Bechtel is clearly putting down a marker in the Middle East as a base for expanding certain activities. The contractor, which is celebrating its 70th year of involvement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is already responsible for overseeing the development of programmes for the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, including a new city centre for Downtown Jubail and the delivery of Ras Al Khair Industrial City.
Within the past year, its BACS consortium won the $10.1bn contract to deliver phases one and two of the Riyadh Metro, and it has recently broken ground on the project. It has been appointed to carry out a study into the expansion of Sharjah International Airport in the UAE and overseen handover of the Hamad International Airport in Qatar which, although late, is described by EMEA president David Welch as setting “a new milestone in global aviation”.
“The project has changed in scale, complexity and ambition during its development in order to meet the growing capacity demands,” he told CW. “Bechtel has worked closely throughout with our customer to meet these changing requirements and to deliver a quality airport safely.”
At peak, 47,000 people worked on the delivery of the project.
Bechtel has also set up set up a global rail & ports centre of excellence in Dubai, as well as a regional mining and metals hub. From a standing start, this now employs 50 people.
It was also brought on board by QAPCO-QP to oversee construction of the Al Sejeel petrochemical mega-complex in Ras Laffan, Qatar. In 2012, Bechtel increased revenues by 15% to $37.9bn.
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