Saudi Aramco has awarded Canada’s SNC Lavalin and its local partner the fifth general engineering services plus (GES plus) contract.

The five-year deal was signed by Aramco, SNC Lavalin and the local Zuhair Fayez Partnership and will see the joint venture perform front-end engineering and design (feed) and select detailed engineering work, as well as project management services.

SNC Lavalin now joins the other four signatories of the GES plus contract. The all-American list includes KBR, Mustang Engineering, Foster Wheeler and Jacobs Engineering.

The GES plus was designed to enable local engineers to gain vital experience on complex big budget process engineering facilities such as oil refineries and petrochemical plants (MEED 26:11:11).

Two companies are now left from the seven original bidders to sign GES plus deals. They are France’s Technip and Australia’s WorleyParsons.