MUST-READS

• Saudi Arabia’s Texas Refinery Just Made a Power Move

  While some U.S. refiners are scaling back, Saudi Arabia’s Motiva Enterprises just made a power move. The Saudi Aramco-owned refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, has quietly expanded its capacity, now processing a record 654,000 barrels per day—officially making it the largest refinery in the United States above Exxon’s Beaumont and Marathon’s Galveston Bay. Motiva pulled this off without a flashy billion-dollar project—just good old-fashioned optimization, removing bottlenecks in the system to squeeze out more production. And they did it at a time when smaller, less efficient refineries are dropping like flies. LyondellBasell’s Houston plant is closing. Phillips 66’s Los Angeles refinery is shutting down.

• Meet the Power Players Leading Saudi Arabia’s Cultural Boom

  Dozens of new art institutions are in the works as part of Vision 2030, a sweeping trillion-dollar initiative to reduce oil dependence by expanding tourism, entertainment, and technology. Among these is the recently opened Diriyah Art Futures (DAF), a digital-art focused institution that is part of the $63 billion Diriyah Gate project, which aims to transform the heritage site on the outskirts of the kingdom’s capital city, Riyadh, into a cultural tourist destination. Meanwhile, in the ancient desert region of AlUla, the Contemporary Art Museum, which is being developed in partnership with Paris’s Centre Pompidou, set to open in 2027. On the west coast, the Red Sea Museum in Jeddah, slated to open before 2030, will showcase historical and contemporary works of art.

• China’s solar, wind power installations soared to record in 2024
  China broke its own records for new wind and solar power installations again last year, official data showed on Tuesday, accelerating from a breakneck pace set in 2023 as the country looks to peak its carbon emissions before 2030. Installed solar and wind power capacity climbed 45.2% and 18%, respectively, in 2024, the National Energy Administration said on Tuesday. There is now 886.67 GW of installed solar power, up from 609.49 GW in 2023, it said. The United States had 139 GW in 2023, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

• Saudi boxing powerbroker lowering PPV prices amid efforts to combat piracy, grow sport

  Saudi Arabian power broker Turki Alalshikh is working to lower PPV prices around boxing to bring in more buyers and combat piracy, and promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s a supporter of the move. There’s long been a debate within boxing about whether the price of PPVs has gotten too exorbitant, with fights in the U.S. often being being priced around $80 in recent years. But as Alalshikh has become the de facto most powerful person in boxing over the last year, he’s looked into making PPV units more affordable. He appears to be following through on his plan, as multiple fights in recent months have had a PPV price between $20-60 in the U.S. Alalshikh is aligned with DAZN, which is reportedly in advanced talks to receive a major investment from Saudi Arabia’s SURJ Sports Investment Co.

• Ivanhoe Electric’s Typhoon Technology Quickly Proves its Power with Discovery in Saudi Arabia

  The Joint Venture's first Typhoon^TM survey covered 76 square kilometers near Ma'aden's Al Amar gold-copper-zinc mine. It was completed in March 2024. Subsequent Typhoon^TM surveys have covered an additional 162 square kilometers of the Al Amar exploration licenses. The Joint Venture's initial drill program focused on the Umm Ad Dabah prospect, near Ma'aden's existing Al Amar gold-copper-zinc mine. The Joint Venture is using Ivanhoe Electric's advanced Typhoon^TM geophysical surveying systems and Computational Geosciences Inc.'s ("CGI") industry-leading inversion software to guide exploration activities.

• French Gas and Power Utility Engie Seeks to Enter Saudi and Emirati Renewable Markets

  “The Gulf region has a serious potential,” with “very large auctions,” Francois-Xavier Boul, Engie’s managing director for renewables in the Middle East and North Africa regions, said in an interview on Thursday. Winning projects in the region is part of Engie’s strategy to accelerate its growth in renewables, he said. The French company, which already operates gas-fired power plants in the Gulf, faces fierce competition from energy rivals that have been tapping the region’s growing demand for clean power. The Saudi kingdom is building new industries to create jobs and develop an economy that’s less dependent on hydrocarbons as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan

• Saudi-US partnerships set to power Vision 2030 Goals

  On the heels of the first Saudi-US Higher Education Partnerships Forum, co-organised by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education, the US Embassy, and IIE, and held in Riyadh,The PIE sat down with Michael Ratney, US ambassador to Saudi Arabia to explore the evolving landscape of educational collaboration between the two nations. “There’s a decades long educational affinity between Saudi and the US,” said Ratney. “Saudi Arabia has been sending students to the US for decades… We think there’s probably over 700,000 Saudis that have studied in the US over the years.” Historically, much of this outbound mobility has been, and continues to be, driven by the Saudi’s government scholarship program – the King Abdullah Scholarship program. In recent years, Vision 2030 – Saudi’s national economic and social transformation program – has meant the sending of students has been more focused.

• Influence Abroad: Saudi Arabia Replaces Salafism in its Soft Power Outreach
  Today, there is greater acknowledgment, both in Saudi Arabia and abroad, of the connection between certain Salafi teachings and extremism. By cutting back on Saudi support for Salafism, the prince has tried to dispel the notion that the kingdom supports extremist groups. He has also understood the security risks that some such groups may pose, not least threats to Saudi Arabia itself, especially after the Arab upheavals in 2011 and the rise of Islamist movements throughout the Middle East. Saudi Arabia’s strategic use of ideology aptly illustrates how it was able to make use of religious doctrine not simply as a guiding principle, but also as an instrument in its relations across borders. However, this brought with it its own series of complexities, not least how far the kingdom’s Salafi ideology would spread, and how it was interpreted and used once it was picked up by others over whom the Saudis had no control.

• Great Power Competition in the Red Sea

  In recent months, as the United States has lifted restrictions on Ukrainian strikes into Russian territory, Russia has countered by increasing its support for the Houthis and the group’s attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Russia has already provided satellite tracking data of commercial vessels to the Houthis through Iranian intermediaries and is now threatening to supply the group with advanced anti-ship missiles. Such a move would allow the Houthis to present an even greater threat, potentially even endangering U.S. warships patrolling the waters.

• Commentary: The balance of power is shifting in the Middle East – and it is Turkey’s ‘full moon’ on the rise

  Turkey played a pivotal role in the rebels’ surprising triumph. The operation unfolded with an extraordinary lack of the kind of violent destruction that has characterised Syrian campaigns over the past 13 years. Turkey provided intelligence, guidance and political cover. In the early years of the Syrian conflict, dozens of nations offered sporadic support to opposition groups, but Turkey’s commitment to the rebels in the north-western enclave near its border was consistent. Through ceasefires and frozen frontlines brokered since 2019, Turkey ensured that the rebels had the stability to rearm and reorganise. With Iran stretched thin and unable to provide resources and manpower due to Israeli strikes against Hezbollah and Iranian networks in Lebanon and Syria, the collapse of Assad’s regime became not only possible but inevitable. Meanwhile, Russia, preoccupied with its war in Ukraine, offered only limited support to Assad.

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