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The Gulf’s project market rotated away from the UAE during the war: GCC contract awards fell 25.4% q-o-q to USD 59.4 bn in 2Q 2026 as the Iran war weighed on activity, according to Kamco Invest’s GCC Projects Market Update (pdf). Despite the regional drop, Saudi Arabia more than doubled its project awards during the quarter to overtake the UAE as the region’s busiest project market. All GCC markets other than Saudi recorded quarter-on-quarter declines, but total regional awards remained up 30% year-on-year, driven primarily by KSA and Oman.
Across the region, the project market is split in two by the degree of exposure to the Iran war fallout. Saudi Arabia was largely shielded from the impact of shutting down Hormuz thanks to its Red Sea access and East-West pipeline. Oman similarly enjoys more insulation than the rest of the GCC, allowing its core project market to barely flinch during the war.
Saudi is now more than half of the region’s project book: The Kingdom’s 2Q 2026 awards jumped to USD 30 bn — up 160% q-o-q and 54% y-o-y — capturing more than half of GCC project value for the first time in years. Construction led (up 184%), followed by gas, transport, and water. Defense also surfaced as a category, with a USD 4.6 bn Defense Ministry contract handed to Al Bawani. On the flipside, power project awards fell 90% y-o-y as its pipeline of projects stalled in anticipation of a more stable environment.
In Oman, awards jumped 341% y-o-y to USD 5.9 bn — and, uniquely in the GCC, held nearly flat q-o-q. Power drove the gain (from zero last year to USD 4.5 bn), and a USD 2.3 bn 15-year SUEZ-led water-and-wastewater contract covering 43% of the population underscored a defensive spending profile.
ALSO- Kuwait saw USD 2 bn in project awards during the quarter (+49.1% y-o-y, -65.4% q-o-q), with the oil sector taking more than half, including a USD 992 mn Jurassic Light Oil export facility upgrade awarded to Kuwait Oil Company and a USD 565 mn upstream contract to Heisco. Qatar took the sharpest hit, dropping 40.8% y-o-y and 90% q-o-q to USD 931 mn. The country saw no awards in five of eight sectors, including chemical, gas, industrial, and power.
