Engie selects Jummar as communications consultant in Saudi

Energy conglomerate Engie has selected Jummar as its communications consultant in Saudi Arabia.

With revenues of over €90 billion, Engie is one of the world’s largest energy and utility companies. The company is active across the full value chain of energy provision (from generation and transmission to distribution) and operates both in upstream and downstream activities. Engie also has a large business lines for utility services, such as water and waste management.

The Middle East has been home to Engie for nearly three decades, and today the French-listed group provides around 30 GW of energy to the region and water to over 10 million people daily.

In Saudi Arabia, Engie has over the years cooperated with Saudi authorities to develop and implement a range of energy projects that operate on gas, renewable energy, production, storage, distribution, green hydrogen, seawater desalination and district cooling.

“Our work aligns with the Kingdom’s national transformation plan [Vision 2030] and its focus on accelerating the transition to a carbon-neutral economy,” said Engie CEO Catherine MacGregor recently on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative forum in Riyadh.

Work in the Gulf Cooperation Council currently accounts for 15% of Engie’s total annual revenue, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia its key markets, followed by Qatar. That share is anticipated to grow in the coming years as Engie bids for new projects and expands its operations.

“The region is booming because of a lot of liquidity and there is a willingness to invest in new solutions to decarbonise businesses, not only the energy business, but also energy-intensive industries like cement factories and steel factories,” said Frederic Claux, Engie’s country manager for the GCC and Pakistan at the recently concluded Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

Claux added that renewables are top of the company’s agenda, pointing at a recent agreement signed with the both the UAE and Saudi governments to develop clean energy projects and support decarbonisation goals. “We want to win a few projects and increase our business in the region,” he said, without giving away further details.

On the public relations front, Engie will in Saudi Arabia partner with Jummar, a local public relations company. Under the agreement, Jummar will provide services including strategic communications, media advisory, content development and media relations management.

Based in Riyadh, Jummar was founded in 2021 by Ibrahim Al-Mutawa, a former Vice President at ASDA'A (part of global player Burson Cohn & Wolfe). Earlier in his career, Al-Mutawa worked for other public relations agencies and well-known media publications including Forbes and Thomson Reuters.

Headquartered in Paris, Engie was formed in 2008 by the merger of Gaz de France and Suez.