Recently finished an article on Oman's hydrogen sector. In short, things aren't great - there's no market, investors aren't keen, and offtakers are reticent. The hydrogen production goals are no longer realistic in the short and medium term.

This is by some margin the best (and possibly most depressing) article I've read on Gaza in months @saribashi.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/argument/thi...

A front page for the ages

An investigation into Clarissa Ward's 'liberation' of a prisoner from a jail in Syria appears to show that the prisoner was an Air Force Intelligence guy with a history of torturing dissidents verify-sy.com/en/details/1.... I gave the website a look and it seems reliable

China is also not immune to massive hypocrisy. When Israeli leadership was indicted by the ICC, China says it supports efforts by the international community to defend the authority on international law.... 1/3

Add this to China's already massive role in the renewables sectors in the Gulf, it's no surprise MbS feels very comfortable diverging from US policy more and more

In 2021 Saudi PIF invested 2 billion in Jared Kushner’s new private fund. On October 24, the head of US Senate Finance Committee (Dem) requested to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate on Kushner possibly acting as a foreign agent for Saudi Arabia.

today.lorientlejour.com/article/1433...

Will be interesting to see the national breakdown of companies that qualify for Saudi Arabia's battery energy storage projects. As far as I know the only company doing large-scale battery storage in the country atm is Sungrow, from China

Ever wondered which Arab country gets the most bang for its buck, educationally? Arguably, it's Qatar. On the QS 2025 Arab ranking, Qatar has two ranked universities, both in the top 50. The UAE wins comfortably on mass though, with 14 ranked unis of which 10 are in the top 50.

Stand-out paragaraph in a great piece in @newlinesmag.bsky.social
newlinesmag.com/argument/pub...

Al Rass solar farm two days ago (left) and two months ago (right). Stage one (600MW), the rectangular box on the top left , will be finished Q4 this year, while stage 2 (2000MW) will be finished in Q4 in 2025.

This massive discrepancy between "more people should work in factories" and "I don't want to work in factories" is probably applicable outside the US too. Combine that with a skilled worker shortage, onshoring has some seriously big obstacles to overcome.

Contributed comments to this newsletter on #EV investments in the #MiddleEast. The commonly repeated nugget that EV investments will offset losses in oil revenues is wrong - oil revenues are orders of magnitude higher than any stock dividend could be. www.evinfocus.com/email/01b5d9...

amwaj.media/article/deep...

Saudi Arabia's latest renewable energy targets are incredibly ambitious - too ambitious, as I argue in this article. A recent doubling in targeted installed capacity to 130GW by 2030 isn't realistic unless project tendering happens 4x faster

Al Rass Solar Park. On the left in August '23, on the right March '24, with Al Rass 1 mostly installed. The areas that make up Al Rass 2 can be seen to the south and east of the installed section, with several substations. The main SEC substation is to Al Rass 1's north east.

Shuaibah 1 and 2 in Saudi, before construction started (left) and March this year (right). The top rectangle is project 1, at 600MW, and 2 is the trapezoid by the road, and will be 2GW once complete #middleeast #renewable #energy

Proud to have written a chapter to this volume on how Saudi Arabia and Oman have appproached funding RE projects differently to diverging politico-economic priorities: Oman needed to get debt under control, Saudi Arabia wants to keep control over its RE projects.
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/energy-tr...

My most recent article for the Middle East institute, on Saudi investments in Jordan, Jordan's need to modernise its economy, and the challenges it will face: www.mei.edu/publications...