Contract forms we cover
Our expertise spans the full range of standard form contracts used in GCC construction projects:
- FIDIC 2017 — Red Book (Construction), Yellow Book (Plant & Design), Silver Book (EPC/Turnkey), Gold Book (DBO)
- FIDIC 1999 editions (still widely used in the GCC)
- NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract
- JCT Standard Building Contract
- Bespoke and amended standard forms
- Saudi Government contracts (Royal Commission, Aramco, SABIC)
Our services
Notice management
We ensure all contractual notices are issued correctly and within the required timeframes. Under FIDIC 2017, failure to issue a timely notice can result in the complete loss of your claim entitlement — we make sure this never happens.
Variation management
We identify, document, and value variations systematically. We ensure every change is properly instructed, notified, and assessed in accordance with the contract provisions.
EOT submissions
We prepare comprehensive extension of time submissions that clearly demonstrate entitlement, supported by schedule analysis and contemporaneous records.
Final account preparation
We prepare and negotiate final accounts ensuring every entitlement is captured and substantiated — from measured work and variations to claims and adjustments.
FIDIC contract administration in Saudi Arabia
FIDIC contracts — particularly the Red Book (Construction) and Yellow Book (Plant & Design-Build) — dominate the Saudi construction market. Saudi Aramco, Royal Commission projects, NEOM, and most major government infrastructure programmes use FIDIC-based contracts, often with significant bespoke amendments. Understanding both the standard form and the specific amendments in your contract is essential to protecting your position.
Our FIDIC contract consultants have worked across the full range of Saudi project types — infrastructure, oil and gas, commercial, residential, healthcare, and mega-project giga-developments — and understand the practical realities of contract administration in the Kingdom, including the pressures contractors face from clients, the role of the Engineer, and the pace at which formal procedures must be managed.
The critical importance of notice management
Under FIDIC 2017, Clause 20.2.1 imposes a strict 28-day notice requirement for contractor claims. This is a condition precedent to entitlement — meaning that if notice is not given within 28 days of the contractor becoming aware (or should have become aware) of the claim event, the right to claim is extinguished entirely. There is no discretion for the Engineer or a tribunal to overlook a late notice.
In practice, this means that every delay event, variation instruction, unforeseen ground condition, or adverse employer action must be identified and notified promptly. Projects that do not have robust notice management systems in place routinely lose claims worth millions of riyals — not because their entitlement was weak, but because notices were missed or late.
We implement notice management systems, review live project correspondence to identify claim triggers, and draft and issue notices on behalf of contractors and employers to ensure contractual positions are protected throughout the project.
Variation management on FIDIC contracts
Variations are one of the most common sources of dispute on GCC construction projects. Employers instruct variations verbally, contractors carry out work without written instructions, and the valuation of those variations is contested months or years later when memories have faded and records are incomplete.
Our approach to variation management is systematic and contemporaneous: identify every instruction that constitutes a variation, document the scope immediately, notify the Engineer, and maintain a running account of the assessed value. We ensure that variations are properly recorded as work proceeds — not reconstructed after the fact — which makes final account negotiations significantly more straightforward.
EOT submissions under FIDIC
An extension of time submission under FIDIC 2017 must comply with the Clause 20 claims procedure, including the initial 28-day notice and the requirement to submit a fully detailed claim within 84 days (or such longer period as may be agreed). A submission that does not comply with these procedural requirements — regardless of the merits — is at risk of being rejected on procedural grounds alone.
We prepare EOT submissions that meet the procedural requirements, present a clear narrative of the delay events, and are supported by robust schedule analysis. We ensure that every element of the submission — from the delay analysis methodology to the supporting documents — would withstand scrutiny in arbitration.
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