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  Oman dam strategy tested by heavy rainfall

  30 March 2026

  

   

  Oman has steadily expanded its dam infrastructure capacity over the past decade, but recent rainfall suggests the system is also being tested by how water arrives and is managed.

  Last week, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Water Resources said it would release water from dams when levels exceed 75%, a routine measure that helps manage flood risk as wadis surge.

  Following heavy storms, several dams have been reported to exceed 90% capacity, increasing the likelihood that water is released rather than retained and thus reducing the overall benefit of intense rainfall events.

  According to MEED Projects, 15 major dams and three reservoir schemes have been completed in Oman since 2009.

  Contract awards

  In 2025, contract awards for dam projects in the sultanate reached $100m for just the third time in the past decade.

  Muscat-based Premier International Projects won two of the three contracts awarded for projects last year.

  These include the construction of a recharge dam at Wadi Keed (Wilayat Bahla) in Ad Dakhiliyah Governorate and a flood protection dam (Neyabat Lima) in Musandam Governorate.

  The Neyabat Lima scheme, at 355 metres long and 37.3 metres high, will provide about 5.5 million cubic metres of storage and is designed as much to manage flood flows as to capture runoff.

  A third contract was awarded to state-owned Egyptian contractor Arab Contractors, covering flood protection dams at Wadi Al-Zyhimi in North Al-Batinah Governorate. All three projects are scheduled for commissioning in 2028.

  In addition to the Wadi Al-Zyhimi project, construction is advancing on two other projects as Oman adds more targeted storage.

  The Deem strategic reservoir in Muscat will provide 150,000 cubic metres of capacity, equivalent to two days of demand, when it comes online next year. 

  Meanwhile, the $108m Wadi Aday Gorge (G2) dam, due for completion this year, is aimed at protecting built-up areas downstream of Al-Amerat.

  Project pipeline

  Looking ahead, new tenders indicate that this phase of expansion is not yet complete.

  The ministry recently opened bidding for a contract to build a flood protection dam at Wadi Rijma in Liwa, North Batinah. The Wadi Rijma scheme is one of four schemes backed by a $632m loan from the Islamic Development Bank.

  The dam projects are:

  • The Wadi Al-Khoud Flood Protection Dam (AK01) in Seeb
  • The Wadi Rijma Flood Protection Dam (R2A) in Liwa
  • The Wadi Majlas Flood Protection Dam in Qurayat
  • The Wadi Ahin Flood Protection Dam in Saham North

  Further contracts worth about $170m are expected to be awarded in the near term, covering both recharge and flood protection dams. Should these contracts be awarded, as expected in 2026, it will be the first time investment in water storage projects has surpassed $100m in consecutive years.

  Beyond this, up to 10 projects remain in the front-end engineering and design stage, the largest of which involves a $100m recharge dam in Wilayat Samail and Izki in Ad Dakhiliyah Governorate. Most of these are due to come online by the end of the decade.

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  Mark Dowdall
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  Risk accelerates Saudi spending shift

  27 March 2026

  Commentary
  John Bambridge
  Analysis editor

  The headline story of Saudi Arabia’s project economy in 2026 is what is no longer being built: The Line deferred. The Mukaab suspended. Trojena stripped of its marquee event. Saudi Arabia’s construction sector is in a period of readjustment, pivoting away from prestige-driven capital expenditure towards deliverable priorities.

  Operation Epic Fury changes none of this. The pivot was already under way following the Public Investment Fund’s board review in late 2024, which cut budgets across more than 100 investee companies by up to 60%. However, the Iran war has helped accelerate and clarify the shift.

  Grasping the full picture of this pivot, it is less austere than it might appear. Project awards declined in 2025, but remained above historical averages, resulting in a net gain for the sector.

  Activity generally remains strong. Saudi Arabia’s rail network is expanding on multiple fronts: the Jeddah Metro Blue Line has returned to procurement, while high-speed and national rail projects are advancing. Desalination capacity is forecast to nearly double by 2031, and wind power contract values surged by 175% in 2025. Saudi Aramco is maintaining high capital expenditure in 2026, focused on offshore projects and gas production.

  These programmes may not attract the global attention of a 170-kilometre mirrored city, but they share something gigaprojects often lacked: a clear functional return. Water security, energy diversification, transport connectivity and domestic gas supply are the load-bearing infrastructure of a modern economy. The kingdom is now building that infrastructure again in earnest.

  The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has made the strategic logic of this reorientation even harder to ignore. Glitzy projects do not secure borders. By contrast, a country that cannot guarantee the security of its export corridors is strongly incentivised to invest in infrastructure that supports its domestic economic base and strengthens resilience. Every desalination plant, rail link and gigawatt of renewable capacity reduces Saudi Arabia’s exposure to external shocks.

  The medium-term direction was already clear: capital was being redeployed from speculative projects towards infrastructure with bankable returns. That rationale has now gained additional strategic weight.

  As Saudi Arabia’s project economy matures, what is emerging is less photogenic but far more defensible: the infrastructure backbone that Vision 2030 always required, and that the kingdom’s exposure to regional instability now demands. The Iran war did not create this shift, but it has removed any remaining argument for reversing it.

  

   

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  MEED’s April 2026 report on Saudi Arabia includes:

  > GVT &: ECONOMY: Riyadh navigates a changed landscape
  > BANKING: Testing times for Saudi banks
  > UPSTREAM: Offshore oil and gas projects to dominate Aramco capex in 2026
  > DOWNSTREAM: Saudi downstream projects market enters lean period
  > POWER: Wind power gathers pace in Saudi Arabia
  > WATER: Sharakat plan signals next phase of Saudi water expansion
  > CONSTRUCTION: Saudi construction enters a period of strategic readjustment
  > TRANSPORT: Rail expansion powers Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure push

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  John Bambridge
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  Remaking construction in Saudi Arabia

  27 March 2026

  

   

  As the Public Investment Fund (PIF) took a leading role in developing projects following the launch of Vision 2030, it quickly realised that Saudi Arabia’s construction sector needed support if the kingdom was to achieve its broader economic ambitions.

  The PIF’s National Development Division (NDD) is the entity tasked with building capacity and capability in the construction sector to support PIF projects and other strategically important schemes in the kingdom. 

  “Our job is to facilitate the development of the local value chains, which are essential to support the development and operations of PIF portfolio companies,” says Leyla Abdimomunova, head of real estate and construction, National Development Division, PIF.

  The scale of this undertaking requires a multi-front strategy, targeting everything from consultancy services and contracting capacity to raw materials and advanced technologies. 

  “The focus is on design and construction services, building materials, construction equipment and the value chain for all things in construction technology. This work requires engagements with stakeholders within the PIF portfolio: development and contracting companies where PIF has a share,” says Abdimomunova. “We also work closely with governmental stakeholders – including the Ministry of Municipalities & Housing, the Ministry of Investment and the Ministry of Industry & Mineral Resources – alongside our private sector partners, to ensure alignment across the ecosystem. 

  “This collaboration approach is essential to addressing market challenges holistically and creating an environment where businesses can invest, grow and participate more effectively in Saudi Arabia’s development,” she notes.

  Unified strategy 

  The integrated approach was born out of necessity. 

  “When we started this work five years ago, the initial challenge we dealt with was the shortage of the local supply of construction services and materials,” says Abdimomunova.

  To bridge the gap, the NDD looked to both support local players and attract international firms. 

  “The focus was on the localisation of the supply chain, bringing the manufacturing capacity into the kingdom by either expanding the existing capacities of local players or installing new capacity together with local players, but also bringing foreign investments into the country to set up factories,” she says.

  On the services side, the challenge was reputational. Riyadh had to convince the world’s best builders that the Saudi market had fundamentally changed. While courting global giants, the NDD also had to address the fragmentation of the domestic market. 

  “We found that there were two primary obstacles in our portfolio: a high concentration of contractors on one hand, and underutilised capabilities of the local contractors on the other hand.”

  The challenge was moving the large number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the periphery to the core of the PIF’s portfolio of projects. 

  “In order to overcome these obstacles, a lot of focus was on attracting international contractors – those that were not working in the kingdom at the time – in order to expand and diversify the pool of contractors, while also putting a lot of effort into building up the capabilities within the local market,” Abdimomunova notes. 

  “The local contracting market is very fragmented. A large proportion of contractors are SMEs, and only the large Saudi contractors are predominantly known inside the kingdom. 

  “We put in place programmes to support the development of the medium-sized contractors and increase their visibility to our development companies,” she says.

  A lot of effort went into making sure contractors have access to financing
  Leyla Abdimomunova, National Development Division, PIF

  The NDD has also introduced practical upskilling and financial tools. “We put in place a few tools, working together with ecosystem partners. For example, the Prequalification Platform, which was launched and is being operated with the Saudi Contractors Authority, [and] contractor upskilling bootcamps that have been delivered by our development companies to provide contractors with the basic understanding needed to be able to bid for projects.

  “A lot of effort went into making sure contractors have access to financing,” Abdimomunova adds.

  Indeed, addressing the finances of the construction sector was another critical area for the NDD. 

  By moving beyond traditional methods and practices, it has introduced more flexible liquidity options for the industry. 

  “We launched the Contractor Financing Programme to expand access to financing and strengthen liquidity for contactors supporting Saudi Arabia’s development pipeline. 

  “In partnership with the National Infrastructure Fund, we introduced guarantee mechanisms to unlock additional bank lending capacity, alongside a new product for the region: surety bonds – as an insurance alternative to traditional bank guarantees,” says Abdimomunova. 

  “Since receiving regulatory approval last year, 34 surety bonds have already been issued, helping contractors participate more effectively in large-scale projects.”

  Adjusting priorities

  With the foundational work established, the NDD is now shifting its focus towards streamlining the experience for international companies and tackling the sector’s long-standing structural hurdles. 

  Looking ahead, the NDD intends to tackle the perennial problems of the industry – payment delays and productivity – to ensure that the transformation of the sector is permanent.

  “Going forwards, our work will go one level deeper, focusing on resolving structural challenges and strengthening the underlying enablers that support private sector participation. 

  “We are working closely with our partners across Saudi Arabia to ensure these improvements are sustainable, scalable and embedded not only within the PIF’s ecosystem, but across the broader national economy,” Abdimomunova concludes. 

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  Colin Foreman
• 
  Contractor appointed for Morocco grand stadium rail station

  27 March 2026

  Moroccan construction firm Jet Contractors has won a contract to build a railway station at the Grand Stade Hassan II stadium in Benslimane, as part of the Kenitra-Marrakech high-speed rail project.

  The estimated $45m deal was awarded by the Moroccan National Railways Office (ONCF).

  The new station will serve the 115,000-seat Grand Stade Hassan II and will allow passengers to travel from Casablanca and Rabat in 20 minutes using the high-speed rail network.

  It is expected to handle around 12 million passengers a year. Construction of the station is scheduled for completion in 2028.

  Construction work on the main stadium started in June last year, when a joint venture of local contractors Travaux Generaux de Construction de Casablanca and Societe Generale des Travaux du Maroc was awarded a $320m contract for the next stage of works on the stadium. The venue will be one of the hosts for the 2030 Fifa World Cup.

  The stadium is being built on a 100-hectare site in the El-Mansouria area of Benslimane Province, 38 kilometres north of Casablanca.

  Morocco has been investing heavily in upgrading its infrastructure for the football World Cup, which it is co-hosting with Spain and Portugal.

  Morocco was effectively confirmed as a host country alongside Spain and Portugal in October 2023, after the group emerged as the sole bidder for the event. The official selection was announced in December last year.

  Along with building a stadium in Benslimane, the Moroccan government plans to revamp six existing stadiums in Agadir, Casablanca, Fez, Marrakech, Rabat and Tangier, and upgrade air, road and rail projects.

  Last year, Morocco’s transport and logistics minister unveiled a MD96bn ($9.5bn) investment plan to transform the country’s rail infrastructure by 2030.

  The announcement followed the award of about MD20bn-worth of contracts in November 2024 – mostly to local and Chinese firms – for civil works packages on the Marrakech-Kenitra high-speed rail line.

  The link will extend the Al-Boraq railway, a high-speed rail line between Tangier, Rabat and Casablanca. The line started operating in 2018 and was Africa’s first high-speed railway system.

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  Yasir Iqbal
• 
  March 2026: Data drives regional projects

  27 March 2026

  Click here to download the PDF

  Includes: Commodity tracker | Top 10 global contractors | Brent spot price | Construction output

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  MEED’s April 2026 report on Saudi Arabia includes:

  > GVT &: ECONOMY: Riyadh navigates a changed landscape
  > BANKING: Testing times for Saudi banks
  > UPSTREAM: Offshore oil and gas projects to dominate Aramco capex in 2026
  > DOWNSTREAM: Saudi downstream projects market enters lean period
  > POWER: Wind power gathers pace in Saudi Arabia
  > WATER: Sharakat plan signals next phase of Saudi water expansion
  > CONSTRUCTION: Saudi construction enters a period of strategic readjustment
  > TRANSPORT: Rail expansion powers Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure push

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  MEED Editorial