“Today the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced its intention to release the full 6 GHz band to unlicensed use meaning that once the process is completed, 1.2 GHz of new spectrum will be made available to Wi-Fi. With this new regulation Saudi Arabia becomes the first country in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region to release the full 6 GHz and will lead the world in total available mid-band license-exempt spectrum.”
–Claus Hetting reports on Saudi Arabia’s Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) press release stating that it would join the USA, South Korea, Chile, Guatemala, Honduras, and Brazil as countries who have allocated the full 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi. [Wi-Fi Now Global]
“This was stranded gas that didn’t have a market. Now, we’ve eliminated the flaring [from that site], and greatly reduced the emissions. And it doesn’t take electricity off the grid, which is getting to be the controversial issue with data centers and Bitcoin mining.”
-Steve Degenfelder, a spokesperson for Wesco Operating Inc., commenting on Wesco’s newly installed gas-adjacent Bitcoin mine. Sergii Gerasymovych, founder of EZ Blockchain, conceived of the idea of using energy from flare gas from natural gas wells (prevalent in shale mining) to mine bitcoin. [Quartz]
“Prince Abdulaziz [Bin Salman] remains ever-concerned — he’s unwilling to say that Covid is in the rear-view mirror. More likely than not, we’re looking at a Saudi rollover of their production cut.”
-Helima Croft, chief commodities strategist at RBC Capital Markets. The Saudi Energy Minister made clear that he wasn’t going to put his faith in predictions of a post-Covid rebound, saying he would only believe in the demand recovery “when I see it.” [Bloomberg]
“I am proud to announce the Saudi and Middle East Green Initiatives, but this is only a start. The Kingdom, the region and the world needs to go much further and faster in combatting climate change. Given our starting point, beginning this journey to a greener future has not been easy. But in line with our overall modernization philosophy, we are not avoiding tough choices. We reject the false choice between preserving the economy and protecting the environment.”
–Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, in a statement announcing two new ambitious green initiatives to make Saudi Arabia a global leader in combating climate change. [SUSTG]
“Little did we know then, but Vision 2030 would be instrumental in enabling Saudi Arabia to withstand this crisis. It would become the platform toward our quick and healthy recovery. And in many ways Vision 2030 prepared Saudi Arabia for this past year. It enabled us to become resilient and resistant…because Vision 2030 was our reset, and it enabled us to not shut down over past year.”
–Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States, in the keynote address at the virtual U.S.-Saudi Business forum hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Ambassador discussed the path forward for U.S.-Saudi business and diplomatic relations, women empowerment, and rebounding from the effects of the pandemic on the global and local economy. [SUSTG]
“The Red Sea Lodge brings together emerging filmmakers four times a year digitally and then in person at the actual festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which is set for November 11-20, 2021. At the event, the filmmakers will pitch to international production companies, with an independent jury to award two of the projects with grants of $100,000.”
–Esquire Middle East, in a report on the Red Sea Lodge, an eight-month monitoring program held in collaboration with the acclaimed TorinoFilmLab. This year six of the projects are from Saudi Arabia, with six others from Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Lebanon. Notably, half the projects are helmed by female directors, with three women in producer roles. [Esquire ME]
“It is like an enormous beached whale. It’s an enormous weight on the sand. We might have to work with a combination of reducing the weight by removing containers, oil and water from the ship, tug boats and dredging of sand…We can’t exclude it might take weeks, depending on the situation.”
–Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch company Boskalis which is trying to free the 400 m (430 yard) Ever Given, almost as long as the Empire State Building is high, which is blocking transit in both directions through the Suez Canal one of the world’s busiest shipping channels for oil and grain and other trade linking Asia and Europe. [Reuters]
“From an industry perspective, we see no technical barriers to achieving this, so it’s time to get on with the virtuous cycle of cost reduction through scale up. Having led the race to deliver photovoltaic energy at well-below US$2 cents per kilowatt-hour, in certain geographies, we believe the collective ingenuity and entrepreneurship of the private sector can deliver green hydrogen at less than US$2 per kilogram within four years.”
–Paddy Padmanathan, CEO of ACWA Power, discussing Saudi Arabia’s plans to pursue the development of a it’s hydrogen industry. [Oilprice.com]
“I stressed the need to put the higher national interest first to launch drastic reforms that can restore the international community’s confidence in Lebanon.”
-Walid Bukhari, Saudi ambassador, said after meeting Aoun in his first visit to the presidential palace since 2019. [Reuters]
“On average, the proportion of government revenues coming directly from oil activities in the GCC has fallen by 20 percent of the total in the past decade, but remains high at 60 percent… The three countries that have so far introduced VAT have seen the greatest success in diversifying their revenues, with Saudi Arabia outperforming its peers.”
–Farouk Soussa, Goldman Sachs, commenting on his research regarding GCC states’ diversification efforts. [Arab News]
