Saudi-Egypt Electricity Interconnection Project Receives $566 Mn

The power station of the New Administrative Capital in Egypt (Reuters)

Cairo: Asharq Al Awsat

09:19-19 October 2022 AD ـ 24 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1444 AH

Cairo: Asharq Al Awsat

09:19-19 October 2022 AD ـ 24 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1444 AH

Saudi-Egypt Electricity Interconnection Project Receives $566 Mn

The power station of the New Administrative Capital in Egypt (Reuters)

Standard Chartered Bank announced $566.4 million in financing, in cooperation with the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, for Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) to facilitate a Saudi-Egypt electricity interconnection project.

The 14-year financing will be guaranteed by the Swedish Export Credit Agency (EKN) and funded by the Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK). The landmark facility is structured on the Islamic concept of Commodity Murabaha.

In October of last year, the project to connect the two countries was awarded to three alliances of international and local companies, with a capacity of 3,000 megawatts.

Last August, SEC agreed to finance part of the electricity interconnection project between Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The project consists of the construction of three high-voltage substations, the East Madinah Station, the Tabuk Station in the Kingdom, and the Badr Station in East Cairo, linked by overhead transmission lines with a length of about 1,350 m and marine cables in the Gulf of Aqaba with a distance of 22 km.

The electricity interconnection project between the two countries is considered the first of its kind on a large scale for high-voltage DC power in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The interconnection project is expected to be completed by 2026 and will support energy flow in multiple directions, from Badr City in Egypt to Madinah through Tabuk in Saudi Arabia.

Trump Says Canada Trade Deal Coming 'Soon'

President Donald Trump speaks after casting his early-voting ballot for the 2026 midterm elections at the Palm Beach County Library in West Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Asharq Al Awsat

06:20-26 October 2026 AD ـ 15 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

06:20-26 October 2026 AD ـ 15 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Trump Says Canada Trade Deal Coming 'Soon'

A trade agreement between the United States and Canada would be reached "pretty soon," President Donald Trump told a campaign rally on Sunday, nine days ahead of crucial US midterm elections.

Tensions between the North American neighbors have been high since trade talks broke down in August, with Trump imposing a slew of new tariffs in response, AFP reported.

"We'll have that settled pretty soon. They're willing to give us anything at this moment," the president said of an agreement during the rally in Port Huron, a Michigan town on the US-Canada border hit hard by his tariff war.

Trump once again defended his levies on Canada and accused it of "ripping off the United States for years."

The tariffs enforced after the August talks broke down impacted around US$20 billion worth of goods, ranging from hockey sticks to cement.

In response, Canada imposed tolls on an equivalent amount of American products, leading Trump to retaliate with another round of levies of as much as 50 percent on certain goods.

The White House removed some of them on Friday, in response to a request from Senator Susan Collins who represents the border state of Maine, which has been disproportionately impacted by the trade war.

Democrats are targeting Collins's seat in their attempt to win control of the Senate from the Republicans in next Tuesday's midterms.

Since the start of his second term, Trump has upended the global trade order by imposing wide-ranging tariffs on friend and foe, saying they had been taking advantage of the United States.

He has also explicitly tied some threatened tariffs to political or foreign policy objectives.

Business

Saudi Arabia to Store Oil in Singapore to Bolster Asia Supply Security Starting 2027

Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz ‌bin Salman Al-Saud speaks in a video recording at the conference. (X)

05:39-26 October 2026 AD ـ 15 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Saudi Arabia to Store Oil in Singapore to Bolster Asia Supply Security Starting 2027

Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz ‌bin Salman Al-Saud speaks in a video recording at the conference. (X)

Saudi Arabia plans to store crude oil at Singapore's Jurong Rock Caverns from the second half of 2027 to strengthen supply security in the region, energy ministers from both countries said on Monday.

The move comes after the US-Israeli war with Iran severely disrupted energy supplies to Asia shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, prompting countries to draw down inventories and raising concerns about stockpile levels globally. Asia imported two-thirds of its oil supplies from the Middle ‌East before ‌the war.

"Saudi Arabia and Singapore are announcing our joint intent to ‌establish ⁠an arrangement for ⁠Saudi crude oil to be stored at the Jurong Rock Caverns from the second half of 2027," Tan See Leng, minister for energy, trade and industry, told the Singapore International Energy Week conference.

"This arrangement enhances the resilience of the Saudi crude oil supply chain in Southeast Asia, as well as contributes to Singapore's energy security and resilience in the event of supply disruptions."

"Bringing supply closer to key Asian markets would strengthen the flexibility of our supply network ‌and support Singapore's security of supply and preparedness," Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz ‌bin Salman Al-Saud said in a video recording at the conference.

Located at a depth of 150 meters (492 feet) below the ground, the rock caverns at Jurong Island can store up to 1.47 million cubic meters, or roughly 9 million barrels of liquid hydrocarbons such as crude ‌oil and condensate.

Saudi Aramco currently stores crude in Japan and South Korea where local governments have priority to buy ⁠the supplies in ⁠the tanks in the event of an unexpected shortage.

The crude storage capacity in Okinawa was expanded to 8.2 million barrels in September 2017 in an agreement with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC), Aramco Japan said on its website.

In 2023, Aramco inked a deal with Korea National Oil Corp to store 5.3 million barrels of oil in South Korea's reserve facilities in the port of Ulsan for five years.

Business

UK’s Burnham Says He Is Open to Discussing EU Free Movement

21 October 2026, United Kingdom, London: Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham leaves 10 Downing Street to attend Prime Minister's Questions at the Houses of Parliament. (dpa)

10:59-25 October 2026 AD ـ 14 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

UK’s Burnham Says He Is Open to Discussing EU Free Movement

21 October 2026, United Kingdom, London: Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham leaves 10 Downing Street to attend Prime Minister's Questions at the Houses of Parliament. (dpa)

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he wants a discussion about returning to the European Union's freedom of movement rules for workers, a key issue in the 2016 Brexit referendum which led to Britain leaving the bloc.

Building on previous comments about the need to rethink ties with Brussels, Burnham told the Sunday Times that the influx of EU workers into Britain before Brexit had posed very significant challenges. "But, at the same time, it ‌was a ‌type of immigration that perhaps wasn't as difficult (as now)," he ‌said.

"Revolving ⁠door migration where ⁠people would come and then go back is different. The balance of migration has changed, hasn't it, since then? I think we’ve just got to have an honest discussion about those things."

Official data has shown long-term net migration in 2025 fell to close to its level before a new post-Brexit immigration system was introduced at the start of 2021.

In September, two months after replacing Keir Starmer as Labour Party leader ⁠and prime minister, Burnham said Britain should consider options for ‌its relationship with the EU, including possibly rejoining ‌the bloc one day.

He had previously backed the pledges of Starmer's government which included no ‌return to freedom of movement which Brussels sets as a condition for being ‌part of the bloc's single market.

In his interview with the Sunday Times, conducted on October 19, Burnham said the issue of freedom of movement could be considered as part of a broader reset of Britain's relationship with the EU, including on data sharing and ‌migration.

"You've got to see it in the round, rather than just looking at freedom of movement on its own," ⁠he said.

Burnham, who ⁠is trying to find ways to speed up Britain's economy, is due to meet top EU officials for a summit on November 20.

He said he could not imagine recommending that Britain adopt the euro currency or the EU's border-free travel arrangements.

A new referendum would be needed to rejoin the EU but not necessarily to join the bloc's single market or a customs union, the Sunday Times quoted Burnham as saying.

Former Conservative finance minister Jeremy Hunt, who campaigned to stay in the EU in 2016, said it would be a mistake to reopen one of the fundamental debates of the referendum and he said relaxing immigration rules would hurt people in Britain.

"I think it will be a hammer blow to getting people off welfare and into work," Hunt told Sky News.

Saudi-Egypt Electricity Interconnection Project Receives $566 Mn

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