The mega North Field South (NFS) helped Qatar register more than eight-fold year-on-year jump in contracts awarded in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023, according to Kamco Invest, a regional economic powerhouse.
"Total value of contracts awarded in Qatar jumped 8.3 times year-on-year to reach $10.4bn as compared to $1.1bn in Q2-2022," Kamco Invest said, quoting data gathered by MEED Projects.
The growth in contract awards was mainly due to the performance of the country’s gas sector, which represented nearly 97% of total value of projects awarded during the quarter, it said.
Total values of gas sector projects awarded jumped nearly 16 times to $10bn during Q2-2023 up from $600mn in Q2-2022. The steep growth of total values of projects awarded in the country was mainly due to one megaproject awarded by QatarEnergy, the country's hydrocarbons behemoth.
The state-owned energy company has awarded a $10bn EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract for the NFS megaproject to a joint venture of Technip Energies and Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC).
Qatar’s NFS project is the second phase expansion of Qatar’s North Field project which remains the worlds’ largest single non-associated gas field and comprises of two LNG (liquefied natural gas) mega trains with a combined capacity of 16mn tonnes per annum.
The EPC contract’s scope is extensive and includes the construction of two LNG trains with estimated capacity of 8mn each. The project also includes the construction of carbon capture and sequestration facilities.
Elsewhere in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region, the project awards surged 86% during Q2-2023 to $49.7bn, underlining the determination of the GCC countries to execute and reach their diversification targets.
"The strong rise in the total value of project awards in the GCC is also a significant indicator of the health of the economies in the GCC region. This was the highest quarterly project awards value for over five years," Kamco Invest said.
All GCC project markets witnessed growth on an annualised basis during Q2-2023 except for Bahrain which remains the smallest project market in the region; while Saudi Arabia remained the largest projects market in the GCC during Q2-2023.
Saudi Arabia’s project awards recorded 33.7% growth during the quarter to $24.4bn in Q2-2023.
Comparatively, the UAE project awards jumped 127% to $12.2bn during the quarter.
Contract awards in Kuwait increased from $922mn in Q2-2022 to $1.3bn during Q2-2023, the second-highest project value in the last six quarters.
Saudi Arabia alone accounted over 49.1% of the contracts awarded in the GCC region during Q2-
2023, while Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar combined represented 94.4% of the overall projects in the GCC.