Contractors take on more work in 2025
30 April 2025

Contractors in the region have increased their orderbooks in the past year as the GCC’s key construction markets – Saudi Arabia and the UAE – have continued to award major contracts.
In Saudi Arabia, the rate of growth has not matched that experienced in 2023-24, which suggests that the market is reaching saturation at time when client bodies are assessing their future spending plans.
In the UAE, the value of projects that contractors are working on has increased significantly, which reflects the start of public works schemes such as the Dubai Metro, as well as the ongoing boom in real estate, which has allowed developers to start work on an array of new building projects.
Top performers
Based on data from regional projects tracker MEED Projects, the GCC’s most active contractor is Saudi Arabia’s Nesma & Partners, with $13.9bn of work at the execution stage. While it remains the top-ranked contractor, the total value of projects it has at the execution stage has dropped from the $15bn total it had in 2024.
While Nesma & Partners remains the top-ranked contractor in 2025, the total value of projects it has at the execution stage has dropped
In 2024, Nesma was ahead of the second-ranked contractor by $5bn – Italy’s Webuild had $10bn of projects under execution last year. This year, the contractor in second place, Beijing-based China State Construction Engineering Corporation, is just $300m behind Nesma with $13.5bn. China State has grown strongly over the past five years, as it has expanded its presence in Saudi Arabia significantly and is now the second-ranked contractor in the kingdom.
Turkiye’s Limak, which is in third position, is also close behind with $12.9bn of projects under execution. Limak has added the Dubai Metro Blue Line project to its existing work on Kuwait International airport.
There are five other Saudi firms in the top 10, which reflects the kingdom’s status as the region’s largest construction market, and the ambition and scale of its infrastructure spending and gigaprojects programme.
The other Saudi contractors in the top 10 are Almabani in fourth place with $8.5bn of projects; Shibh Al-Jazira, which also has $8.5bn of projects, in fifth; and El-Seif Engineering Contracting in sixth with $8.3bn of projects under execution.
Al-Bawani then follows in eighth position with $7.3bn of projects, and Saudi Binladin Group rounds out the top 10 with $6.5bn of projects in 10th place.
The other contractors in the top 10 are Abu Dhabi-headquartered Trojan General Contracting, which is in seventh place with $8bn of projects, and Dubai-based Alec, which has secured ninth place in the ranking with $6.8bn of work at the execution stage, spilt between its home market in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Alec is reportedly considering an initial public offering, which is another sign of how well the construction sector is performing in 2025.
Bahrain
The top two contractors in Bahrain’s ranking in 2025 remain the same. China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) retains the top spot with $700m of work at the execution phase. The Chinese contractor’s work centres on building residential units at East Sitra for the Housing & Urban Planning Ministry. In July 2024, it signed a deal to build 1,269 houses for the third phase of the scheme.
The third phase adds to the project’s second phase, which has 531 units and was handed over in early 2024. The first phase, which has 1,077 units, has also been handed over. The housing ministry signed a BD260m ($689.9m) deal with CMEC for the construction of more than 3,000 housing units at East Sitra in December 2019.
Al-Hamad Building Contracting remains the second-ranked contractor. Its largest project is the longstanding Villamar residential complex at Bahrain Financial Harbour in Manama for Gulf Holding Company.
Grnata joins the top 10 in third position. Its largest ongoing project is the Golden Gate Towers scheme in Manama for the Grnata Group, which involves the construction of two towers, one with 45 and the other with 53 storeys, that together will have a total of 746 apartments.
Grnata edges out Nass Contracting, which was in third place in 2024. Nass drops down the ranking despite two high-profile contract awards. In May 2024, its joint venture with Nassir Hazza & Bros won a BD37.2m contract for the construction works on package three of the Busaiteen Link scheme for the Works Ministry.
Nass also won a $45m contract in June 2024 for the expansion of the campus of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland-Medical University of Bahrain in the Al-Sayh area of Muharraq Governorate.
Kuwait
For the second year running, Turkiye’s Limak Holding has strengthened its position at the top of Kuwait’s ranking. The contractor has $6.1bn of construction work at the execution stage, according to MEED Projects. This is about $500m more than the $5.6bn it had in 2024.
In October 2024, Limak was one of the contractors that secured work as part of more than KD400m ($1.3bn) of road maintenance works contracts that were awarded by the Public Works Ministry to 18 local and international companies.
The road work adds to Limak’s ongoing works at Kuwait International airport. In 2023, it secured a contract for package three of the expansion of Terminal 2, which covers the construction of aircraft parking aprons, taxiways and service buildings.
China Gezhouba Group Corporation is in second position. In March this year, it won two contracts worth over $557m from Kuwait’s Public Authority for Housing Welfare for the South Saad Al-Abdullah residential project in Al-Jahra Governorate.
China Gezhouba Group Corporation’s rise to second place shifts Shapoorji Pallonji into third place. The Indian contractor is working on two healthcare projects and one education scheme in a joint venture with the local Al-Sager General Trading & Contracting, which is also working on $1.4bn of projects at the execution stage.
Oman
The local Galfar Engineering & Contracting topped Oman’s 2024 ranking with $900m of work at the execution stage. In 2025, there are seven contractors in Oman that have more than $900m of construction work under execution, which reflects an increased level of projects activity across the sultanate.
Galfar remains the top-ranked contractor in 2025 with $2.5bn of work at the execution phase.
Last year, as part of a consortium with Abu Dhabi-based National Projects Construction, National Infrastructure Construction Company and Tristar Engineering & Construction, it won an estimated $1.5bn design-and-build contract for the Hafeet Railway project connecting the sultanate with the UAE. It also won a $119.5m contract from the Transport, Communication & Information Technology Ministry for the dualisation of the road connecting the city of Nizwa and the nearby town of Izki.
The overall uptick in projects activity in Oman has meant that the 10th-ranked contractor in 2025 has $500m of work at the execution stage compared to just $200m for the 10th-ranked contractor in 2024.
Qatar
UCC Holding leads the Qatar ranking in 2025. The local firm was ranked the fifth most active contractor in 2024 with $1.2bn of projects at the execution stage. That total has increased to $1.3bn this year, and with the Qatar construction market remaining subdued after the Fifa World Cup in 2022, it is enough to take UCC to the top of the ranking.
The contractor’s main ongoing projects are part of the country’s public-private partnership schools scheme. Earlier this year, it signed an estimated $330m deal covering the design, build and maintenance of 14 schools in several areas of Qatar.
UCC Holding also has two major road schemes under execution for the Public Works Authority (Ashghal). UCC is in a joint venture with Infraroad Trading & Contracting Company for both projects.
The first contract, valued at $170m, covers the construction of the roads and infrastructure works in Al-Mearad and southwest of Muaither. The other, valued at $150m, covers the construction of roads and infrastructure works in the Al-Kharaitiyat and Izghawa areas of Doha.
UCC replaces Turkiye’s TAV Construction and the local Midmac Contracting Company, which jointly held the top ranking position in 2024 with $1.4bn of projects at the execution phase thanks to the terminal expansion programme at Hamad International airport.
The expansion, which has added 51,000 square metres of space to the airport, including eight new gates, opened in February this year.
Saudi Arabia
There was an expectation in 2024 that Saudi Arabia’s contractor ranking would be transformed in 2025 as development activity accelerated on projects across the kingdom.
While activity in the kingdom continues, the pace of awards has levelled off as the government and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) have begun to prioritise projects. This drive to rationalise the projects market can be seen in the contractor ranking for 2025.
Like last year, Nesma tops the list, with $13.9bn of work at the execution stage. This total is less than the $14.7bn of projects that the local contractor had in 2024.
China State Construction Engineering Company is in second with $9.3bn of projects under execution. The Beijing-based contractor has risen up the ranking from 10th place last year, when it had $3.9bn of projects under execution.
The largest new contract that the firm has secured in the past year is a $3bn scheme to deliver 2,000 housing units for the National Housing Company at several locations in the kingdom.
China State is joined in the top 10 in 2025 by another Chinese contractor: China Harbour Engineering Corporation, which is in 10th place with $5.6bn of work. One of its recent wins was in June last year, when it secured an $800m contract in joint venture with Al-Ayuni Investment & Contracting for the construction works on the second southern ring road in Riyadh.
China Harbour replaces Greece’s Archirodon, which has dropped out of the Saudi top 10 in 2025. The other contractors in the 2025 top 10 ranking remain from 2024.
UAE
There is no change at the top of the UAE contractor ranking, as Abu Dhabi-based Trojan General Contracting once again leads in 2025. The firm has $7.2bn of projects under execution this year, compared to $6.2bn in 2024.
There have been significant changes to the companies making up the rest of the ranking, however, and to the value of projects that contractors have under execution. This reflects a shift in the market in 2024, as government-backed infrastructure projects moved into construction.
In 2024, the second-ranked contractor was Abu Dhabi-based National Marine Dredging Company with $3.1bn of projects under execution – a total that would not even make the top 10 in 2025. This year, it is the fifth-ranked contractor, with $4.7bn-worth of projects.
In 2025, the second-ranked contractor is Turkiye’s Mapa with $6bn of projects – thanks largely to a contract it secured in December 2024 for the Blue Line extension of Dubai Metro. Mapa is joined by China’s CRRC Corporation in third place and Turkiye’s Limak in fourth, which are also working on the Blue Line project.
Abu Dhabi-headquartered Arabian Construction Company is the sixth-ranked contractor with $4.5bn. The firm, which specialises in high-end building projects, returns to the top 10 amid reports that it is planning to list on the stock market with an initial public offering.
The other contractors in the UAE’s top 10 listing are Beijing-based China State Construction Engineering Corporation, India’s Sobha, UK-headquartered Innovo and the local Alec.
Alec has dropped from fourth position in 2024 to 10th this year, despite increasing the value of projects under execution from $2.6bn to $3.3bn, which reflects how much contractors’ orderbooks have filled up over the past year.
Exclusive from Meed
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Adnoc plans new offshore-to-onshore oil transport pipeline20 August 2026
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Contractors confirm Al-Maktoum airport people-mover award20 August 2026
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Saudi Arabia awards estimated $1bn phosphate rail deal20 August 2026
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Contractors confirm $683m Oman power plant contract21 August 2026
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China-headquartered Shandong Electric Power Construction No. 3 Company (Sepco 3) and South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility have confirmed their involvement as contractors on the 1,700MW Misfah combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) project in Oman.
In a statement, Sepco 3 said it signed the contract on 20 August. On 21 August, Doosan disclosed a KRW930bn ($683m) contract with Jabel Power, the project company for the Misfah plant. The contract runs from 20 August 2026 to 1 April 2029.
The same consortium signed the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the 890MW Duqm CCGT power plant in June. At the time, Doosan disclosed a contract worth about $350m.
In May, MEED exclusively reported that the group had been appointed as the main contractor for the two power plants, subject to the official signing.
State offtaker Nama Power & Water Procurement (Nama PWP) had previously signed power-purchase agreements (PPAs) for the development and operation of the plants.
The developer’s contract was awarded to a consortium comprising Korea Western Power (Kowepo), Qatar’s Nebras Power, the UAE’s Etihad Water & Electricity (EtihadWE) and Oman’s Bhawan Infrastructure Services.
As MEED understands, construction works have already commenced on the power plant projects. A China-based procurement listing in June shows that civil works procurement was under way for the Misfah independent power producer (IPP).
The civil package F tender covered piling, reinforcement cages, concrete works and pile testing, with work scheduled to start in July and finish by November
As reported in July, Germany’s Siemens Energy will supply power generation technology and long-term service agreements for the Misfah and Duqm IPP projects.
This includes the supply of six F-class gas turbines, six generators and 20-year long-term service agreements for the equipment.
The Misfah IPP will be led by Nebras Power and located in Wilayat Bousher in Muscat Governorate. The Duqm IPP will be led by Kowepo and located in Wilayat Duqm in Al-Wusta Governorate.
According to Nama PWP, the total investment for the two projects is estimated at approximately RO1bn ($2.6bn).
Synergy Consulting is the financial adviser and lead adviser to Nama PWP for these projects.
In November, Oman’s OQ Gas Networks received final investment approval to proceed with gas supply connections for the facilities.
The Misfah IPP will receive 8.5 million cubic metres a day (cm/d) of natural gas. The Duqm IPP will be supplied with 4.5 million cm/d of natural gas.
In March 2025, the same Sepco 3 and Doosan Enerbility consortium signed an EPC contract with Saudi Electricity Company to expand Riyadh Power Plant 12 (PP12). Located about 150 kilometres northwest of Riyadh, the 1,863MW power plant is expected to be completed in 2028.
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Adnoc plans new offshore-to-onshore oil transport pipeline20 August 2026

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Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is moving ahead with an ambitious plan to build an oil pipeline network that will transport oil from its main offshore oil processing islands in the Gulf to its onshore crude export terminal in Jebel Dhanna, Abu Dhabi.
The planned pipeline network will source crude from Zirku Island and Das Island, where Adnoc gathers and treats oil produced at Abu Dhabi’s offshore fields, among other processing hubs, and transport those volumes across 300 kilometres inland to the Jebel Dhanna terminal.
According to sources, the proposed pipelines will eventually connect to the West-East crude pipeline network currently being built from Abu Dhabi’s Jebel Dhanna to the emirate of Fujairah, and is expected to be commissioned in 2027.
The Abu Dhabi energy giant has awarded a contract for concept studies and front-end engineering and design (feed) to Abu Dhabi-based NT Energies, a joint venture of Abu Dhabi-based contractor NMDC Energy and France’s Technip Energies, sources told MEED.
NT Energies is expected to carry out the concept studies and feed on a “fast-track basis”, with the work anticipated to take seven months, sources said.
A kick-off meeting between the client and the appointed consultant took place on 6 July, sources added.
Additionally, Adnoc has appointed Australia-headquartered Worley to provide project management consultancy (PMC) services, sources further said.
West-East oil pipeline
In May, Adnoc said it was accelerating work on the West-East crude transport pipeline project from Jebel Dhanna to Fujairah, upon directions from its board.
The West-East pipeline project involves constructing a cross-country pipeline to transport crude from Adnoc’s export terminal at Jebel Dhanna to the Fujairah terminal, covering a distance of about 520km.
The pipeline will double Adnoc’s crude export capacity through Fujairah on the Indian Ocean coast and enable shipments to bypass the geopolitically volatile Strait of Hormuz.
Crude will be sourced from Adnoc’s offshore processing centres at Das, Zakum and Umm Lulu islands before being stored at new storage facilities to be built at the Jebel Dhanna terminal.
The pipeline will be segmented into three sections:
- Jebel Dhanna to Habshan main pumping station (MPS) – 115km
- Habshan MPS to Sweihan depot – 254km
- Sweihan depot to Fujairah terminal – 153km
Adnoc awarded Egyptian contractor Engineering for Petroleum & Process Industries (Enppi) an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) contract for the project in February 2024.
Adnoc’s total spend on EPCm works could be as high as $3bn, MEED previously reported.
Sources have told MEED that Adnoc has, in turn, appointed state-owned China Petroleum Pipeline (CPP) and locally based Bin Asheer to carry out construction works on the three segments of the West-East pipeline network.
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Contractors confirm Al-Maktoum airport people-mover award20 August 2026
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A team of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation and Indian contractor Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has confirmed that it has won a design-and-build contract for the automated people-mover (APM) system for phase one of Al-Maktoum International airport in Dubai.
In a statement released earlier today, L&T classified the contract as large, a term the company uses to denote an order value of $261m-$523m.
MEED exclusively reported in July that Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP) had selected a contractor to deliver the APM system as part of the first phase of the $35bn expansion of the airport.
The APM system will serve as a critical facility for operations at Al-Maktoum International. The system will run under the apron of the entire airfield and the airport’s terminals. It will consist of several tracks, taking passengers from the terminals to the concourses.
Four underground stations will be built as part of the first phase. The overall plan includes 14 stations at the airport.
The firms submitted the bids for the project in July last year, as MEED exclusively reported.
The contract is the latest in a series of awards signed by DAEP recently. It has awarded contracts valued at about AED13bn ($3.5bn), with construction works currently under way on several airport packages.
These include enabling works, the second runway and the initial structural foundations for passenger terminals and gates.
Upcoming awards
In June, DAEP said that it will award contracts worth over AED55bn ($15bn) by the end of this year for construction works at Al-Maktoum International airport.
The projects slated for contract awards include the substructure works for the western passenger terminal, the fourth aircraft concourse building and the baggage handling system, in addition to the superstructure works for the western passenger terminal and the first, second and third aircraft concourses.
The packages also encompass long-span structural frameworks for buildings covering about 1.5 million square metres (sq m), infrastructure works for the southern airfield area and power generation and district cooling plants supporting the construction programme.
The award of the facade and roofing packages is also planned for this year.
Construction progress
In May last year, MEED exclusively reported that DAEP had awarded a AED1bn ($272m) deal to UAE firm Binladin Contracting Group to construct the second runway at the airport.
The enabling works on the terminal were awarded to Abu Dhabi-based Tristar E&C.
Construction on the project’s first phase is expected to be completed by 2032.
Construction of substructure works began in November last year, when DAEP formally selected a contractor to deliver the package.
The government approved the updated designs and timelines for its largest construction project in April 2024.
In a statement, the authorities said the plan is for all operations from Dubai International airport to be transferred to Al-Maktoum International within 10 years.
According to an official description on DAEP’s website, the expanded airport’s West Terminal will be a seven-level, 800,000 sq m facility with an annual capacity of 45 million passengers.
It will be the second of three terminals at the airport.
In September 2024, MEED exclusively reported that a team comprising Austria’s Coop Himmelb(l)au and Lebanon’s Dar Al-Handasah had been confirmed as the lead masterplanning and design consultant on the expansion of Al-Maktoum.
The airport’s construction is planned to be undertaken in three phases. It will cover an area of 70 square kilometres south of Dubai and will have five parallel runways and 430 aircraft gates.
It will be five times the size of the existing Dubai International airport and will have the world’s largest passenger-handling capacity of 260 million passengers a year. For cargo, it will have the capacity to handle 12 million tonnes a year.
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Saudi Arabia awards estimated $1bn phosphate rail deal20 August 2026

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Saudi Arabian Railways (SAR) has awarded an estimated SR4bn-plus ($1.1bn) contract to add another track to the first section of the existing phosphate transport railway network in the kingdom’s Eastern Province.
The contract was awarded to local firm Alomaier Trading & Contracting Company.
The scope includes track doubling, alignment modifications, 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 existing railway line runs from the Waad Al-Shamal mines to Ras Al-Khair. The new project will cover about 100 kilometres (km), connecting the AZ1/Nariyah Yard to Ras Al-Khair.
Switzerland-based engineering firm ARX is the project consultant.
The project is the first of four packages for the phosphate railway line that SAR is expected to award imminently.
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 on 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 southward 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 cargo-carrying capacity on the network and facilitate growth in industrial production. Project implementation is expected to take four years.
State-owned SAR is also considering increasing the localisation of railway-focused materials and equipment, including the construction of a cement sleeper manufacturing facility.
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Libya and Tunisia reschedule joint oil and gas licensing round19 August 2026
The Libyan-Tunisian Joint Oil Exploration, Exploitation & Petroleum Services Company (Joint Oil) has rescheduled its planned licensing round for offshore exploration and development projects in a zone spanning the waters of both countries.
The bidding process is now due to open on 7 September 2026, with bid submissions due by 8 January 2027.
Previously, in May, Joint Oil said it planned to open the bid round on 1 August 2026.
The upcoming round will offer two oil and gas packages. The first is an exploration package across the 3,000-square-kilometre Joint Oil Block, in water depths of 80-120 metres.
Significant data is available on the geology of this area, including 6,500km of 2D and 1,900 square kilometres of 3D seismic data. Data also exists from a run of legacy wells dating to 1976.
The second package covers development of the Zarat discovery specifically. This is a gas-condensate reservoir straddling the boundary between Tunisia’s national acreage and the jointly-held Joint Oil Block.
Joint Oil is equally owned by Tunisia’s national oil company, ETAP, and OLA Energy Holdings, a subsidiary of the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAIP).
LAIP is a subsidiary of Libya’s sovereign wealth institution, the Libya Investment Authority.
Joint Oil was established under a bilateral agreement between Libya and Tunisia in 1988 to explore and develop hydrocarbons in offshore areas shared by the two countries.
The key dates from the new schedule for the licensing round are:
- 7 September 2026: Bid round opens; qualified offshore operators can apply for access to the Virtual Data Room
- 9 September 2026: Joint Oil presents the opportunity at the MMEA Scout Group meeting in London
- 29-30 September 2026: Joint Oil presents at the World Energy Summit in London
- 31 December 2026: Bid round closes
- 8 January 2027: Bid submissions due
- 26 February 2027: Winning bidders notified
- 30 April 2027: Formal awards expected
Texas-based Moyes & Co is acting as a strategic adviser on the licensing round.
Houston-headquartered Marathon discovered the Zarat field in 1992. It is estimated to hold around 0.4 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 50 million barrels of liquids.
A previous development project concept centred on a mobile production unit, worth around $1bn, tied back to the nearby Miskar platform.
Despite this, the field has remained undeveloped for over three decades.
One of the key challenges to developing the reserve is its high carbon dioxide content.
Joint Oil has run bid rounds for the acreage before without success, including as recently as late 2023.
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