Riyadh Metro dominated the contract awards for July. On 28 July Arriyadh Development Authority awarded turnkey contracts for the delivery of six metro lines in the Saudi capital.

Totalling more than $22bn, the contracts accounted for more than two-thirds of the $31.6bn of contracts awarded across the region in July.

The Riyadh Metro awards were expected. MEED had reported in early July that the contracts were due to be signed before the start of August. The six-line metro project was split into five major design and build packages, with lines 1 and 2 as one package, and the other lines each as single packages. Each package will include the supply of rolling stock.

Spanish firm FCC Construccion heads up the consortium known as FAST, while US firm Bechtel leads the BACS consortium. Italian firm Ansaldo STS is the leader of the Arriyadh New Mobility group.

The FAST consortium won lines 4, 5 and 6, which are reported to be valued at $7.82bn, the BACS consortium picked up lines 1 and 2 $9.45bn, while Arriyadh New Mobility secured line 3 for $5.21bn.

The only other contract award in July that topped $1bn was the $1.4bn deal secured by National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) for the second package of Abu Dhabi’s offshore Umm al-Lulu full field development.

The scope of the contract covers the construction of a super complex consisting of a gas treatment platform, a separation platform, a riser platform, a utilities platform, an accommodation platform, a water disposal platform and two flare platforms.

Another major deal was Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) awarding South Korea’s Daelim Industrial a $824m contract for the ammonia plant deal at its proposed $6.93bn phosphates city at Waad al-Shammal in the north of Saudi Arabia.

Daelim Industrial will carry out the engineering, procurement and construction for the plant, which will have a capacity of 1.1 million tonnes a year when it is completed in late 2016.