Abu Dhabi - Sh. Hamed Bin Zayed.

The Chairman of the Crown Prince's Diwan since Dec. 19, 2006, Sh. Hamed took up this post to succeed Sh. Sultan bin Khalifa. In this position, Sh. Hamed has become very powerful. He often deputises for the crown prince in key functions in Abu Dhabi. Sh. Hamad's position until Dec. 18 was chairman of Abu Dhabi's Department of Planning and Economic Development (DED).

In that position, Sh. Hamed had told a conference in mid-January 2004: "We can no longer rely on the traditional principles of the past, as they are not applicable any more. Globalisation has become an inevitable reality with which we must interact. No country, region or society can remain on the sidelines and pretend they will not be affected by this rapidly changing world order".

Nasser Ahmad al-Suwaidi, a key technocrat, on Dec. 19, 2006, took over the DED from Sh. Hamed. The National Petroleum Construction Co. (NPCC), transferred in 2004 from ADNOC to the DED, will be privatised through a public offering. A company statement in early 2005 said the DED had restructured the NPCC "to enhance [its] employees' performance and to [incorporate the expertise of] competent local and expatriate professionals. This should help the NPCC compete with international companies and eventually improve its financial results, [so that] the prime objective of float[ing] the company through a public offering in the near future [can be achieved]". ADNOC's 70% share in the NPCC was transferred to the General Holding Corp. (GHC) then chaired by Sh. Hamed and now headed by Suwaidi, who has reconstituted its board of directors to include representatives of the GHC and of the 30% shareholder, the Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Co. (CCC). The board members include: Nasser Ahmad al-Suwaidi as chairman; and Hussain Jasem Al-Nowais, Muhammad Nasser al-Kheli and the general managers of Zadco, Adgas and Adma-Opco as members. Three representatives of CCC - Tawfic S. Khoury, Munir E. Khoury and Fareed B. Ashfour - are also part of the board.

The new board members met on Dec. 15, 2004. The board formed an executive committee to support the company's management. Created in 1973, the NPCC has worked on projects for local and international oil companies, both onshore and offshore, across the UAE, the GCC, India and Iran.

The NPCC on Jan. 9, 2005, won a $500m (Dh1.835 bn) contract from Qatar Liquefied Gas Co.-II (QatarGas-II) for an offshore facility. A company statement said the NPCC "will perform the total onshore fabrication, coating of line pipes, offshore transportation of the structures, offshore installation of structures and sub-sea pipeline laying and pre-commissioning of the facilities. [The] NPCC, together with Technip Abu Dhabi, will perform the engineering and procurement of the project". The NPCC will complete the offshore facilities for LNG Train-4 by December 2007, and for LNG Train 5 by October 2008. The overall duration of the project is three years and nine months. This is just one example of the type of contracts the NPCC undertakes.