Saudi Aramco awards Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Energy $763m in offshore work

The latest:

Saudi Aramco has handed NMDC Energy new offshore engineering, procurement and construction work valued at Dh2.8 billion, or $763 million. The Abu Dhabi contractor disclosed the award in a filing to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on Friday, saying completion is expected within 18 to 23 months. It did not elaborate on the scope or location of the projects.

Details:

• The award: NMDC Energy said Saudi Aramco awarded it projects worth Dh2.8 billion covering offshore engineering, procurement and construction-related works. The company disclosed the figure in a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares trade, and offered no further detail on the individual contracts or their locations.
• The timeline: Completion of the works is expected to take between 18 and 23 months, according to the company’s exchange filing. NMDC Energy did not publish a start date for the projects or a breakdown of how the value is phased across that window.
• The backlog: The new deals follow Dh2.2 billion in projects the company secured during the second quarter of this year. NMDC Energy’s project backlog stood at Dh3.3 billion at the end of June, meaning the Aramco award alone is close to the value of everything on its books at the half-year mark.
• The financials: NMDC Energy reported net profit of Dh251 million for the first half of this year on revenue of Dh9.5 billion, according to the company. It raised Dh3.22 billion from its initial public offering in 2024, one of the larger Abu Dhabi listings of that year.
• The business: The company is a majority-owned subsidiary of NMDC Group and offers end-to-end services spanning engineering, procurement, pipe laying, project management, fabrication, installation and commissioning. That range allows it to bid for integrated offshore packages rather than single-scope subcontracts.
• The expansion plan: Chief executive Ahmed Al Dhaheri told The National last year that NMDC Energy was working to strengthen collaboration with Chinese companies as part of a global growth strategy. He identified Iraq, North Africa and Nigeria as the markets the contractor was targeting for new work.
• The target markets: Al Dhaheri said the company was pursuing contracts across both the offshore and onshore segments of Iraq’s energy industry, while its ambitions in Nigeria were focused mostly on offshore jobs. He did not name specific tenders or counterparties in either market.
• The client: Saudi Aramco is the state-owned oil producer of Saudi Arabia and a principal buyer of offshore engineering and construction services in the Gulf. Neither Aramco nor NMDC Energy identified the fields or facilities covered by the newly awarded packages.

Between the lines:

A single award close in size to the entire half-year backlog shifts NMDC Energy’s revenue visibility well into 2027, given the 18-to-23-month delivery window. It also places Aramco alongside the company’s domestic clients at a moment when management has publicly framed growth around markets outside the UAE, including Iraq, North Africa and Nigeria.

What’s next

Watch NMDC Energy’s next quarterly results for an updated backlog figure reflecting the Aramco award, and for any disclosure of the project scope, start date or additional contracts in Iraq and Nigeria.