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Saudi gigaprojects gear up for $569bn of contract awards

22 November 2022

Saudi Arabia’s gigaprojects are ramping up to award $569bn-worth of contracts between 2021 and 2025.

According to MEED’s Saudi Gigaprojects report, the total will be a step change for the regional projects market as it will dwarf the $172bn-worth of work awarded in the previous five-year period between 2016 and 2021.

It will also be more than double the previous record of $281bn reached between 2011 and 2015.

“There has been a substantial acceleration in contract awards on the gigaproject programme over the past two years as projects move from the design stage to execution with contractors working on the ground,” says Ed James, head of content and research, Middle East & Africa, MEED.

The total announced value of planned expenditure on the 15 known gigaprojects is about $719bn, of which about $30bn has been awarded so far.

This suggests that only 4 per cent of the programme has been awarded to date. This means the programme is still at a nascent stage and will accelerate over the coming two-to-five years.

The acceleration of construction work on projects such as Neom, The Red Sea Project, Qiddiya and Diriyah Gate has shown that the projects planned as part of Vision 2030 are real.

“Until recently, there was scepticism that the gigaproject programme would happen at all given that major contract awards and committed spending did not start until 2020 onward. However, with expenditure last year of $10.7bn and this year likely to reach $15bn-16bn, there are now few doubts that Riyadh remains committed to its plans,” adds James.

Neom is the largest planned project, with an announced value of $500bn. It has also been the leading project to date for contract awards, with some $13bn-plus-worth of deals. Given its scale, it is likely to maintain this position until the end of the gigaproject programme.

 

Topics covered in the presentation:

1. Summary of Saudi Arabia’s gigaprojects programme 

2. Description of each gigaproject, including major programme elements

3. Analysis of contracts and spending to date

4. Highlights of key contracts to be tendered and awarded over the next six months

5. Long-term capital expenditure outlays and forecasts

6. Analysis of top contracts by work already awarded on gigaprojects

7. Breakdown of spending on gigaprojects by sector

8. Key drivers and challenges going forward

9. Q&A session

Hosted by: Ed James, head of content and research at MEED

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Colin Foreman

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