Aramco offshore contract awards set to rebound
23 July 2025
Commentary
Indrajit Sen
Oil & gas editor
Anxiety had been growing in Saudi Arabia’s offshore oil and gas market, with awards of engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contracts drying up this year.
Saudi Aramco, which spent a record $5bn in 2024 on offshore EPCI contracts, had been expected to surpass that level of capital expenditure (capex) this year. Yet, in the first half of 2025, the company did not award a single Contract Release and Purchase Order (CRPO), fuelling concern among offshore contractors, suppliers and other service providers.
However, in July, Aramco dispelled all speculation that this might be a dry year by selecting contractors for five CRPOs – numbers 150, 157, 158, 159 and 160, worth more than $3bn. These tenders involve the EPCI of key structures and modifications and upgrades to infrastructure at the Abu Safah, Berri, Manifa, Marjan and Zuluf offshore oil and gas fields.
Furthermore, frontrunners have emerged for four more CRPOs that are part of a large-scale project to expand infrastructure at the Zuluf offshore field development. The tenders are CRPOs 145, 146, 147 and 148, and their combined value is estimated to be almost $6bn.
Although official contracts for these CRPOs have yet to be issued, Aramco is expected to formally award the jobs to the contractors it has selected from its Long-Term Agreement pool within the third quarter.
When these contract awards take place, Aramco will have almost doubled its capex on offshore projects this year compared to 2024, marking yet another year of robust upstream project spending.
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