meed-logo

line1 line2 line3
SIGN IN / REGISTER

Lummus targets large contracts in Saudi Arabia

26 September 2023

 

Register for MEED's guest programme 

US-headquartered petrochemicals specialist Lummus Technology is expecting to grow rapidly in Saudi Arabia over the next decade, according to the company’s chief technology officer Ujjal Mukherjee.

Mukherjee is in the process of moving his entire team from the US to Saudi Arabia in order to capitalise on opportunities in the Middle East.

“The Middle East and North Africa are a key focus for us because of the scale of the planned capital expenditure in our industry,” he says.

“Within the region, Saudi Arabia is the most important to us because of the investments in petrochemicals that are planned.

“Qatar is also important because of its plans for natural gas and petrochemicals, but in terms of investment, Saudi Arabia is not just leading the region, but the entire world.”

Lummus is anticipating as many as 10 or 11 ethane crackers to be installed in Saudi Arabia over the next seven to eight years

Project expectations

Lummus says that Saudi Arabia’s plans to develop facilities with the capacity to convert 4 million barrels of crude oil to chemicals represent $100bn-$200bn in investment.

As part of the push to boost crude-to-chemicals production, Mukherjee is expecting at least four or five greenfield complexes to be developed in Saudi Arabia.

On top of this, he says there are several opportunities to upgrade existing facilities in the country, both in the eastern Jubail area and in the west coast’s Yanbu region.

Across all of these greenfield and upgrade projects, Lummus is anticipating as many as 10 or 11 ethane crackers to be installed over the next seven to eight years.

“This is a huge investment – and that is why everyone in the world of petrochemicals is focused on Saudi Arabia,” says Mukherjee.

“Elsewhere, China is slowing slightly and the Russian market is off limits. There are opportunities in Southeast Asia and India specifically, but the GCC nations are the most important.”

In addition to the GCC states, Lummus has significant interest in markets across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, including Egypt and Turkiye.

Turkiye is of particular interest because of its stated aim of becoming self-sufficient in terms of petrochemicals production, according to Fadi Mhaini, Lummus Technology’s managing director for Mena.

Turkiye is also in a financial position that means investments in world-scale petrochemicals plants are feasible.

The investment climate in Egypt is more challenging, but it remains of interest because of its significant reserves of oil and gas, large population and internal demand for petrochemicals products.

“There are 100 million people living in Egypt and there is a great demand for polymers and plastics,” says Mhaini.

Per capita consumption of plastics in Egypt is estimated to be 21.8 kilograms (kg) a year. This is compared to more than 130kg in the US.

Lummus sees this as a potential sign of pent-up demand for plastics and says new facilities that come online in Egypt could see significant success by supplying the local market.

Saudi challenges

While there are big opportunities in Saudi Arabia’s petrochemicals sector, Mukherjee says it remains a market with significant challenges.

“The biggest challenge we have is getting subject matter expertise in the complex technologies that we license, especially with the focus on employing local skilled labour,” he says.

“We have a lot of graduates coming from good universities there, but you need a certain degree of experience in absorbing these complex technologies.”

A key area of focus for Lummus is growing the number of experienced specialists that it employs and accelerating the transfer of knowledge from its experienced workers to the local talent pool in Saudi Arabia, as well as in other markets, including the UAE.

In order to achieve this goal, the company plans to create centres of excellence across the Mena region.

It has already created one in Bahrain, and says that it has proven effective at providing education for local operators in complex technologies and advanced computing tools.

By recruiting locally and relocating experienced staff from around the world, Lummus expects to grow its Saudi Arabia office from an initial size of about 50 employees to more than 200 in the next three to four years, according to Mukherjee.

While the cornerstone of business activities for Lummus is technology licensing, it plans to use its Saudi office to work with local companies to provide a wide range of services, including the provision of engineering work and of spare parts and equipment.

Project acceleration

Since Lummus was spun off by McDermott in a $2.7bn deal in 2020, one of the key strategic changes is a renewed focus on project streamlining and reduced project completion times.

Mukherjee says this has positioned the firm well to win contracts in Saudi Arabia, where the country’s leadership is keen to execute large-scale projects on an accelerated schedule.

“As soon as we learned that we were going to be an independent company, we decided to take advantage of all of the engineering tools that are part of our ecosystem and use them to accelerate the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) processes,” he says.

“We have used very advanced engineering tools to dramatically reduce the time it takes us to do early engineering and front-end engineering and design work.

“This means that we have to work with very highly skilled engineering contractors and get them started very early on in the procurement cycle.”

As part of Lummus Technology’s new focus on executing projects on an accelerated schedule, it has started to work more closely with several EPC contractors.

“Closer working relationships with these companies are a key way of creating a win-win situation for everyone involved,” he says.

Lummus estimates that the upcoming greenfield oil-to-chemicals projects in Saudi Arabia are each expected to be worth $20bn-$35bn.

“The size of these projects means that there is no EPC contractor in the world that can take them on alone,” says Mukherjee.

Fear of risk

One of the key challenges in Saudi Arabia’s petrochemicals projects sector is that several large international contractors are less keen to take on contracts that use the EPC model due to the potential risks.

Many companies are worried that unpredictable price inflation could mean the EPC contract model would leave them out of pocket if the cost of materials and equipment suddenly increases.

“Even working in consortium, there are very few companies globally that are well equipped to execute complex projects on this scale on an accelerated time schedule,” says Mukherjee. “The technology is there, but there is a risk averseness among many large EPC companies that have been burnt in the past.”

While the projects are difficult and will require close cooperation between different contractors, Mukherjee is confident that his company will play a key role in many of the planned petrochemicals facilities in Saudi Arabia.

He says it is likely that his company will win contracts on many of Saudi Arabia’s upcoming petrochemicals projects, and that the firm is expanding the office so that it can cooperate closely with clients and subcontractors in the country to provide quicker response times to any queries.

“By moving there, we want to make sure that [clients and subcontractors in] Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE know that they will not have to cross time zones to get immediate responses,” Mukherjee says.


Ujjal Mukherjee, Fadi Mhaini and the Mena team

Market outlook

Lummus is optimistic about how Saudi Arabia’s investment in petrochemicals production will benefit the country’s economy in the long term.

Mukherjee says Saudi Arabia could become an increasingly powerful force in global petrochemicals markets in the coming years if it manages to successfully execute the planned projects to an accelerated schedule.

“What Saudi Arabia has is one of the cheapest raw materials for petrochemicals production. The same is true for Qatar and Abu Dhabi,” he says.

“Very cheap oil and gas gives Saudi Arabia a huge advantage and competitive edge over places like South Korea.”

Mukherjee says that, in the past, South Korea maintained a competitive edge in terms of managing project schedules and costs.

He adds that a petrochemicals project that could be completed in 36-42 months in South Korea would previously have taken 60-72 months in Saudi Arabia.

Now, the difference is being reduced by Saudi Arabia’s plans to execute projects using an accelerated schedule.

“If Saudi Arabia can do it, it will put itself in a position where it will be a dominant force when it comes to manufacturing certain polymers,” he says.

Aligning the scheduled start-up of Saudi Arabia’s new wave of planned petrochemicals projects with trends in the global market is likely to be key to the kingdom's success, according to Mukherjee.

In the past year and half, the prices of key petrochemicals products have been subdued as large projects have come online in China and other locations.

This temporarily created an oversupply in certain chemicals despite global per-capita consumption having increased, Mukherjee says.

He believes global prices will stabilise after 2030 and that demand will outstrip that for both gasoline and diesel.

By the end of this decade, Mukherjee expects that demand for polyethylene in particular will start to grow robustly, as is demand for polypropylene – and that Saudi Arabia will be well positioned to take advantage of this growth.

https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/11170351/main.jpg
Wil Crisp

Register for MEED's guest program now to access this article.

Click here to register
Exclusive from Meed
Related Articles
  • UAE to withdraw from Opec and Opec+ alliance

    28 April 2026

    The UAE has announced its decision to withdraw from Opec and the Opec+ alliance from 1 May.

    In a statement, the UAE Ministry of Energy said the move followed a “comprehensive review” of its production policy.

    “While near-term volatility, including disruptions in the Arabian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, continues to affect supply dynamics, underlying trends point to sustained growth in global energy demand over the medium to long term,” the statement, issued on 28 April, said.

    “This decision follows decades of constructive cooperation. The UAE joined Opec in 1967 through the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and continued its membership following the formation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971. Throughout this period, the UAE has played an active role in supporting global oil market stability and strengthening dialogue among producing nations.”

    The announcement was timed to coincide with an Opec ministerial meeting in Vienna and was communicated through state news agency Wam.

    Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has set a target of raising production capacity to 5 million barrels a day (b/d) by 2027 – up from a current capacity of around 4.85 million b/d, though the country has been constrained to producing approximately 3.4 million b/d under Opec+ quota agreements.

    Membership of a quota-constrained group sits uneasily with that ambition. The non-oil economy now accounts for roughly 75% of the UAE’s GDP, reducing the political cost of rupture with the organisation.

    The Iran war wiped out 7.88 million b/d of Opec production in March, cutting group output 27% to 20.79 million b/d – the steepest supply collapse in the organisation’s recorded history, exceeding the Covid-19 demand shock of May 2020 and the disruptions of both the 1970s oil crisis and the 1991 Gulf War. Gulf producers have been struggling to route exports through the Strait of Hormuz amid Iranian threats and attacks on vessels, further straining the group’s cohesion.

    Against that backdrop, the UAE’s departure deals a significant blow to Opec and its de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, which has sought to project unity despite persistent internal disagreements over quotas and geopolitics.

    The US-Israeli war on Iran since late February has had a detrimental effect on a number of Gulf states, including the UAE.

    The UAE was targeted by thousands of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, damaging strategic oil and gas facilities, denting Dubai’s appeal as a luxury tourism hotspot and slowing oil exports to a trickle.

    Whereas some Gulf states have urged dialogue with Iran, the UAE has maintained a more hawkish position. Analysts say that position is partially due to its reliance on the Strait of Hormuz for oil exports and the UAE’s unwillingness to see Iran cement itself as a regional power in the Gulf.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/16596229/main.gif
    Indrajit Sen
  • NWC tenders package 14 of sewage treatment programme

    28 April 2026

     

    Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

    Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company (NWC) has tendered a contract for the construction of 10 sewage treatment plants as part of the next phase of its long-term operations and maintenance (LTOM) sewage treatment programme.

    According to the original scope, the Eastern A Cluster (LTOM14) package will have a total treatment capacity of 184,440 cubic metres a day (cm/d) at an estimated cost of $180m.

    The bid submission deadline is 30 September.

    The tender follows recent contract awards for North Western A Cluster Sewage Treatment Plants Package 11 (LTOM11) and the Northern Cluster Sewage Treatment Plants Package 10 (LTOM10).

    MEED exclusively reported that a consortium comprising China’s Jiangsu United Water Technology, the UAE’s Prosus Energy and Saudi Arabia’s Armada Holding had been appointed as a contractor for each of these projects.

    Package 11 will have a combined capacity of about 440,000 cm/d at an estimated cost of about SR211m ($56.3m).

    Package 12 will have a combined treatment capacity of 337,800 cm/d at an estimated cost of about SR203m ($54.1m).

    In April, NWC also opened finanical bids for North Western B Cluster (LTOM12) of its sewage treatment programme.

    The contract covers the construction and upgrade of seven sewage treatment plants with a combined capacity of about 162,000 cm/d.

    MEED previously reported that the following companies had submitted proposals:

    • Alkhorayef Water & Power Technologies (Saudi Arabia)
    • Civil Works Company (Saudi Arabia)
    • Miahona (Saudi Arabia)
    • Beijing Enterprises Water Group – BEWG (Hong Kong)
    • Al-Yamama (Saudi Arabia)

    These bids are currently under evaluaton, with an award expected in the coming weeks, a source said.

    The tender for the North Western C Cluster (LTOM13) project had been put on hold, although it is understood that this is now likely to be the next package to be tendered.

    Under the original scope, this package covers the construction of 10 sewage treatment plants.

    In total, the LTOM programme comprises 19 packages split into two phases. This contract for LTOM10 was the first to be awarded under the second phase of NWC’s rehabilitation of sewage treatment plants programme.

    As MEED understands, there have been several discussions in recent months regarding changes in scope details and potential expansions. This involves potentially grouping some upcoming projects.

    NWC previously awarded $2.5bn-worth of contracts in the first phase. This comprises nine packages covering the treatment of 4.6 million cm/d of sewage water for the next 15 years. Phase two of the programme includes 10 packages covering 117 treatment plants.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/16591851/main.jpg
    Mark Dowdall
  • Construction begins on Aman Dubai Hotel and Residences

    28 April 2026

    Dubai-based developer H&H Development and Switzerland’s Aman Group have broken ground on the Aman Dubai Hotel and Residences project in Dubai’s Jumeirah area.

    The project’s enabling works contract has been awarded to local firm Swissboring.

    Foundation works are expected to start this quarter.

    The developers said ground improvement works have now been completed. Another local firm, DBB Contracting, carried out the works.

    The project comprises a hotel, 78 branded residences and villas.

    Singapore-headquartered architectural firm Kerry Hill Architects is the project consultant.

    Dubai real estate developments continue to dominate the UAE’s construction market, with schemes worth more than $323bn either under execution or in planning.

    This aligns with a GlobalData forecast that the UAE construction sector will grow by 3% in real terms in 2026, supported by infrastructure, energy and utilities, and residential projects.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/16591687/main.jpg
    Yasir Iqbal
  • Regional war deepens Kuwait oil sector’s tender crisis

    28 April 2026

    Commentary
    Wil Crisp
    Oil & gas reporter

    Contractors in Kuwait expect the regional conflict and disruption to shipping to worsen the country’s existing oil and gas tendering problems, causing long-term disruption in the sector.

    In the months prior to the US and Israel attacking Iran on 28 February, contract tenders worth an estimated $9.1bn were cancelled after bids came in above the projects’ allocated budgets.

    Contractors largely blamed the cancellations on long delays to tender processes after budgets had been set.

    The delays, which often extended for several years, meant inflation drove up the cost of materials and labour, making it almost impossible for contractors to submit bids within the original budgets.

    One industry source said: “The reason all of these contracts were cancelled was because the tender processes for large projects had started moving again after stalling for a long time.

    “Bids came in and unfortunately they were over budget. It was then expected that tender processes would restart and these projects would ultimately be awarded – but now the war means that Kuwait is facing a whole new wave of project delays and nobody knows when it is going to end.”

    War impact

    Many industry insiders believe delays caused by the war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz will once again seriously disrupt projects, just as many stakeholders believed the country was about to see an uptick in project progress.

    One source said: “Bid bonds are going to have to be renewed and some bidders might just use that as an opportunity to drop out of the bidding process.

    “It’s also possible that work that has already been done, like feasibility studies, will no longer be relevant and will have to be repeated.”

    2025 rebound

    Last year, Kuwait recorded its highest total annual value for oil, gas and chemicals contract awards since 2017, according to data from regional project tracker MEED Projects.

    A total of 19 contract awards with a combined value of $1.9bn were awarded.

    This was more than four times the value of contract awards across the same sectors in 2024, when awards were worth just $436m.

    It was also above the $1.7bn peak recorded in 2021, but it remained far lower than the values seen in 2014-17, when several large-scale, multibillion-dollar projects were awarded in the country.

    The surge in the value of contract awards came after Kuwait’s emir indefinitely dissolved parliament and suspended some of the country’s constitutional articles in May 2024.

    Prior to the suspension of parliament, Kuwait suffered from very low levels of project awards for several years amid political gridlock and infighting between the cabinet and parliament.

    This meant important decisions about projects could not be made – a major obstacle to the progression of strategic oil projects.

    Forward outlook

    With several major oil and gas projects under development in late 2025 and early 2026, some expected 2026 to record a far higher volume of oil and gas contract awards than 2025.

    Projects expected to be tendered – and potentially awarded – this year included a $3.3bn onshore production facility due to be developed next to the Al-Zour refinery.

    This project has already been delayed and put on hold as a result of fallout from the US and Israel’s conflict with Iran.

    Had it been awarded, it would have been the biggest single oil and gas contract award in Kuwait in more than 10 years.

    Now, as a result of the conflict, many of the large tenders expected to take place this year are likely to be significantly delayed.

    One source said: “Right now, everyone in the oil and gas sector is waiting for some sort of sign of improving stability before they make a decision and there’s a lot of uncertainty.

    “The state-owned oil companies aren’t communicating with contractors like they normally do and the price of a lot of materials has increased dramatically.”

    Even if the standoff between the US and Iran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz is resolved in the near future, it is likely to take months or years before Kuwait’s oil and gas project market regains the momentum it had at the beginning of 2026.

    Given the lack of flexibility within Kuwait’s existing tendering system, delays can easily lead to tenders being cancelled, and the conflict’s inflationary impact will make it even harder for contractors to meet budgets set before the latest disruption.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/16590560/main0421.png
    Wil Crisp
  • Partners launch feed-to-EPC contest for Duqm petchems project

    27 April 2026

     

    Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

    Omani state energy conglomerate OQ Group and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), the overseas subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, have initiated a feed-to-EPC competition among contractors to develop a major petrochemicals complex at Duqm.

    Under a feed-to-EPC model, the project operator selects contractors to carry out front-end engineering and design (feed). It then awards the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to the contractor with the most competitive feed proposal, while compensating the other contestants for their work.

    OQ8, the 50:50 joint venture of OQ and KPI, is understood to have issued the tender for the Duqm petrochemicals project’s feed-to-EPC competition in mid-March, with a deadline of 6 May for contractors to submit proposals, sources told MEED.

    Several local and international contractors based in Oman are believed to be participating in the competition, according to sources.

    OQ Group CEO Ashraf Bin Hamad Al-Maamari and KPI’s CEO Shafi Bin Taleb Al-Ajmi signed an agreement on 3 February, during the Kuwait Oil & Gas Show and Conference, to develop a major petrochemicals-producing complex in Oman’s Duqm. The parties did not disclose details at the time.

    ALSO READ: Duqm petrochemicals revival provides fillip to Gulf projects market

    The agreement represented a significant step forward in Oman and Kuwait’s long-held plans to jointly develop a petrochemicals complex next to the existing Duqm refinery, which will benefit from favourable feedstock access and strong cost competitiveness.

    The planned facility will also benefit from  in Al-Wusta governorate, along Oman’s Arabian Sea coastline.

    OQ8 had struggled to make meaningful progress on the Duqm petrochemicals project since the plan was conceived as early as 2018, for a variety of reasons.

    The original plan for the Duqm petrochemicals facility, estimated at $7bn, centred on a mixed-feed steam cracker with a capacity to produce 1.6 million tonnes a year (t/y) of ethylene. The project also included a polypropylene (PP) plant with a capacity of 280,000 t/y and a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant with a capacity of 480,000 t/y.

    The complex was also expected to include an aromatics plant, as well as storage facilities for naphtha and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

    The project’s prospects were temporarily boosted when Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) expressed interest in investing by signing a non-binding memorandum of understanding with OQ in December 2021.

    Reuters reported in December that Sabic was withdrawing from the project, leaving OQ to look for other partners. The new agreement between OQ and KPI is understood to have followed the Saudi chemical giant’s departure.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/16577785/main.jpg
    Indrajit Sen