Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) has confirmed that Six Construct Qatar (a fully-owned subsidiary of the BESIX Group which is 50 per cent-owned by OCI) has been awarded a US$675mn contract to build phase IIB of the Doha Convention Centre & Tower in Qatar in a joint venture with Midmac Contracting Co. Six Construct Qatar’s share of the contract is approximately US$338mn or 50 per cent of the total contract value.

Nakheel will reportedly resume work on at least six projects by early October as it settles outstanding bills with contractors. The developer, owned by Dubai World, is restructuring US$10.5 billion owed to banks, contractors and service providers. Last month contractors started to receive payments from Nakheel leaving the way clear for stalled projects around the emirate to resume.

Dohaland has announced that they have awarded a US$50mn design and build contract for two district cooling plants in its flagship Musheireb project to Drake & Scull Water and Power L.L.C, a subsidiary of Drake & Scull International (DSI) PJSC. The scope of the contract includes the detailed design and construction of district cooling plants comprising the chiller plants and cooling towers and includes all equipment and services. The total capacity of the two proposed district cooling plants is 29,250 TR (tonnage of refrigeration).

The value of total construction contracts awarded in the UAE in the energy sector almost tripled to US$8.8 billion for the period of January to May this year according to project tracker and analysis provider, Ventures Middle East. This is in comparison to US$3 billion for the same period in 2009. Ventures also reported that construction contracts awarded for the UAE's energy sector rose substantially from US$405mn in May 2009 to US$3 billion in May this year.

Ergil Engineering & Construction, specialist in the engineering and construction of storage tank facilities and manufacturer of storage tank, pipeline and cathodic protection equipment, has announced that it has received a second storage tank order for engineering, design, fabrication and supplying oil storage tanks and storage tank equipment for a power plant project in Iraq.