Contractors vie for schemes worth $270bn
21 December 2023
Following one of the best years for project contract awards in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region in a decade, 2024 has a lot to live up to if it is to generate a similar amount of project activity.
By mid-December, the value of contract awards in 2023 had exceeded $230bn and was just $10bn shy of the $240bn-worth of regional contract awards let in 2014 – the best year on record to date. It was also on track to exceed that record year, with $36bn of projects in bid evaluation and expected for award by year’s end.
Nevertheless, 2024 has the potential to be an even better year for the Mena projects markets than 2023, with more than $270bn-worth of projects in the bidding phase and either overdue, due for award in the final weeks of 2023 – at the mid-December mark – or set for award at some point during 2024.
On top of this significant value of projects in the bidding stage, the region also has an estimated $250bn-worth of work in the design phase, with project trajectories that could quite reasonably see the schemes proceed through the prequalification, tendering and main contract award phases within the next 12 months.
Of the $270bn of value in the bidding stage, $126bn is in bid evaluation, with the main contract imminently due for award. A further $67bn is at the bid submission stage and $77bn is at the prequalification stage.
Imminent awards
Among the projects that are in the bidding phase and due for award in 2024 are six projects worth $4bn or more – all of which are in the GCC, with three in the UAE and one in each of Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. They include three oil and gas projects, two power plants and one transport scheme.
The largest project contract in both the bidding phase, and specifically bid evaluation, is the estimated $7bn scheme for the development of surface facilities as part of the UZ1000 expansion programme by the offshore arm of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Offshore) at the UAE’s Upper Zakum oil field.
Bids for the project have been submitted by the UK’s Petrofac, the local Target Engineering Construction Company and Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas.
The next largest project in the bidding phase is the $6bn first package of the Duwaiheen nuclear power plant project, which entails the construction of two 2,800MW nuclear reactors on behalf of the Saudi special purpose vehicle Duwaiheen Nuclear Energy Company. Expected bidders include France’s EDF, China National Nuclear Corporation, Korea Electric Power Corporation and Russia’s Rosatom.
The third largest scheme, and one that is at the prequalification stage, is the estimated $4.8bn Blue Line for the Dubai Metro, tendered by the Roads & Transport Authority after the project was greenlit in November 2023. Expressions of interest for the 12-station line are being sought from three consortiums.
Close behind this is the $4.5bn Ruwais liquefied natural gas terminal, which is being tendered by Adnoc Gas Processing, and for which more than half a dozen companies have submitted bids.
In Kuwait, the $4bn combined phases two and three of Al-Zour North independent water and power project are being tendered by the Ministry of Electricity & Water via the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects. Five bidders have submitted prequalification documents for the scheme.
Pending in Qatar, there is the $4bn phase two, scope D of works on the North Field production sustainability project, for which submissions to QatarEnergy LNG are due by the end of December.
Top markets
The country with the highest value of project work in the bidding phase – and more than double that of the next most active projects market – is Saudi Arabia, which alone has schemes worth $107bn. This includes $46.5bn-worth of work in bid evaluation, $34.3bn in bid submission and $26.4bn at the prequalification stage.
The work in Saudi Arabia is concentrated in the hands of several large clients, led by Saudi Aramco, which has $22bn-worth of work under bid, and Neom, which has $19bn of associated projects under bid.
There is a further $8.6bn-worth of work associated with the four other official gigaprojects: Diriyah Gate, Qiddiya, the Red Sea Project and Roshn. There is also $7.7bn-worth of work in the bidding phase as part of the Saudi Power Procurement Company’s renewable energy programme.
The projects market with the second-largest value of imminently pending work is the UAE, with $51.5bn-worth of work under bid, including schemes worth about $30bn in bid evaluation. This work is led by the oil and gas sector, with $22.6bn of work being tendered by Adnoc Group.
Elsewhere in the GCC, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar have, respectively, $19.8bn, $17.9bn and $15.7bn of projects under bid. Overall, the GCC markets account for $216bn or 80 per cent of the $270bn total of work under bid, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE alone accounting for $159bn-worth of work, or 59 per cent of the total.
Close behind these markets is Algeria, which has $15.3bn-worth of schemes in the bidding phase, alongside lesser values in Egypt and Iraq, at $10.7bn and $7.7bn, respectively. There is then a further $24bn-worth of work under bid spread across the other countries in the Mena region.
Strongest sector
Segregated by industry, of the $270bn-worth of work in the bidding stage, there are: projects in the construction and transport sector worth a combined $97.7bn; schemes worth $97.6bn in the power, water and utilities sector; and programmes worth $74.8bn in energy industry.
This breaks down further into $53.1bn of transport projects, $44.6bn of construction projects, $59.7bn of power projects, $37.8bn of water projects, $32.9bn of gas projects, $29.2bn of oil projects, and $12.6bn of chemicals and other industrial schemes.
Top clients
The top 10 project clients in the region by value of projects currently in the bid stage account for $103bn or 38 per cent of the $270bn of total project value under bid. Out of this group of regional heavyweight project owners, five are Saudi entities: Saudi Aramco, Neom, Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC), Duwaiheen Nuclear Energy Company (DNEC) and Saudi Electricity Company (SEC).
The top project client outside of Saudi Arabia is the UAE’s Adnoc, which comes second only to Saudi Aramco in terms of the value of projects in the bidding stage. Adnoc is accompanied in its representation of the UAE in the ranking by Dubai’s Road & Transport Authority (RTA).
The list is then rounded out by Algeria’s Sonelgaz and two Kuwaiti entities: Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (Kapp) and Kuwait Oil Company (KOC).
Both Saudi Aramco and Adnoc have more than $20bn-worth of projects under bid, followed closely by Neom, which has $17.6bn-worth of projects across its constituent masterplans, led by Oxagon, Trojena and The Line.
The three Saudi utilities sector clients, SPPC, DNEC and SEC, then have $7.3bn, $6.5bn and $6.3bn under bid, respectively. Sonelgaz is close behind, with $6.2bn under bid, followed by Kapp, the RTA and KOC, with $6bn, $5.4bn and $4.9bn, respectively, under bid.
The line-up reflects the broader pattern of a strong concentration of project activity in the Mena region within the GCC, and especially within Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as the pre-eminent GCC projects markets.
Top pending projects in 2024 (to be published on 27 Dec 2023)
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MEED previously reported that AGOC had divided the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) on the Khafji gas plant project into seven packages, and issued the main tenders for those last year.
Contractors were initially set deadlines of 24 October for technical bid submissions and 9 November for commercial bids. AGOC later extended the bid submission deadline to 22 December, and then until 22 April. A final deadline of 30 April was set, with contractors submitting bids by that date, according to sources.
The seven EPC packages cover works including open-art and licensed process facilities, pipelines, industrial support infrastructure, site preparation, overhead transmission lines, power supply systems and main operational and administrative buildings, with their breakdown as follows:
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- Package 5 – Site preparation
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Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have been pressing ahead with their plan to jointly produce 1 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas from the Dorra gas field.
The two countries have been producing oil from the Neutral Zone – primarily from the onshore Wafra field and offshore Khafji field – since at least the 1950s. With a growing need to increase natural gas production, they have been working to exploit the Dorra offshore field, understood to be the only gas field in the Neutral Zone.
Discovered in 1965, the Dorra gas field is estimated to hold 20 trillion cubic metres of gas and 310 million barrels of oil.
The Khafji gas plant project is one of three multibillion-dollar projects launched by subsidiaries of Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) to produce and process gas from the Dorra field that has advanced in recent months.
Dorra field facilities project
Al-Khafji Joint Operations (KJO), which is jointly owned by AGOC and KPC subsidiary Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC), has divided the scope of work on the Dorra field facilities project into four EPC packages – three offshore and one onshore.
India’s Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (L&TEH) won the contract for package one of the Dorra facilities project, which covers the EPC of seven offshore jackets and the laying of intra-field pipelines. The contract awarded by KJO to L&TEH is estimated to be valued at $140m-$150m, MEED reported in October.
Additionally, Italian, Indian and Spanish contractors have emerged as the lowest bidders for the other three EPC packages that form part of the Dorra facilities project.
A consortium of Italian contractor Saipem and L&TEH is understood to have submitted the lowest bid for offshore packages 2A and 2B, according to sources. The only other consortium understood to have submitted bids for packages 2A and 2B comprises Abu Dhabi-based NMDC Energy and South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries.
The EPC scope of work for package 2A includes Dorra gas field wellhead topsides, flowlines and umbilicals. Package 2B involves the central gathering platform complex, export pipelines and cables.
Spanish contractor Tecnicas Reunidas is understood to have emerged as the lowest bidder for onshore package three, sources told MEED. Package three covers the EPC of onshore gas processing facilities.
KGOC onshore processing facilities
The third component of the overall Dorra gas field development programme is a planned onshore gas processing facility to be built in Kuwait, which has been undertaken by KGOC.
KGOC had been progressing with the front-end engineering and design (feed) work on the project, before the destabilising impact of the US-Israel conflict with Iran compelled the operator to put the project on hold, MEED reported in April.
The proposed facility, estimated to be worth $3.3bn, will receive gas from a pipeline from the Dorra offshore field, which is being separately developed by KJO. The complex will have the capacity to process up to 632 million cf/d of gas and 88.9 million barrels a day of condensates from the Dorra field.
The facility will be located near the Al-Zour refinery, owned by another KPC subsidiary, Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company.
A 700,000-square-metre plot has been allocated next to the Al-Zour refinery for the gas processing facility and discussions regarding survey work are ongoing. The site could require shoring, backfilling and dewatering.
The onshore gas processing plant will also supply surplus gas to KPC’s upstream business, Kuwait Oil Company, for possible injection into its oil fields.
Additionally, KGOC plans to award licensed technology contracts to US-based Honeywell UOP and Shell subsidiary Shell Catalysts & Technologies for the plant’s acid gas removal unit and sulphur recovery unit, respectively.
France-based Technip Energies has carried out a concept study and feed work on the entire Dorra gas field development programme.
Progress has been hampered by a dispute over ownership of the Dorra gas field. Iran, which refers to the field as Arash, claims it partially extends into Iranian territory and asserts that Tehran should be a stakeholder in its development. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia maintain that the field lies entirely within their jointly administered Neutral Zone – also known as the Divided Zone – and that Iran has no legal basis for its claim.
In February 2024, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reiterated their claim to the Dorra field in a joint statement issued during an official meeting in Riyadh between Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud.
Since that show of strength and unity, projects to produce and process gas from the Dorra field have gained momentum.
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Teams prepare bids for Riyadh East sewage treatment plant
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Saudi Arabia tenders Jeddah-Mecca highway PPP
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The tender was issued on 19 April, with a bid submission deadline of 19 August.
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US sanctions Iraq’s deputy oil minister
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The US has sanctioned Iraq’s Deputy Oil Minister Ali Maarij Al-Bahadly, in another blow for the country’s oil and gas sector.
In a statement released by the US Treasury, it said that he “abuses his position to facilitate the diversion of oil to be sold for the benefit of the Iranian regime and its proxy militias in Iraq”.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) has also designated three senior leaders of the militias Kata’ib Sayyid Al-Shuhada and Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq.
In its statement, it said that the US will continue to hold these groups and other militias in Iraq, such as Kata’ib Hizballah, accountable for their attacks against US personnel and civilians, diplomatic facilities and businesses across Iraq.
Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, said: “Like a rogue gang, the Iranian regime is pillaging resources that rightfully belong to the Iraqi people.”
He added: “Treasury will not stand idly by as Iran's military exploits Iraqi oil to fund terrorism against the United States and our partners.”
Ofac said that it designated Iraq’s deputy minister of oil on 7 May because he had been “instrumental in facilitating the diversion of Iraqi oil products to benefit known Iran-affiliated oil smuggler Salim Ahmed Said, as well as Iran-backed terrorist militia Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq (AAH)”.
It added: “For years, Maarij has used his official positions, first as the head of the Iraqi parliament’s oil and gas committee, and then within the Iraq Ministry of Oil, to enrich Said, AAH, and by extension, Iran.”
The US Treasury said that it designated Said in June 2025 for running a network of companies selling Iranian oil falsely declared as Iraqi oil to avoid sanctions.
In its statement, it said: “Integral to this operation was Said’s ability to obtain favoured access to Iraqi oil and procure forged documentation from Iraqi government officials, legitimising illicit oil.
“To that end, Said was responsible for bribing complicit officials in the Iraqi government, as well as reportedly installing Maarij in his official position.”
Since 2018, Maarij has held several positions in Iraq’s Oil Ministry, including head of the licensing and contracts office, deputy minister, and acting oil minister.
The US Treasury said that, in his official capacities, Maarij enabled Said to illicitly procure oil products by granting exportation rights to Said’s companies.
It claimed that Maarij authorised trucking several million dollars’ worth of oil a day from the Qayarah oil field to VS Oil Terminal in Khor Zubayr for export.
The US sanctioned VS Oil Terminal in July last year.
The US Treasury said that VS Oil oversaw the mixing of Iranian oil with Iraqi oil before being shipped to market.
It also said that Maarij is also responsible for falsifying documentation on the provenance of oil for Said’s network, enabling it to be smuggled to market disguised as purely Iraqi oil.
Neither Iraq nor Iran has responded to the announcement of the new sanctions.
The sanctions were announced as the US and Iran battle over control of the Strait of Hormuz, which has seen significant disruption to shipping since the US and Israel started their war with Iran on 28 February 2026.
Iraq’s oil and gas sector is currently going through a crisis due to the disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the country’s oil exports to collapse.
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Sabic registers profit in first quarter of 2026
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Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) returned to profit in the first quarter of 2026, posting a net income of SR13.2m ($3.52m) compared to a SR1.21bn loss a year earlier.
The Saudi petrochemicals giant posted adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of SR4.15bn for the three months to 31 March, up 25% from the previous quarter.
The company’s revenue fell 6% quarter-on-quarter to SR26.15bn ($6.97m).
Adjusted net income was recorded in at SR816m, compared to a loss in the previous quarter, while adjusted earnings per share stood at SR0.27.
Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes rose to SR1.45bn, an increase of SR1.01bn from the prior quarter.
Sabic said its net position shifted to a debt of SR2.77bn at the end of March, from a net cash position of SR3.61bn at the end of 2025.
“Our transformation journey continues to deliver performance improvements that unlock greater value for our shareholders. We realised $220m at the Ebitda level on a recurring basis during the first quarter of 2026, in line with our planned improvement rate. This keeps us on track towards our cumulative 2030 annual target of $3bn, consisting of $1.4bn in cost excellence and $1.6bn in value creation,” Sabic CEO Faisal Alfaqeer said.
READ THE MAY 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDFGlobal energy sector forced to recalibrate; Conflict hits debt issuance and listings activity; UAE’s non-oil sector faces unclear recovery period amid disruption.
Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the May 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:
> REGIONAL LNG: War undermines business case for Middle East LNG> CAPITAL MARKETS: Damage avoidance frames debt issuance> MARKET FOCUS: Conflict tests UAE diversificationTo see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click herehttps://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/16719476/main1840.jpg