2024 has proved fruitful for EPC contractors in the Middle East, as the region increases the focus on offshore and subsea developments, gas, and energy transition projects
It has been a good year for Wood, which scooped a record US$920mn in contracts across the Middle East, with decarbonisation being a strong theme. Work in the region includes pre-FEED on Aramco’s Southern and Northern Areas project in the KSA for gas facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia; integrated front-end engineering design (FEED), detailed design, procurement support, and construction and commissioning assistance for TotalEnergies in Iraq for the first phase of the Associated Gas Upstream Project, part of the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP) in Southern Iraq; as well as a flare gas reduction programme which has reduced more than 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Wood has also secured a contract worth around US$17mn from a leading petrochemical company in the Middle East to improve efficiency and reduce emissions on a process manufacturing plant.
To support continued growth, Wood has expanded its Middle East workforce by 500 employees in less than a year, with a 25% headcount increase in UAE alone, where it recently opened its third office in Sharjah. The company is also currently recruiting for another 130 roles across the region.
Ken Gilmartin, CEO at Wood, said: “As we underlined in our strategy, we believe the Middle East will be a huge driving force in the world’s energy transition and Wood is helping accelerate the journey to net zero in the region as a trusted partner to companies like Saudi Aramco, ADNOC, Shell and TotalEnergies.”
Another company receiving a steady flow of work in 2024 is Saipem, building on its longstanding ties with the region. The company was awarded an offshore contract in September worth around US$2bn with Saudi Aramco, for the development of the Marjan field in Saudi Arabia. It involves the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of wellhead platforms’ topsides and jackets, flowliness and subsea cables. It followed the award of two offshore contracts in Saudi Arabia together worth approximately US1bn for EPCI of production deck modules, subsea pipelines and power cables for the Marjan field, and jackets, PDMs, subsea pipelines and power cables for the Sulfa and Safaniya oilfields.
In July, Saipem was awarded an offshore EPC contract worth around US$4bn by QatarEnergy LNG for the Combined COMP3A & COMP3B of the North Field Production Sustainability Offshore Compression Program, aimed at sustaining the production of the North Field offshore natural gas reservoir.
Other major contracts this year included Tecnicas Reunidas and Sinopec Engineering Group’s two lumpsum contracts combined worth approximately US$3.3bn from Saudi Aramco for the EPC of the Riyas Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) fractionation facility in Saudi Arabia; Samsung Engineering, GS Engineering & Construction, and Nesma & Partners’ US$7.7bn EPC contract from Saudi Aramco for the Fadhili Gas plant expansion; and Technip Energies /JGC /NMDC Energy’s EPC contract worth around US$5.5bn from ADNOC for the Ruwais LNG project.
Aramco’s gas expansion was a major source of business this year, with contracts worth more than US$25bn awarded in June relating to the development of the Jafurah unconventional gas field and expansion of Aramco’s Master Gas System.
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