With Andrew Roscoe

Saudi Aramco is understood to have awarded Chinese construction engineering firm Sepco with contracts worth about $3.3bn for Packages 4, 5 and 6 of the King Salman International Complex for Maritime Industries & Services facility in Ras al-Khair region on Saudi Arabia’s Gulf coast.

Saudi Aramco received bids for Packages 4, 5 and 6, and another set of bids for packages 7, 8 and 9 in March.

Packages 4, 5 and 6 cover the construction of onshore marine facilities including dry docks, basins, piers and utility buildings.

Other firms understood to have submitted bids for the contract include:

• Archirodon (Netherlands – local subsidiary)
• China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) (China) / Hyundai E&C (South Korea)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)
• Sacyr (Spain)

Saudi Aramco awarded Package 3 of the scheme, covering reclamation and dredging works, in August last year to a team comprising the local subsidiary of Netherlands-based Archirodon and Huta Hegerfeld Saudia.

Package 3 entails dredging and reclamation of approximately 35 million cubic metres of fill and ground improvement over an area of 7.4 million square metres.

It also includes the construction of 4,500 linear metres of concrete quay walls and wharves, as well as 12,000 linear metres of rock revetments and breakwaters to protect the integrity of the complex.

The work is expected to be completed in 2020.

The maritime complex is managed by Saudi Aramco, which last year signed a joint venture agreement with state-owned Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri), UAE-based marine engineering specialist Lamprell and South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), to build a $5.2bn shipyard in Ras al-Khair.