Dubai Government-owned upstream services firm Oilfields Supply Centre (OSC) has announced it has awarded a contract for construction of a new facility within the upcoming King Salman Energy Park (Spark) in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.

As a result of the contract award, OSC’s total investment in Spark has increased to $570m, the Dubai firm said in a statement.

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The planned facility, to be owned by OSC’s local entity Oilfields Supply Company Saudi, will measure one million square metres and will comprise various zones.

Separately, Indian industrial contracting conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has announced that its subsidiary L&T Construction has been awarded a contract by OSC to build its base at Spark.

In a statement on 22 April, L&T said the value of the contract is ‘significant’, a term it uses to denote a value range of $133m to $333m.

L&T Construction’s scope of work on the project involves constructing industrial facilities of different sizes, an administration building, ancillary buildings, associated infrastructure and storage yards, along with civil, structural, mechanical, engineering, plumbing, and architectural works.

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Work on the project is scheduled to be completed in 30 months, L&T said.

Earlier in April, Japanese process control and industrial automation provider Yokogawa, another investor/tenant of Spark, announced it has launched its technology manufacturing centre at Spark Digital Hub.

The facility, measuring 12,000m², will manufacture internationally bench-marked analyser systems, transmitters and control systems panel assemblies to meet demand from within Saudi Arabia, as well as for export to the GCC, the Middle East and Africa.

“As the first-ever analyser (original equipment manufacturer) investment in Saudi Arabia for analyser system integration, the centre will also provide localised analyser system integration facilities to the Middle Eastern and African region,” Yokogawa said in a statement.

“The new facility will boost Yokogawa’s pressure and temperature transmitter manufacturing capacity in the kingdom from 10,000 to 20,000 transmitters annually,” the firm said.

King Salman Energy Park

In early April, construction work on the first phase of the Spark complex was understood to have reached 80% completion.

It is understood that $1.6bn has been invested in the first phase.

Saudi Aramco, the developer and anchor tenant at the energy services complex, broke ground on the construction of the Spark project in December 2018. The total development will cover an area of 50km².

Aramco was granted a licence by the Saudi Industrial Property Authority (Modon) in July 2018 to develop Spark, which was previously known as Abqaiq Energy City, between Dammam and Al-Hasa.

Spark expects total foreign direct investment to exceed $2bn in the next two years, once investors finalise the construction of their facilities.

Among the companies that have signed agreements to set up centres at Spark are:

Spark has appointed France’s Engie Cofely to provide administrative services and maintenance to its tenants.

In March, Spark announced it had received ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 55001 certificates from Belgium-headquartered Bureau Veritas, which specialises in testing, inspection and certification.

This article is published by MEED, the world’s leading source of business intelligence about the Middle East. MEED provides exclusive news, data and analysis on the Middle East every day. For access to MEED’s Middle East business intelligence, subscribe here.