Kuwait is on track to record its biggest ever year for major contract awards, according to a new research report from bespoke information solutions service MEED Insight.

The Gulf state signed nearly $31bn-worth of major deals in the first nine months of 2015, a 20 per cent increase on the total value signed in 2014.

Kuwait signed $25.8bn of contracts in the full year 2014, according to regional projects tracker MEED Projects.

New report

The report, Kuwait Projects 2015, shows the strong pick-up in the Gulf state’s projects market comes as other GCC countries have begun to slow down or cancel project plans, as they rein in spending following the collapse of oil prices.

Kuwait is for once bucking the trend, becoming the bright spot for project opportunities in the year ahead, according to the report.

The biggest award of the year to date is a $4.3bn contract to build a new passenger terminal at Kuwait International airport.

Kuwait has about $105bn-worth of schemes under construction with a further $89.5bn-worth at the study phase.

Pipeline

About $52.2bn-worth of projects are in various stages of pre-execution and are due for award in the next couple of years.

As most of the projects planned are urgently needed pieces of infrastructure following more than a decade of under-spending, confidence can be had in them moving forward rapidly, even in this new era of low oil prices, the report concludes.

MEED’s Kuwait Projects 2015 report identifies the main project opportunities in the country in the next five years, analysing all the main sectors of the economy: energy; power and water; construction; and transport.