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  Local contractor wins $143m Jeddah sewage contracts

  19 February 2026

  Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company (NWC) has awarded two sewage network contracts worth a combined SR536.3m ($143m) to local contractor Civil Works Company (CWC).

  The projects will be implemented over 32 months from site handover and will serve northern Jeddah districts.

  The first contract, valued at SR278.5m ($74.3m), covers incomplete main lines and secondary sewage networks serving parts of Al-Bashair, Al-Asala and Al-Falah neighbourhoods.

  The scope includes pipelines ranging from 200mm to 800mm in diameter with a total length of about 54.8 kilometres.

  The package also includes sewage tunnels with diameters ranging from 600mm to 1,800mm and a total length of approximately 6.5km. Works will also serve Taybah, Abhar Al-Shamaliyah and Al-Hamdaniyah districts.

  The second contract is valued at SR257.8m ($68.8m). It covers the implementation of main lines and sub-networks to serve part of Al-Hamdaniya neighbourhood.

  The works include pipelines ranging from 200mm to 1,500mm in diameter with a total length of about 78.5km. The scope also includes horizontal drilling works for sewage tunnels with diameters from 1,200mm to 1,400mm and a total length of approximately 205 metres.

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  Mark Dowdall
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  Veolia wins Jordan water services contract

  18 February 2026

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  France's Veolia has signed a four-year performance-based management contract with the Water Authority of Jordan to support water and wastewater services in the country’s northern governorates.

  Under the contract, Veolia will provide operations, maintenance and management services to Yarmouk Water Company, the public utility responsible for water supply and wastewater services in the region.

  The agreement covers Irbid, Jerash, Ajloun and Mafraq, an area spanning nearly 30,000 square kilometres and covering about 3 million people.

  The scope includes water and wastewater operations, maintenance, billing and collection, and customer service.

  According to the firm, the performance-based structure prioritises measurable improvements, including service delivery, cost efficiency and revenue management.

  The company said it will deploy technical and management specialists to support operations, rehabilitation works and investment initiatives.

  The contract builds on Veolia’s existing operational role in Jordan’s water sector. The company operates the Disi-Amman scheme, which supplies about 100 million cubic metres of drinking water a year, under an operations and maintenance contract.

  It also operates the Al-Samra wastewater treatment plant, which produces about 133 million cubic metres of treated wastewater annually for agricultural reuse.

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  Mark Dowdall
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  SAR tenders phosphate rail project management deal

  18 February 2026

  

   

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  Saudi Arabian Railways (SAR) has floated another tender inviting firms to bid for a contract covering the project management consultancy services for its Phosphate 3 rail programme.

  The tender was issued on 15 February with a bid submission deadline of 5 April.

  The contract duration is 54 months.

  The latest tender follows SAR floating a multibillion-riyal tender to double the tracks on the existing phosphate transport railway network connecting the Waad Al-Shamal mines to Ras Al-Khair in the kingdom’s Eastern Province.

  The tender – covering the second section of the track-doubling works, spanning more than 150 kilometres (km) – was issued on 9 February. The bid submission deadline is 15 April.

  Earlier this month, MEED reported that SAR received bids from contractors on 1 February for the project’s first phase, which spans about 100km from the AZ1/Nariyah Yard to Ras Al-Khair.

  The scope includes track doubling, alignment modifications, new utility bridges, culvert widening and hydrological structures, as well as the conversion of the AZ1 siding into a mainline track.

  The scope also covers support for signalling and telecommunications systems.

  The tender notice was issued in late November with a bid submission deadline of 20 January.

  Switzerland-based engineering firm ARX is the project consultant.

  MEED understands that SAR is expected to tender a total of four packages for the phosphate railway line.

  The other packages expected to be tendered shortly include the depot and the systems package.

  In 2023, MEED reported that SAR was planning two projects to increase its freight capacity, including an estimated SR4.2bn ($1.1bn) project to install a second track along the North Train freight line and construct three new freight yards.

  Formerly known as the North-South Railway, the North Train is a 1,550km-long freight line running from the phosphate and bauxite mines in the far north of the kingdom to the Al-Baithah junction. There, it diverges into a line southwards to Riyadh and a second line running east to downstream fertiliser production and alumina refining facilities at Ras Al-Khair on the Gulf coast.

  Adding a second track and the freight yards will significantly increase the network’s cargo-carrying capacity and facilitate increased industrial production. Project implementation is expected to take four years.

  State-owned SAR is also considering increasing the localisation of railway materials and equipment, including the construction of a cement sleeper manufacturing facility.

  

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  Yasir Iqbal
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  PIF-backed firm signs worker accommodation deal

  17 February 2026

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  Saudi Arabia's Smart Accommodation for Residential Complexes Company (Sarcc) has signed an agreement with Riyadh-based Mawref Company to develop a 12,000-bed worker accommodation project in North Riyadh.

  The project will cover about 120,000 square metres (sq m), with a total built-up area of 150,000 sq m.

  The development is expected to cost over SR669m ($178m), with the first phase slated for completion in 2029.

  Sarcc is backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Saudi sovereign wealth vehicle.

  The agreement follows Sarcc signing another agreement in September last year with privately-owned local firm Tamimi Global Company to explore collaboration in developing worker accommodation facilities in the kingdom.

  The PIF launched Sarcc in October 2024 with the aim of developing and operating staff housing and accommodation assets in the kingdom.

  Sarcc will develop and operate the staff accommodation facilities at major construction projects in Saudi Arabia.

  The company will seek opportunities to invest in the sector to strengthen staff housing standards. Sarcc will also look to engage the private sector by enabling investment and partnership opportunities in sectors including construction, catering, transportation and retail.

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  Yasir Iqbal
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  KBR wins 10-year maintenance contract from Petro Rabigh

  17 February 2026

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  Saudi Arabia's Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh) has awarded US-based consultant KBR a 10-year contract to provide maintenance services covering the company’s polymer plants in Rabigh, on the kingdom’s Red Sea coast.

  “This [contract award] marks a major step in Petro Rabigh’s transformation journey, supporting safer operations, stronger reliability and long-term improvement across its facilities,” Petro Rabigh said in , without providing further details.

  Work on the operations and maintenance contract will be executed by KBR’s  business line, which operates under the Houston-headquartered firm’s Technology Solutions portfolio, sources told MEED.

  Prior to this contract, in March 2024, Petro Rabigh awarded KBR a similar five-year asset condition monitoring programme contract. As part of that job, KBR is to provide predictive maintenance services at Petro Rabigh’s main plant.

  Petro Rabigh was originally established in 1989 as a basic topping refinery with crude oil processing facilities, located in Rabigh, 165 kilometres to the north of Jeddah in Mecca Province.

  Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Company formed an equal joint venture in 2005 to transform the Petro Rabigh crude oil refining complex into an integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex, with the strategic objective of expanding Saudi Arabia’s annual production capacity of refined products and petrochemicals.

  Three years after the creation of the Petro Rabigh joint venture, the partners floated 25% of its shares in an initial public offering on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) in 2008, following which Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical each held 37.5% shares in Petro Rabigh, with the remaining shares listing on the Tadawul.

  In October last year, however, Aramco completed the acquisition of an additional 22.5% stake in Petro Rabigh from Sumitomo Chemical. Following the completion of the transaction, valued at $702m or SR7 a share, Aramco became the majority shareholder in Petro Rabigh, with an equity stake of 60%, while Sumitomo retains an interest of 15%. The remaining 25% shares of Petro Rabigh continue to trade on the Tadawul.

  ALSO READ: Petro Rabigh and Indian firm to study joint project investment

  Following the formation of the Petro Rabigh joint venture in 2005, Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical launched the expansion of the refining facility into an integrated refining and petrochemicals complex in 2006, investing $9.8bn in the project, 60% of which was secured through external financing. Engineering, procurement and construction works on phase one were completed in 2009, with the integrated downstream complex entering operations in November of that year.

  The Petro Rabigh downstream complex consists of a topping refinery that has a 340,000 barrel-a-day (b/d) crude distillation unit, a 47,000 b/d hydrotreater, a 12 million cubic-feet-a-day hydrogen plant, a 75,000 b/d naphtha merox unit and a 60,000 b/d kerosene merox unit, along with supporting utilities, product tankage and a marine terminal.

  Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical initiated Petro Rabigh’s phase two expansion project, valued at $8bn, in 2014. The second expansion phase was commissioned in 2018 and added 15 chemicals plants to the Petro Rabigh complex, raising the facility’s total production capacity to 18.4 million tonnes a year (t/y) of petroleum-based products.  

  The expansion also increased Petro Rabigh’s capacity to process an additional 30 million cubic feet a year of ethane into 2.4 million t/y of ethylene and propylene-based derivatives, and achieved a naphtha output of 3 million t/y.

  Expansion of the main existing chemicals plant and the establishment of a clean fuels complex comprising polyether polyols, naphtha treating and sulphur recovery units were also part of the phase two project.

  Photo credit: Petro Rabigh on LinkedIn

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  Indrajit Sen