The war caught up with the Gulf’s construction sector last quarter. Project awards across the region fell 37.2% from a year earlier to $47.4 billion, according to Kuwaiti investment firm Kamco Invest. Every country was down by double digits; Oman all but stopped signing contracts, with awards falling 96.6%. Gas and chemicals were the only sectors to grow, as ADNOC and Aramco kept spending.
For the rest of the year, there are still some $2.05 trillion of planned projects in the pipeline, half of them in Saudi Arabia. Whether they get built is another matter: NEOM has halted work on The Line until after 2030 and faces a $16 billion bill to cancel contracts. This month, the kingdom shelved a stadium promised for the 2034 men’s soccer World Cup.
