ENGIE expansion in Saudi Arabia on track
ENGIE appointed Turki Al Shehri as Chief Executive Officer to manage the local office and bring ENGIE's global experience closer to its customers
In 2019, France-headquartered leading low-carbon energy and service solution provider, ENGIE, expanded its presence in Saudi Arabia by establishing a dedicated holding company to bring all the Group’s assets in the Kingdom under one umbrella. ENGIE appointed Turki Al Shehri as Chief Executive Officer to manage the local office and bring ENGIE’s global experience closer to its customers. Despite delays and potential setbacks that the world experienced as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, ENGIE has managed to keep its expansion in the Kingdom on track building its asset and project value to over USD 8 billion, with plans to invest in assets worth an additional USD 6.34 billion in the Kingdom by 2025.
ENGIE is a major player in the development of Saudi Arabia’s renewable energy, co-generation, energy efficiency and other green initiatives. In the past 12 months, ENGIE secured nine new contracts for projects in facilities management, a seawater reverse osmosis plant and projects for the provision of energy services through its service providers and in partnership with Saudi actors. In February, ENGIE was awarded the Yanbu-4 independent water producer (IWP) desalination plant by the Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC), projected to supply 450,000 m3/day of desalinated seawater using clean energy. ENGIE and its partners have also been awarded three facilities management projects and five energy efficiency projects within the Kingdom. These new projects add USD 944 million to ENGIE’s existing portfolio of projects and assets, making ENGIE a 10% provider of electricity and an 11% provider potable water in Saudi Arabia.
In its growth this year, the company has hired 62 new employees bringing the total of ENGIE staff in the Kingdom to 2000. ENGIE’s most recent acquisition of Saudi-based facilities management firm, Allied Maintenance Company (AMC) adds 1,300 more employees to ENGIE’s workforce. ENGIE plans to expand its workforce to over 5,000 employees by 2025 with new hires joining various service providers and project development entities under the domain of ENGIE across the entire Kingdom. A key area of ENGIE’s development in Saudi Arabia lies in supporting local talent acquisition and career development through dedicated and continuous training programs to lead the way for value-added services of a foreign company. In this effort, ENGIE has formed three partnerships with local entities including the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) and the Ministry of Investment to support with practical and vocational training programs both in and outside of the Kingdom, ensuring that Saudi’s workforce can meet the long-term demand of the labor market.
Holding steadfast to its commitment to add value, support growth and enrich the Kingdom, ENGIE donated approximately USD 500,000 to the Kingdom’s Health Endowment Fund to support government efforts to mitigate the repercussions of the Coronavirus. ENGIE has also partnered with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to promote and progress the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, further enhancing efforts to build a more prosperous and sustainable future for the Kingdom and its people. ENGIE remains steady in its ambition to develop local projects, bring foreign direct investment to the Kingdom, and enhance the efficiency of human capital while transferring knowledge to the local workforce in line with the Group’s strategy for growth and the objectives of the Vision 2030.
