The number of big contracts awarded in the GCC fell to a 10-year low during 2016 as low oil prices led to reduced investment in the oil and gas sector and governments and their related companies cut spending on infrastructure.

According to regional projects tracker MEED Projects, there were nine contracts awarded during 2016 that are valued at over $1bn, down significantly on the 25 $1bn-plus orders placed in 2015.

Over the past decade the average number of $1bn-plus awards each year is 18.5 – more than double the 2016 total. The peak was in 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. This was largely due national oil companies tendering major projects to capitalise on low engineering, procurement and construction costs.

The drop in awards during 2016 has effected international companies that work on the world’s largest projects. Many of firms have been forced to scale back their operations in the region and search for work in other markets that offer more large-scale opportunities.

The three largest awards in 2016 were in Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain. In Kuwait, a consortium of South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering and Hyundai Engineering & Construction (E&C) won the $2.9bn contract to build Kuwait National Petroleum Company’s (KNPC’s) planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal.

The terminal will have a capacity of 1.5 trillion BTUs a day and will include two berths for the simultaneous unloading of large LNG carriers. The terminal will also include four full containment LNG tanks, each with a working capacity of 225,500 cubic metres.

In the UAE, Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) awarded the AED10.6bn ($2.9bn) contract to design and build the Dubai Metro’s Route 2020 link to a consortium of Spain’s Acciona, Turkey’s Gulermak and France’s Alstom.

The contract calls for Alstom to supply 50 trains: 15 will serve the Expo route and 35 will be used for the existing metro route. Alstom will also cater to electromechanical works, while Acciona and Gulermak will undertake the civil works. France’s Thales Group will provide the systems for the metro.

In Bahrain, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) awarded the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) to US-based Bechtel for its line 6 expansion project, which will see the US company design and construct a sixth potline and support industrial services.

The project will make Alba the world’s largest single-site aluminium smelter, boosting the site’s production capacity by 540,000 tonnes a year (t/y) to 1.5 million t/y.