach, as well as Masdar, the zero-emissions project.
Gerard Evenden, a senior partner at the company, said that climate control starts with simple things like materials used in construction and the orientation of the building.
“It’s extremely important to consider the relationship of the building to the sun and the wind, and for Abu Dhabi, you have to think about the water supply and the dust,” Mr Evenden said.
For instance, in contrast to the wide avenues and tall buildings in Abu Dhabi, narrower spaces between buildings are shaded for longer periods of the day, which can prevent heat from generating in the walls.
“It’s called solar build-up,” Mr Evenden said, adding that heavy concrete walls should be in the shade because they absorb heat. But if kept cooler “the wall itself will radiate cooling”, he said. The effect can be felt in cathedrals, which are cold in the winter, cool during a summer’s day and warm at night.
At Central Market, Foster & Partners had designed a mechanical roof that can respond to weather and the time of day. In the summer, it can close to retain the air-conditioning, but in cooler months be opened to pull in a breeze.
“It’s about giving people choices in the way space changes throughout the year,” Mr Evenden said.
Building design itself can create a more energy efficient type of cooling. At Auto Mall, a development of three buildings in Dubai’s Business Park MotorCity, Union Properties has been using state-of-the-art architecture to reduce heat.
Adib Moubadder, the company’s director of facilities, said hot air was less likely to penetrate the Auto Mall because its design “reduces the cooling load by creating positive pressure on the whole building”.
Still, developers need to be wary of too many technological solutions, which can reduce the energy efficiency of a building, said Alan Paterson, Aldar’s head of planning. Air conditioning is inherently a wasteful way to cool a space, but cool water misters are not particularly efficient either, especially in a desert environment where water is scarce.
“Supplying the water to allow the misters and under-pavement supply may produce cooling locally but may be unsustainable generally,” he said.
Mr Paterson added that a major driver of smart cooling techniques was the increasing trend among developers, including Aldar, to use environmental standards like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) when making their plans.
“Although LEED covers all issues related to sustainability, this necessarily includes natural cooling and the reduction of energy requirements across the board,” Mr Paterson said. “All options are considered for each of our projects, but this has to be balanced against realistic and cost-effective proposals.”
bhope@thenational.ae
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