Aramco remains 'most valuable brand' in Middle East
DUBAI: Saudi Aramco has retained its position as Middle East’s most valuable brand, despite recording a 20 per cent brand value loss to $37.5 billion, while globally Apple reclaimed the position of world’s most valuable brand from Amazon.
Adnoc is second most valuable brand in region with a brand value of $10.8 billion, according to Brand Finance Global 500 2021 ranking.
Owing to the sheer size and scale of the business, as well as its low costs of production, Aramco has been in a stronger position to negotiate the fallout from the pandemic than many of its counterparts, but still suffered a significant hit to profits.
While brand value has fallen, Aramco’s brand strength has remained stable. Other intangibles such as relationships, particularly with the Saudi Arabian government, play a greater role in performance.
David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, said: "Aramco is the hidden giant of the oil industry whose brand has finally emerged into the light of public attention.
ADFD finances 90 renewable projects worth $1.3bn
ABU DHABI: The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), has consistently increased its portfolio of projects, having funded 90 of them over a decade at a total value of about AED4.7 billion ($1.3 billion).
Cumulatively generating 9,755MW of electricity, these projects benefited 65 countries by supporting their economies and improving the quality of life.
Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, Director General of the Fund, said: "Such initiatives form the core of development and the UAE realised that years ago.
The initiatives include collaboration with Irena; launching the UAE-Pacific Partnership Fund and UAE-Caribbean Renewable Energy Fund; development of a solar PV plant in the Bahamas; solar projects in Saint Vincent and The Grenadines; solar project in Liberia; Sheikh Zayed Solar Park in Jordan; Merowe Dam in Sudan; solar power plants in Somaliland and Togo; solar PV project in Cuba; waste-to-energy plant projects in Maldives and Sharjah, wind power plants in Oman and Seychelles; and two renewable energy projects in Mali.
Fluor’s MEGlobal project vies for top award
RIYADH: Fluor Corporation said its world-scale 750,000 metric-tonne-per-annum monoethylene glycol and diethylene glycol facility built for MEGlobal, a unit of Kuwait-based Equate Petrochemical Group, in Oyster Creek, Texas, has been named one of the 20 finalists for the Best of the Best Project award in the Energy/Industrial category by Engineering News-Record (ENR).
Fluor served as construction contractor on the project, which began operations in October 2019. The project, which was completed safely, ahead of schedule and within budget, achieved US Gulf Coast's leading safety performance with 3.7 million continuous site hours without a recordable incident, it added.
The project duration of only 21 months from construction start to finish was a full seven months earlier than the industry average for similar projects in the US.
