Industry

Land Rover inks deal to enter northern Iraq market

Land Rover, one of the world’s most renowned premium SUV manufacturers, said it was entering the untapped market of northern Iraq, also know as Kurdistan. It has inked an agreement with the Sardar Group, the largest privately owned automotive group in Iraq, as the exclusive Importer to represent the Land Rover brand - making Land Rover's first official entry in the region. As part of the deal, Sardar Group has invested into a new state-of the-art facility for Land Rover vehicles. The 2,400 sq m showroom and 1,700 sq m after-sales centre in the city of Erbil. Land Rover said the Middle East was one of its most important markets and despite the recent global and local market downturn, the brand saw good sales in 2009 in the region.

Egypt's OCI earmarks US$200m for fertilizer projects

Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), Egypt's biggest listed builder, has earmarked about US$200 million for fertilizer production lines and other initiatives, an executive said. The money has been allocated for a urea ammonium nitrate production line, an ammonium sulphate line and the expansion and upgrade of existing urea production capacity in Egypt, Investor Relations Manager Omar Darwazah said. Al-Alam al-Youm, an Egyptian daily, had reported that the US$200 million would be spent on two new fertilizer factories. "These initiatives are already under construction," Darwazah said. OCI, which lists its shares in Cairo and London, has interests in construction and fertilizer production. Many analysts predict it will do well this year as fertilizer prices continue to rise.

Egypt to intensify gold, oil, gas exploration in 2010

Egypt plans to invest nearly USD two billion in 2010 towards exploration of oil and gas in the new oil fields in various parts of northern, southern and western Egypt. The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum has unveiled a plan involving drilling of 520 exploratory oil and gas wells with an investment of about US$2 billion. The plan envisages drilling 36 gas wells in the country's northern delta coast, the southern governorates of Qena and Aswan, west of the Nile River, and the southern border areas. In a statement, the ministry has mentioned that the plan is expected to increase the country's oil and gas reserves and boost the energy production remarkably. The eight new gas fields, including Al-Baraka field, south Egypt, with investments of USD three billion, are set to go operational, heralding a new era of the development of the energy industry in Egypt. The targeted output capacity of Al-Barak, the first oil field in South Egypt, totals 2,500 barrels per day (bpd).