The Mena region’s 40 biggest projects in oil and gas, and related industries, including petrochemicals, is dominated by the GCC-member countries and specifically by projects in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Projects in the UAE account for seven of the 10 biggest EPC projects under execution and 46 per cent of the region’s 40 biggest projects. Abu Dhabi’s offshore developments on the Upper Zakum and Satah al-Razboot (Sarb) fields are the only projects to enter the top 10 in 2013. Much of the value of the 40 projects comes from megaprojects that began construction in 2009-10, including the Ruwais refinery expansion, the Shah sour gas development, and the Integrated Gas Development, which links offshore fields to onshore gas processing.

Analysed by project owner, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company Saudi Aramco is the clear leader, with more than $19bn-worth of projects under execution, while joint-venture operating companies take third and fourth place on the table.

South Korea’s Samsung Engineering leads the list of EPC contractors working on oil and gas contracts under execution. The company is engaged in more than 15 projects in the region, including two $2bn-plus schemes on Abu Dhabi’s downstream operations in Ruwais and several other major packages in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.