Meed | Saudi construction project ramp-up accelerates

Saudi construction project ramp-up accelerates

8 March 2023

Saudi Arabia’s construction projects market is charting an ever-more dynamic growth trajectory, underpinned by progress on the kingdom’s mega and gigaprojects.

The country was the GCC’s most active projects market for construction contractors for the third year running in 2022, with $32.4bn-worth of construction and transport contracts awards, according to MEED Projects.

It was also the third consecutive year of growth for Saudi construction contract awards, which rose by 58 per cent last year, up from $20.6bn in 2021. This, in turn, was up 38 per cent from the $14.8bn-worth of awards in 2020.

Construction sector awards accounted for 58 per cent of the total $55bn-worth of Saudi contract awards in 2022 across all sectors.

Gigaprojects drive

After the 2022 reveal of The Line, the 170-kilometre-long structure planned for the $500bn Neom project, February 2023 saw the kingdom launch New Murabba, a masterplan to create the world’s largest modern downtown in Riyadh.

As its centrepiece, the masterplan will feature a cubic skyscraper titled the Mukaab, a Najdi-inspired landmark that will be one of the biggest buildings in the world upon completion, at 400 metres high, 400 metres wide and 400 metres long.

The overall development will cover an area of 19 square kilometres, nearly five times the size of Dubai’s downtown, which spans two square kilometres and was built at an estimated cost of AED73bn ($20bn). While the total budget for the Riyadh scheme is not yet announced, its estimated cost could exceed $100bn.

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), is also considering plans for a 2km megatower in Riyadh. The proposed tower would be more than double the height of the world’s tallest building – Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which is 828 metres tall. Depending on the final design, contractors that have priced megatall towers in the region say a 2km-tall structure could cost about $5bn to construct.

New Murabba will be developed by the New Murabba Development Company, which is backed by the PIF. It could also be added to the official list of PIF gigaproject developments, alongside Neom, the Red Sea Project, Qiddiya, Roshn and Diriyah Gate.

According to MEED’s Saudi Gigaprojects report, the kingdom's gigaprojects could award up to $569bn-worth of contracts from 2021 through 2025, financing and contracting capacity permitting.

However, even a fraction of such a total would be a step change for the regional projects market, which saw $172bn-worth of work awarded from 2016 to 2021.

Saudi Arabia’s contract awards in the last quarter of 2022 were dominated by Neom’s infrastructure and earthworks packages. Five of the top 10 largest construction awards in 2022 and 2023 so far have been for Neom projects.

Other dynamic projects include the $30bn King Salman International airport; the $15bn Al-Ula development; the Royal Commission for Riyadh City's $23bn King Salman International Park, Green Riyadh and Sports Boulevard projects; Saudi Entertainment Ventures' (Seven) $5bn entertainment complexes; the $3bn Asir project; and Neom's $2bn Trojena lake project known as ‘The Vault’.

Urban regeneration

Alongside the redevelopment of Riyadh, the kingdom is also pursuing a much broader series of regeneration schemes across its major cities as part of Saudi Vision 2030.

In February, the country kicked off a major Jeddah waterfront project, part of a 15-year Historic Jeddah Revitalisation programme. The same month, US-headquartered Parsons was awarded a $15m contract to provide construction project management consultancy and contract administration services (PMCM) for the Rua al-Madinah project in Medina city.

The Rua al-Madinah project represents the first phase of the Madinah Central Area development and is projected to add $37bn to Saudi’s GDP and create 93,000 jobs. Rua al-Madinah Holding Company, another PIF subsidiary, is developing the scheme.

Last October, PIF invited firms, through its Saudi Downtown Company (SDC), to submit bids for contracts to provide project management services for 12 $500m urban downtown redevelopment schemes in cities across the kingdom.

Prospects for 2023

With more than $120bn-worth of projects in the pipeline for 2023, the outlook remains strong for the construction and transport sectors. Alongside Saudi Arabia’s masterplans, there are also a variety of public transport projects, logistics platforms and railways in the procurement process as part of the kingdom’s National Transport and Logistics Strategy.

The planned rise in government capital expenditure to SR1,114bn in 2023, up from SR955bn in 2022, supports the ramp-up in project activity.

The Ministry of Finance’s key 2023 budget spending objectives in construction include building affordable housing for 120,000 families, developing nearly 1 million sq m of parks, and building 176 ready-made industrial units together with the infrastructure for a further 56 million sq m of industrial plots. The affordable housing plans are part of a Ministry of Housing Sakani programme to raise the home-ownership ratio to 70 per cent by 2030.

The Saudi budget also affirmed that by 2025, PIF plans to invest SR1tn in new projects.

Amid subdued activity in neighbouring countries, Saudi Arabia has become the prevailing focus for GCC contractors, with local and international contractors pivoting towards the kingdom and away from Qatar and the UAE.

“We are focusing on projects in Saudi Arabia. The job is there, not elsewhere anymore,” says a contracting source from a UAE national company.

Locally, the build-up of construction activity will be spearheaded by the creation of national champions in the contracting sector, with PIF investing $1.3bn in four local construction companies: Al-Bawani Holding Company, Almabani General Contractors Company, El-Seif Engineering Contracting Company and Nesma & Partners Contracting Company.

Image: Red Sea Global signs hotel management agreement with Fairmont to operate resort in first phase of development at the Red Sea Project

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Eva Levesque

Exclusive from Meed

Tender issued for Libyan gas project
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Aldar and Mubadala acquire Masdar City Square
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Dubai announces new 80km highway corridor
16 September 2026
Engineering progresses on Ras Laffan LNG terminal berths
16 September 2026
Design completed for Libyan oil field development
16 September 2026

Tender issued for Libyan gas project
17 September 2026
An invitation to bid has been issued for a contract to conduct environmental assessments for the project to expand the Mellitah oil and gas complex in Libya.

The bid submission deadline is 2pm today (17 September) Libyan time.

The scope of the project includes provision of:
- An environmental baseline study (EBS)
- An environmental impact assessment (EIA)
- An environmental management plan (EMP)
The client is Mellitah Oil & Gas (MOG), which is a joint venture of Italy’s Eni and Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC).

MOG is based in Tripoli and operates both onshore and offshore oil and gas facilities.

The joint venture owns and operates six major oil and gas fields across the North African country.

According to the tender documents, the company that is awarded the contract will need to prepare environmental management measures in compliance with:
- Libyan environmental legislation
- Ministry of Environment requirements
- NOC environmental guidelines
- Applicable international environmental standards and best practices
The expansion of the Mellitah oil and gas complex is part of a project estimated to be worth $8bn.

The wider project is known as the Mellitah Complex Expansion & CO2 Management Integrated Development Project.

It has six main packages:
- Onshore package
- Offshore Structure A
- Offshore Structure E
- Subsea pipeline package
- Site preparation work
- Carbon capture and storage facility
Security issues and political instability have been a major problem for Libya’s oil and gas sector since the country’s civil war started in 2011.

Earlier this month, the Mellitah oil and gas complex was forced to shut down temporarily due to a protest over deteriorating public services.

The existing onshore complex includes housing, processing units, storage facilities and export facilities.

It also serves as the launch point for the Greenstream pipeline, which delivers Libyan gas directly to Italy.

The planned expansion of the complex will involve:
- Construction of a new fourth gas processing train
- Construction of a third condensate train
- Construction of a third natural gas liquids fractionation train
- Construction of a fourth sulphur recovery unit train
- Installation of a hydrogen sulphide enrichment unit
- Installation of a sulphur recovery unit
- Construction of other associated facilities
The Mellitah complex is located about 100 kilometres west of Tripoli and is a key energy facility in the west of the country.
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Wil Crisp
Aldar and Mubadala acquire Masdar City Square
17 September 2026

Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company and local developer Aldar have completed the acquisition of Masdar City Square at Masdar City, in a transaction valued at AED918m ($250m).

The deal was executed through their joint venture established in 2024.

Masdar City Square comprises more than 47,000 square metres (sq m) of net leasable area across seven office buildings.

Completed in Q1 2026, the development is 99% occupied. Tenants include Taqa, the Department of Energy, Emirates College and the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.

The transaction expands the joint venture’s real estate portfolio in Masdar City, which is now valued at AED4.7bn ($1.3bn).

Masdar City is one of the region’s leading hubs for clean energy, artificial intelligence, advanced research and sustainable urban development.

The joint venture acquired The Link project at Masdar City for AED654m ($178m) in April.

Comprising about 32,000 sq m of net leasable area across five buildings, The Link is fully leased to a portfolio of major tenants, including Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) and the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.

The asset includes Grade A, Leed Platinum office space, a net-zero-energy headquarters building, a multi-use hall and residential accommodation, supporting its position as a high-performing, integrated component of Masdar City.

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Yasir Iqbal
Dubai announces new 80km highway corridor
16 September 2026

Dubai has approved the construction of the new fourth corridor, a major highway programme aimed at boosting inter-emirate connectivity, increasing road capacity and easing congestion.

The corridor will extend 80 kilometres, from Al-Faya Road in Abu Dhabi to Al-Shanouf Road in Sharjah.

It will include 12 lanes, 72 bridges and 17 tunnels.

The project is expected to reduce travel times by up to 60% and serve more than 3.1 million people, while providing links to Al-Maktoum International airport and Etihad Rail.

It will have the capacity to accommodate 24,000 vehicles per hour in each direction.

The project will be delivered in two phases. The first phase, running from Al-Shanouf Road to Dubai-Al Ain Road, will be delivered at a cost of AED3.5bn ($953m).

The second phase will stretch from Dubai-Al Ain Road to Al-Faya Road in Abu Dhabi.

Hamdan bin Mohammed: In line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to boost investment in infrastructure, I approved the New Fourth Corridor to strengthen Dubai’s road network and enhance connectivity with the UAE’s federal road network.… pic.twitter.com/zlIyY2yKBN

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) September 16, 2026

The scheme adds a fourth spine to a network that has long relied on three main corridors: the E11 (Sheikh Zayed Road/Al-Ittihad Road); the E311 (Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Road) and the E611 (Emirates Road), which together carry more than 850,000 vehicles commuting between Dubai and the northern emirates daily.

That concentration has made the route one of the country’s most congested, with peak-hour bottlenecks a persistent problem for residents. The new corridor is designed to divert a significant share of that traffic onto a higher-capacity route, rather than add pressure to the existing network.

The project also aligns with the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, which anticipates population growth to 5.8 million by 2040 and calls for the expansion of roads, railways, airports and ports to support that growth and reinforce Dubai’s position as a global trading hub. This is reflected in the corridor’s direct links to Al-Maktoum International airport and Etihad Rail.

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Yasir Iqbal

Engineering progresses on Ras Laffan LNG terminal berths

16 September 2026

Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access

Front-end engineering and design (feed) works are progressing on a QatarEnergy LNG project to build 13 liquefied natural gas (LNG) loading berths at the south export terminal in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City.

Ras Laffan Industrial City, which lies about 90 kilometres north of Doha, is the world's largest integrated LNG production and export complex, comprising 15 processing trains with a total capacity of 77.5 million tonnes a year (t/y). QatarEnergy began LNG operations at the facility, which houses all its processing trains and export infrastructure, in 1984.

According to sources, QatarEnergy LNG, a subsidiary of state enterprise QatarEnergy, awarded the feed contract for the project to build 13 LNG berths at the south export terminal at Ras Laffan to Australia-headquartered Worley.

The contract was awarded to Worley in the second quarter of this year. Its duration is estimated to be 200,000-250,000 man hours, sources told MEED.

Ras Laffan’s LNG processing and export capabilities will increase by up to about 63% when the three phases of QatarEnergy’s estimated $40bn North Field LNG expansion project come into operation by the end of this decade. Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works on all three projects are progressing.

QatarEnergy is understood to have committed nearly $30bn to the first two phases – North Field East (NFE) and North Field South (NFS) – which will lift Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77.5 million t/y to 126 million t/y by 2028.

QatarEnergy awarded the main EPC contracts for NFE in 2021. The project was intended to raise LNG output to 110 million t/y by 2025. The $13bn EPC package – covering the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of four LNG trains, each with a capacity of 8 million t/y – was awarded in February 2021 to a consortium of Japan’s Chiyoda and France’s Technip Energies.

In May 2023, QatarEnergy awarded the $10bn main EPC contract for NFS to a consortium of Technip Energies and Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC). The contract includes two LNG trains, each with a capacity of 7.8 million t/y.

Once fully operational, the first two phases are expected to add 48 million t/y of LNG supply to the global market.

QatarEnergy took the final investment decision on the third phase, North Field West (NFW), this year, awarding an EPC contract estimated at $8bn to a joint venture comprising Technip Energies, CCC and Gulf Asia Contracting in February.

Chiyoda carried out the feed work for the NFW LNG project.

The NFW scope covers the EPC of two LNG trains with a combined capacity of 16 million t/y, as well as associated facilities for gas treatment, natural gas liquids recovery and helium extraction.

In addition to LNG, NFW is expected to produce about 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day of condensate, ethane and liquefied petroleum gas.

With all three phases under EPC execution – and NFE scheduled for commissioning later this year – QatarEnergy is positioning itself to remain one of the world’s largest LNG suppliers in the long term.

READ THE SEPTEMBER 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

Nuclear power ambitions gather pace; Kuwait keeps dealmaking alive despite war; Region invests in raising gas processing capacity.

Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the September 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

> AGENDA: Gulf nuclear revival takes shape

> MARKET FOCUS: Kuwait keeps dealmaking alive under fire

> INDUSTRY REPORT: Gas processing takes centre stage in Mena region

> INTERVIEW: Emsteel persists with business productivity and efficiency

> TUNNELS: The Gulf’s next construction boom is happening underground

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

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Indrajit Sen

Design completed for Libyan oil field development

16 September 2026

Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access

Design work has been completed for a project to develop Libya’s I/R oil field, according to industry sources.

The front-end engineering and design work was completed by a team in the London offices of Italy’s EniProgetti and paves the way for the main engineering, procurement and construction contract to be tendered.

One source said: “At the moment, there is no fixed date for when the invitation to bid for the main contract will be issued, but the project has a lot of momentum and is progressing towards tendering.”

The I/R oil field is located in Murzuq Basin in southwestern Libya.

In June this year, Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) signed a unified operating agreement for the field.

The I/R field is operated by Akakus Oil Operations, which is a joint venture of NOC in partnership with Spain’s Repsol, France’s TotalEnergies Repsol, Austria’s OMV and Norway’s Equinor.

The agreement in June was signed by NOC as well as its concession partners.

NOC said the agreement would unify operational and administrative procedures related to field management, optimise resource utilisation and support production sustainability.