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Joint Oil Exploration, Exploitation and Petroleum Services Company (Joint Oil), a joint venture between Libya and Tunisia, has announced the opening of a new bid round on 7 September for development of the promising Zarat discovery and further exploration of the Joint Oil Block border acreage

Located in the prolific Gabes-Tripoli Basin of the central Mediterranean, this offshore acreage represents a premier opportunity for cross-border energy cooperation between Tunisia and Libya. Moyes & Co., a global upstream advisory firm, has been engaged to seek industry partners for two separate commercial packages:

• Exploration: Further exploration of the Joint Oil Block for new plays, leads, and prospects under an Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement (EPSA). The area concerned spans 3,000 sq km in water depth of 80-120m, with seismic data covering 6,500km of 2D & 1,900km of 3D. Wells: Zohra-1 (1976), El Amal South 1 (1999), Besmah-1 (2002), El Amal North 1 (2002), Zarat North 1 (2010). Surrounding producing fields: El Bouri, El Jurf and Bihr El Salam in Libya; Hasdrubal, Ashtart, Miskar & Didon in Tunisia.

• Development: Development of the Zarat Discovery — which straddles the Tunisia-Libya border— as a unitised oil and gas resource. This will be governed by a Development and Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA), Unitisation Agreement (UA), Unit Operating Agreement (UOA), and Operating Services Contract (OSC).

The bid round will close on 31 December 2026.

Credible companies with proven offshore exploration and development capability are invited to apply for access to the Virtual Data Room (VDR) managed by Moyes. Bids must be received by 8 January 2027. Winning bidders will be informed by 26 February 2027, with formal awards expected by 30 April 2027.

The bid round opportunity will be presented at the London Mediterranean, Middle East & Africa Scout Group (MMEA) on 9 September 2026 and at the World Energy Summit in London on 29-30 September 2026 where Joint Oil will also be present at a booth.

Strong potential

Joint Oil has highlighted the exceptional potential of the Joint Oil Block and the Zarat Discovery, strategically positioned along the southern margin of the Pelagian Basin within the geological extension of the Sabratha–Gabes Basin. 

The concession benefits from a highly strategic offshore location near several major producing fields across the Sabratha–Gabes Basin, including Al Jurf, Bahr Essalam, and Bouri offshore Libya, as well as Ashtart, Didon, and Miskar offshore Tunisia. This positioning enhances the project’s long-term value proposition through access to established regional infrastructure, operational synergies, and export pathways.

Bordered by active Libyan exploration zones and major offshore concessions, the Joint Oil Block and Zarat discovery further underscore the substantial untapped hydrocarbon potential of the shared Tunisian-Libyan offshore basin, reinforcing its attractiveness as a high-impact exploration and development opportunity for investors and strategic partners. Zarat is the largest discovery in offshore Tunisia since the Miskar discovery in 1975, and is the largest undeveloped field in offshore Tunisia. Contingent resources at Zarat attributable to the Joint Oil Block totals 158 mmboe.

Joint Oil is a joint venture between Libya and Tunisia through the national companies, the Tunisian Corporation of Petroleum Activities (ETAP) and Ola Energy Holdings Ltd. (OLA Energy). The company has managed hydrocarbon resources within the Tunisia-Libyan offshore acreage since 1988.

SLB has been awarded four integrated well construction contracts by Aramco to support oil and gas development across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Under the contracts, SLB will manage end-to-end well construction services, delivering more than 450 wells over the three-year term, with an optional extension of up to two years.

What is integrated well construction?

As projects become larger and more complex, integrating planning, execution and digital workflows helps to reduce operational costs, speed up delivery, and minimise risks. In Namibia, an integrated well construction campaign cut the award-to-spud cycle by 67%, from a traditional 18-month timeline to six months.

Streamlined approach

Integrated well construction brings together engineering, drilling, and completions into a single, streamlined approach to well design and execution, through a technology-enabled operating model. It combines digital drilling workflows with automated drilling, evaluation, fluids, cementing, and completions products and services to improve efficiency, consistency, and well performance across diverse, large-scale drilling programmes. Integration ensures that information flows seamlessly throughout the organisation, without silos.

Planning to execution expertise

SLB’s well engineering expertise optimises every phase—from exploration to full field development—through strong risk management and operational oversight. This enables the delivery of safe, efficient, and precise outcomes tailored to the customer’s reservoir challenges.

Leading technologies

SLB combines advanced well construction technologies with fit-for-purpose solutions to improve performance and set new standards in execution.

Digitally enabled workflows

From autonomous drilling to AI-driven decision-making, digital solutions drive smarter, faster, and more reliable results.

"Delivering hundreds of wells across a multi-year programme and in multiple operating environments requires an integrated model that connects planning, execution, and digital workflows to set new industry performance benchmarks,” said Steve Gassen, executive vice president of Geographies for SLB. “Awarding SLB these advanced well construction programmes at scale reflects Aramco’s confidence in our integrated model and capabilities."

Building on the longstanding collaboration between SLB and Aramco, the awards represent a significant expansion of SLB's integrated well construction business in the Kingdom and reflect growing customer adoption of integrated delivery models for large-scale drilling programmes, highlighting the model’s ability to improve execution consistency across the well construction lifecycle. It comes as Aramco continues to pursue major projects to maintain maximum sustainable capacity at 12mn bpd, such as the Zuluf crude oil increment project and the Dammam development, as well as to grow gas production capacity by around 80%, with a focus on unlocking its unconventional gas resources. SLB was awarded a five-year contract by Aramco to provide stimulation services for its unconventional gas fields earlier this year.

TA’ZIZ, a joint venture between ADNOC and ADQ, has signed long-term agreements spanning offtake, feedstock and sales across its chemicals portfolio, valued at US$28.5bn (AED104.6bn)

Signed at the Make it in the Emirates Forum, the agreements, valued at US$28.5bn, secure both global offtake and reliable local feedstocks, allowing for large-scale chemical production within the UAE and reinforcing TA’ZIZ’s role in building a fully integrated domestic chemicals ecosystem. The deals include sale agreements with ADNOC and Proman for methanol; Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) for caustic soda; Mitsubishi Corporation for ethylene dichloride (EDC), vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and caustic soda; Mitsui & Co. for EDC and caustic soda; Sanmar Group for EDC and VCM; Tricon for PVC, EDC and caustic soda; and Vinmar for EDC and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

ADNOC Gas secured a 25-year feedstock agreement to supply natural gas to the TA'ZIZ methanol project valued at over $5 billion (AED18.4 billion). TA’ZIZ also agreed a 20 year salt supply agreement with Abu Dhabi based Sama Salt to support production at its PVC complex.

Mashal Saoud Al-Kindi, CEO of TA’ZIZ, said, “These long term agreements represent a defining milestone for TA’ZIZ and for the UAE’s industrial growth ambitions. By securing both global demand and reliable local feedstock, we are translating vision into delivery, anchoring world scale chemicals production, strengthening domestic value chains and creating enduring economic value, jobs and supply chain resilience for the UAE.”

Together, these agreements leverage local resources to secure a reliable and sustainable supply of critical raw materials, further strengthening domestic value chains and advancing the UAE’s industrial self sufficiency.

TA’ZIZ is a manufacturing, industrial services, logistics and utilities ecosystem that enables the production of transition fuels and new products across the chemicals value chain, supporting ADNOC’s ambition to become a top three global chemicals player as well as the UAE’s industrial development and economic diversification ambitions.

The TA’ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone is set to produce 4.7 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of chemicals once construction is completed in 2028. This includes a 1 mtpa ammonia plant, a 1.8 mtpa methanol plant and 1.9 mtpa of marketable products from its integrated polyvinyl chloride (PVC) complex. The PVC complex, which produces PVC, ethylene dichloride (EDC), vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), and caustic soda, will be one of the world’s top three largest single site PVC complexes.

Also at the Make it at the Emirates Forum, TA’ZIZ and Alpha Dhabi Holding announced a strategic collaboration agreement for around US$10 bn (AED36.7bn) in capital investment in new industrial chemicals in the TA’ZIZ industrial chemicals ecosystem in Al Ruwais Industrial City, Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi.

The partnership could produce up to 14 new chemicals, delivering around 2.2mn tonnes per annum (mtpa) of additional chemical capacity in the TA’ZIZ industrial chemicals ecosystem in Al Ruwais Industrial City. The new chemicals, which include styrene and polystyrenes, acrylic acid and derivates, polyols, MDI, epoxy resins and linear alpha-olefins, are based on domestic demand and could substitute key products currently imported into the UAE, while strengthening local supply chain resilience. The partnership supports the UAE’s national industrial priorities, including the Make it in the Emirates (MIITE) initiative and the country’s industrial strategy, by strengthening domestic manufacturing capability and advancing self-sufficiency in strategically important chemical products.

Wassim Ghadban, global SVP, AI & Digital Engineering at Kent, discusses the concept of autonomous AI-driven review, combined with human-in-the-loop validation, as a means to remove structural bottlenecks in project delivery, and how the convergence of AI capabilities across engineering and operations can enable earlier production, reduce capital inefficiencies, and redefine how projects are executed

In the delivery of energy projects, the industry has long focused on optimising engineering productivity, refining project controls, and improving procurement and construction strategies. Despite these efforts, delays remain a persistent challenge. These delays are often attributed to complexity, uncertainty, or resource constraints. However, a closer examination reveals that the underlying issue is more structural in nature.

Engineering outputs are developed rapidly, supported by sophisticated tools and experienced teams. Yet, the progression of these outputs through the project lifecycle is governed by validation processes that are inherently sequential and fragmented. Documents and models move through multiple layers of review, often across different disciplines, organisations, and geographies. Each step introduces latency, not necessarily because of the effort required, but because of coordination, alignment, and the need to reconcile inconsistencies.

In this context, the constraint is not the ability to produce engineering work, but the ability to validate and integrate it efficiently.

The nature of the bottleneck

As projects evolve from conceptual design to detailed engineering and construction, the volume and granularity of deliverables increase significantly. This expansion is accompanied by a corresponding increase in interfaces between disciplines. Mechanical systems must align with structural supports, electrical systems must integrate with control architectures, and all must comply with operational and safety requirements.

Traditional review processes address this complexity through iterative, discipline-specific validation. While effective in ensuring technical integrity, these processes are limited in their ability to scale. Reviews are conducted sequentially or in loosely coordinated parallel streams, and issues identified at later stages often require revisiting earlier decisions. The result is a cycle of iteration that extends project timelines and introduces inefficiencies.

This dynamic is further compounded by the fact that review cycles are not purely technical activities. They involve communication, coordination, and decision-making across multiple stakeholders. As such, the duration of a review cycle is often driven more by process than by technical effort.

The emergence of AI in engineering contexts

Advances in AI have reached a level of maturity that allows systems to interpret, analyse, and generate engineering content with increasing accuracy. AI models can process structured and unstructured data, identify relationships between elements, and detect patterns that may not be immediately visible to human reviewers.

In practical terms, AI can now extract information from engineering documents, generate drawings based on defined parameters, and evaluate the consistency of designs across multiple domains. It can compare specifications against standards, identify deviations, and highlight potential conflicts between systems.

These capabilities extend beyond isolated tasks. AI can operate across interconnected datasets, enabling a more integrated view of engineering systems. This creates the foundation for a new approach to validation, one that is not constrained by discipline boundaries or sequential workflows.

Autonomous review with human-in-the-loop validation

The concept of autonomous AI review builds on these capabilities by applying them to the validation process itself. Rather than relying on multiple rounds of manual review, AI systems can evaluate entire engineering packages in a single pass, checking for completeness, compliance, and cross-discipline consistency.

Crucially, this approach does not eliminate the role of the engineer. Instead, it redefines it. Engineers remain responsible for final validation and decision-making, but their role shifts from conducting detailed manual reviews to assessing and confirming the outputs generated by AI. This human-in-the-loop model ensures that accountability and professional judgment are preserved, while significantly reducing the time required for validation.

The impact of this shift is not limited to efficiency. By enabling rapid, comprehensive review, it reduces the likelihood of late-stage issue discovery. Inconsistencies and conflicts can be identified earlier, when they are less costly and easier to resolve.

Implications for project execution

The introduction of autonomous review has broader implications for how projects are executed. By reducing the duration and frequency of review cycles, it allows engineering activities to progress more continuously. Dependencies between disciplines become less restrictive, as validation can occur in parallel rather than in sequence.

This creates the conditions for a more dynamic and responsive execution model. Decisions can be made earlier, with greater confidence, and adjustments can be implemented without significant disruption.

The traditional concept of rigid stage gates begins to give way to a more fluid process, in which validation is embedded within the workflow rather than applied after the fact.
The cumulative effect is a compression of the project timeline. Engineering completion is achieved sooner, procurement can be initiated earlier, and construction activities can proceed with fewer interruptions.

Enabling earlier production

For owner-operators, the most significant consequence of this transformation is the potential to achieve first production earlier than originally planned. The value of this acceleration extends beyond cost savings. It directly impacts revenue generation and the overall economic performance of the asset.

By reducing delays in engineering and execution, autonomous review contributes to a more predictable and shorter path to operational readiness. This not only improves capital efficiency but also enhances the strategic flexibility of operators, allowing them to respond more effectively to market conditions.

In this sense, the primary value of AI in project delivery is not merely in reducing costs, but in unlocking time. Time, in turn, is directly linked to value creation in the form of earlier production and extended asset utilisation.

Extending AI into operations

The same principles that enable autonomous review can be extended into the operational phase. AI systems are increasingly capable of monitoring plant conditions, interpreting sensor data, and applying predefined operational philosophies to optimise performance.

In environments where safety, efficiency, and reliability are critical, AI can support or even execute operational decisions within defined boundaries. This reduces the reliance on manual intervention and enhances the consistency of operations.

In certain scenarios, AI can effectively operate a plant by following established control strategies and responding to real-time conditions. While human oversight remains essential, the role of operators evolves toward supervision and exception management.

Conclusion

Autonomous AI review, combined with human-in-the-loop validation, offers a practical pathway to addressing one of the most persistent challenges in project delivery. By transforming how engineering outputs are validated and integrated, it removes a key constraint that has historically limited project performance.

The resulting benefits extend beyond efficiency gains. They include earlier production, improved capital utilisation, and a more responsive and resilient execution model. When combined with AI-enabled operations, this approach forms the foundation of a new paradigm in which projects are not only digitally enabled but increasingly autonomous.

The future of project delivery will not be defined by how quickly engineering work can be produced, but by how effectively it can be validated, integrated, and executed. In this context, AI is not simply a tool for optimisation, but a catalyst for fundamental change.

How do complacency and human factors contribute to workplace injuries, and how can you prevent complacency-related injuries and incidents?

That is the subject of a webinar hosted by HSE Review in association with SafeStart, to take place on Wednesday 1st April 2026 at 2pm GST, which will shine a light on the neuroscience behind competence, complacency and human factors.

Safety professionals have known for years that “complacency is a silent killer.” They have also suspected that complacency was a contributing factor in almost every unintentional injury or incident. Unfortunately, from a neuroscience perspective, it is impossible to stop people from becoming complacent once they are competent. And for high-risks tasks in particular, competence is a must.

Even more unfortunately, many (most) companies do not know what to do to help their employees deal with complacency, which leads to mind not on task/risk.

In this session, participants will:
• Understand the neuroscience behind complacency and why it cannot be eliminated once competence is achieved
• Recognise the two stages of the complacency continuum and how human factors impact critical decision-making
• Learn practical skills to prevent complacency-related injuries, including attentive habits, looking for risk patterns in others, analysing close calls and small errors to prevent agonising over large ones, and using self-triggering skills, to deal with rushing, frustration and fatigue which, when combined with complacency, can cause fatalities
• Explore how concepts such as fail-safe can help compensate for complacency leading to mind not on task.

Register for the webinar here

Our speaker is Larry Wilson, a pioneer in the area of Human Factors in safety. He has been a safety consultant for over 25 years and has worked on-site with hundreds of companies worldwide. Larry is the author of SafeStart, an advanced safety and performance awareness programme, successfully implemented in more than 4,500 companies in 75 countries, with more than five million people trained. He is the moderator of the SafeConnection expert panels series and has authored and co-authored a number of books, the latest being “25 Years of Original Thought-Innovations in Safety, Human Error and Performance”. Larry is also an active keynote speaker at health and safety conferences around the globe (32 countries so far).

Participants are guaranteed an hour of engaging and thought-provoking interactive discussion and debate and will take away the understanding, skills and strategies to help prevent complacency-related injuries and incidents.

So don’t delay, register for the webinar here

SafeStart Trainer Certification – Global Training Series

Following strong demand last year and impact across global markets, we’re also launching the SafeStart Trainer Certification – Global Training Series, starting with Dubai on 7–8 April 2026.

This is a practical, human factors–based certification designed to help organisations reduce incidents, strengthen decision-making, and improve overall safety performance, on and off the job.

Find out more information and register here:

DNV has published a recommended practice (RP) for offshore hydrogen pipelines, supporting safe design, operation and requalification of pipeline infrastructure for transporting hydrogen

DNV-RP-F123 Hydrogen pipeline systems addresses hydrogen-specific integrity and safety considerations. It supplements DNV’s established submarine pipeline standard, DNV-ST-F101 and adds additional guidance tailored to transporting hydrogen gas and hydrogen blends in pipeline systems. It is relevant for new pipeline developments as well as for the requalifying of existing offshore infrastructure for hydrogen transport, supporting broader efforts to scale hydrogen networks.

Hydrogen is expected to play an increasing role in cutting emissions from hard-to-decarbonise sectors. However the transportation of hydrogen by pipeline faces certain risks and considerations, such as embrittlement.

DNV-RP-F123 has been developed through the H2Pipe joint industry project (JIP), which ran from 2021 to 2026 and brought together 37 industry partners across operators, manufacturers, engineering companies and academic advisors to provide guidance for engineering projects and qualification work.

The next step is large-scale testing to validate data and advance existing standards. This phase will include full-scale pipe testing at DNV’s Spadeadam Research and Development Facility. The results will feed into the continued development of DNV-RP-F123 and future guidance.

“Hydrogen service fundamentally changes the integrity picture for pipeline systems,” explained Prajeev Rasiah, executive vice president and regional director for Northern Europe, Energy Systems at DNV, “it cannot be treated as a simple variant of natural gas. This recommended practice moves beyond theoretical study to provide an evidence-based framework for assessing hydrogen-specific risks in design, requalification, and operation. By closing the gaps around material suitability and safety margins, we are giving teams the technical clarity needed to move projects from the study phase into execution. This is particularly vital for requalifying existing infrastructure, where the guidance helps define exactly what must be tested or upgraded to ensure a safe reliable and sustainable transition.”

“The objective of the H2Pipe JIP is to build guidance grounded in shared data and real technical experience from testing,” added Philippe Darcis, chairman of the H2Pipe JIP Steering Committee and Pipeline Technology Senior Director at Tenaris. “The real value of the H2Pipe JIP is in turning years of shared data into credible, site-ready guidance that engineers can use to scale hydrogen infrastructure. This is a practical tool built to reduce the 'unknowns' that often stall investment. Because it was developed through industry-wide collaboration, it gives operators a robust basis for making decisions, allowing us to move forward with fewer assumptions and greater confidence in our safety and performance standards.”