Saudi Aramco has received tenders from companies invited to bid for a contract to provide construction management services for various Aramco projects across the kingdom.

The scope of works for the project includes working with the state-owned oil giant’s project management team to provide construction management services for a wide range of Aramco projects including oil and gas and infrastructure, says a source close to the contract.

 “This is an interesting contract for many reasons,” the source says. “It will give the winning company an opportunity to work on a number of large projects with Aramco.”

Bids for the contract were submitted by the prequalified contractors on 7 September with the winner being announced in late October or November. The full list of contractors is not known, but the US’ KBR and Canada’s SNC Lavalin are on the list.

The source also adds that another interesting development is the lack of some big names from the list of prequalified bidders such as The US’ Fluor and Foster Wheeler and France’s Technip.

“Aramco has not explained exactly why some of the large contractors are not on the prequalified list, but most people in the industry do not think there is any sinister reason. It’s probably just that there is an issue concerning conflict of interest.”  

Aramco was not available for comment when contacted by MEED. The company has a number of high-value tenders out at the moment including packages for the $2bn Shaybah natural gas liquids project and the $6bn-plus Wasit gas development programme (MEED 22:7:10).