Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Companies in Saudi Arabia: What the Contract Should Cover, and How to Choose One
What an O&M contract in Saudi Arabia should cover, who does what on the plant, the two ways turnaround support is bought and why who directs the crews decides how Resolution 60339 treats them, and eight questions for choosing a contractor.
Operations and maintenance (O&M) in Saudi Arabia is a contract under which a specialist company runs and maintains an existing asset — a process plant, a utility, or a site's engineering systems — against a defined scope and agreed performance measures, using its own employees under its own supervision. That last condition is legal as well as commercial. Under Ministerial Resolution 60339 of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD), in force since 26 January 2026, a defined scope delivered by the provider's own supervised workforce is service outsourcing (تعهيد الخدمات); people placed at your plant to work under your supervision are internal labour outsourcing (تعهيد القوى العاملة), a separately licensed activity documented on Ajeer. The contractor's people sit on its own establishment file on Qiwa and at GOSI, and in the Jubail and Ras Al Khair industrial cities the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu adds its own contractor registration and environmental rules to the plant owner's.
This page covers what an O&M contract includes, how the work runs, how turnaround support is bought and what decides its category, and the questions that separate one O&M company from another. It does not give you a savings figure or an availability benchmark: no official source has measured either for Saudi plant, and the percentages in circulation are contractors' own claims. Price the work against what maintenance and unplanned stops cost you now.
Key Takeaways
- O&M is bought as a scope with measures. Under Resolution 60339 the category turns on who directs the people day to day: if your supervisors direct them, it is labour outsourcing, whatever the contract is called.
- Turnaround support is bought either as a defined package or as crews of given trades priced per person, and per-person pricing is not on its own a violation. What sets the paperwork is who directs the crews: crews run by the plant's own supervisors need an Ajeer contract and a permit per person before work starts, and the receiving plant has obligations too.
- An availability figure promised before anyone has surveyed the plant is a number, not a commitment. The asset register comes first.
- The contractor's own compliance sets how fast it mobilises: work permits within 90 days of a new employee's entry, none at all in the red Nitaqat band, and professions on permits that match the trades on your plant.
- Work runs under the plant owner's permit-to-work system, and in Jubail and Ras Al Khair under the Royal Commission's rules too.
What O&M covers, and what it is not
O&M is bought for an asset that already exists. It starts where construction ends, runs for a multi-year term, and is measured on how the asset performs. Four kinds of work are sold under the name — plant operations, maintenance execution, shutdown and turnaround work, and utilities O&M — and most contracts combine two or more. Three neighbouring services are often bought from the same companies, and confusing them is how scopes acquire gaps:
| Operations and maintenance | Facility management | EPC / construction | Labour supply | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you buy | The running and upkeep of a plant, utility or engineering system | The services that keep a building or site usable — MEP maintenance, cleaning, landscaping, waste | A new asset, or a change to one, built to a specification | People, working under your supervision |
| Measured on | Availability, reliability, schedule compliance, response and rectification, HSE | Service standards, frequencies, response times | Completion to specification, on time | Your own standards — you direct the work |
| Who directs the people | The contractor | The contractor | The contractor | You |
| Under Resolution 60339 | Service outsourcing | Service outsourcing | Not covered here | Internal labour outsourcing: an MHRSD licence, documented on Ajeer |
On an industrial site the line between the first two columns runs inside the fence. The process and utility plant is O&M; the built estate behind the same fence — offices, laboratories, canteens, warehouses, landscaping, cleaning — is facility management. A contract covering both should say which document carries each asset, because the two fail differently.
How the work runs: strategy, register, record
| Strategy | What triggers the work | Where it earns its place |
|---|---|---|
| Corrective | A failure, or a defect found in service | Assets whose failure is cheap, safe and quick to put right |
| Preventive (PPM) | A calendar or usage interval, whatever the condition | Lower-criticality assets, statutory inspections, anything where monitoring would cost more than it saves |
| Predictive (condition-based) | Data showing a developing fault — vibration, thermography, oil analysis | Critical rotating equipment: pumps, compressors, fans and their drivers |
| Reliability engineering | Repeat failures in the history | Root-cause analysis that changes the schedule rather than being filed |
All of it rests on two things tenders tend to skip. The first is the asset register and its criticality ranking: what is on the plant, its condition, and what each item costs you when it fails. Most programmes fail because the schedule was built from equipment manuals rather than criticality, so effort is spread evenly across assets whose failure consequences are nothing alike.
The second is the record. Whether it lives in the owner's computerised maintenance management system (CMMS) or the contractor's, every work order, finding and repair has to land in it, because that history settles warranty claims, disputed failures and the next contractor's survey. Agree before award that the data is yours at the end of the term.
The test of a programme: after a full cycle, reactive callouts and unplanned downtime should both be falling. If they are flat, the schedule is generating activity rather than reliability.
Who does what on an O&M contract
| Area | Plant owner | O&M contractor |
|---|---|---|
| Permit-to-work system | Owns it and issues the permits | Works inside it: raises permits, meets their conditions, stops work when they are not met |
| Maintenance programme | Approves it; owns capital replacement decisions | Builds it from the survey and criticality ranking, carries it out, reports against it |
| The contractor's people | Holds the contractor to the scope; does not direct them | Employs, inducts, supervises and disciplines them |
| Employer obligations | Not yours — but where an Ajeer permit applies, confirming it exists before work starts is | Qiwa contracts, work permits and iqamas, GOSI, the monthly wage file to Mudad, end-of-service |
| Critical spares | Agreed in the contract: who buys, holds and owns them | Manages the critical spares list to protect availability |
| Site access | Sets induction and contractor-access rules | Clears passes, medicals and inductions before anyone is needed on site |
Two rows decide most disputes. A contractor does not bring its own permit regime onto someone else's plant; it disciplines its people to yours. And the people row sets the legal category: once your supervisors direct the contractor's people, the arrangement looks like the last column of the first table.
Where the plant sits adds other parties. Inside Jubail and Ras Al Khair, the Royal Commission registers the contractors working there and enforces its own environmental regulations, which reach what maintenance itself produces — spent chemicals and catalyst, hydrotest effluent, blast media, coating waste — so disposal routes belong in the method statement before the job starts. Dammam Second Industrial City is a MODON estate, with a landlord's estate conditions on top of the tenant's. And plant inside occupied buildings — hotels, headquarters, data rooms — has no shutdown window at all; it is maintained live, one redundant leg at a time.
HSE: the plant's system, the contractor's obligations
Permit-to-work is the operating discipline of an industrial site: hot work, confined space entry, isolation and lock-out, and gas testing, each authorised in writing against conditions someone checks and someone can withdraw. What an O&M contractor brings is supervisors who raise the permits, meet their conditions and stop the job when they are not met. Underneath the plant's rules sit the contractor's own obligations as employer, which do not move to you with the scope:
- Safety rules. Failing to comply with the occupational safety and health rules and take the necessary precautions is a serious violation under MHRSD Resolution 112377 (row 1: SAR 1,500, 2,500 or 5,000 by establishment size), and safety instructions must be posted in the workers' languages, Arabic and English at minimum (row 2).
- Heat. MHRSD and the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health ban work under direct sun from 12:00 to 15:00 in all private-sector establishments; in 2026, as in the three years before, from 15 June to 15 September. Having a worker work under exposed sun without the necessary precautions is SAR 1,000 per worker (row 5). A July shutdown loses three hours a day of work under direct sun.
- Occupational hazards cover. Every worker on the contractor's file, Saudi or not, is covered by GOSI's occupational hazards branch at 2% of wages, paid by the employer — and GOSI can raise it to 4% for an employer that does not follow safety and health instructions.
An ISO 45001 certificate tells you the contractor runs an audited safety management system. It does not tell you its record; ask for the figures.
Turnarounds: two ways to buy the window, and who directs the crews
A shutdown or turnaround is a planned window in which a plant stops production for major maintenance. The critical path is fixed, and the difficulty is rarely finding people — it is having them inducted, qualified, cleared and supervised on day one rather than arriving through week one. An O&M contract that will meet a turnaround therefore needs two shapes: a base scope with its own measures, and turnaround scope on a schedule of rates set in the contract, with a scope-freeze date before the window.
That capacity is bought in two ways, and both are common. One is a defined package: named equipment, work packs and acceptance criteria, priced per package or per item. The other is crews of given trades — so many fitters, riggers and welders for the length of the window — priced per person. Per-person pricing is not on its own a violation. Under Resolution 60339 the distinguishing feature is supervision: who directs the crews day to day, integrates them into the work and provides the tools. The operational facts decide it, not the title on the purchase order.
| Crews directed by the contractor | Crews directed by the plant | |
|---|---|---|
| Who instructs the crew day to day | The contractor's supervisors | The plant's supervisors |
| Who provides tools | The contractor | The plant |
| Who answers for a bad job | The contractor | The plant |
| Under Resolution 60339 | Service outsourcing | Internal labour outsourcing |
| Ajeer documentation | Ajeer Contracting permits for the contractor's own employees at your worksite, where they apply (see question 3) | An electronic contract and a permit per person on Ajeer before work begins, capped at three years or the earlier end of the contract; each person working only in the profession on their permit |
Three things follow for the plant owner.
Labour outsourcing is regulated, not banned. If the window genuinely needs people working inside your own team under your own supervisors, that is a recognised arrangement under the resolution, documented on Ajeer before anyone starts. The receiving establishment has obligations of its own: no work before the permit, work stops when it expires, tasks stay inside the profession on the permit, and your establishment must comply with the Wage Protection System and Nitaqat and stay out of the red band throughout. The manpower supply guide sets out the three legal ways to get people onto a site.
The fines are per person. Resolution 112377 fines an employer SAR 10,000 per worker for employing a non-Saudi without a work permit (row 20), and SAR 3,000, 5,000 or 10,000 per worker, by establishment size, for letting one work outside the occupation on the permit (row 21). Article 229 of the Labour Law multiplies fines by the number of people concerned, and a turnaround puts the most people on site at once. The receiving plant's own exposure is set out in the contract audit linked below.
A service contract can be run as labour. When the critical path slips, the plant's area supervisor starts instructing the contractor's crew directly because it is faster — and on the operational facts that crew is now under your supervision. Keep the instruction line running through the contractor's supervisors, in the window as well as outside it.
If you need a result — a bank of exchangers opened, inspected and closed — buy it as a package. If you need trades for the length of the window, they can be priced per person; settle in writing who directs them day to day, because supervision is what separates the two categories. If you need individuals inside your own team, under your own supervisors, hire them, or document the arrangement on Ajeer as labour outsourcing. The service outsourcing versus labour outsourcing page sets the two side by side; the Resolution 60339 contract audit checks a contract already signed.
How to choose an O&M company in Saudi Arabia: eight questions
Every O&M company lists the same things — preventive maintenance, HSE, qualified people, reliability. Those are the service, not criteria. These are the questions whose answers differ.
- Whose employees will be on our plant, who directs them, and where is their supervisor based? The answer you want: the contractor's, on its own commercial registration and payroll, directed by its own supervisors on site. If your supervisors will direct them, you are being offered labour outsourcing, and that is documented on Ajeer — a contract and a permit per person — before anyone starts.
- For a turnaround, how will the window be priced, and who will direct the crews in it? A defined package and crews priced per person are both common. What the answer has to settle is who instructs the crews day to day and who signs off each work pack, because supervision is the distinguishing feature under the resolution and sets how the window is documented on Ajeer.
- Will your non-Saudi employees be on our site under an Ajeer permit? Ajeer Contracting exists for exactly this: the provider raises the contract, you approve it as beneficiary, and the provider issues permits naming its employees at your worksite. No official source we opened says whether every service contract needs one. A contractor that has thought about it will answer in writing.
- What is your Nitaqat band, and how would you bring in a specialist you do not yet employ? A new expatriate needs a work permit within 90 days of entry, and a red-band establishment can issue no new permits, renew none, and take no transfers in. No official source publishes a visa lead time; a contractor quoting one before seeing the trade list is guessing.
- Do the professions on your people's permits match the trades they will do here? A welder recorded as a general worker is legally employed and still outside the gate, and the mismatch is a per-worker violation. Ask whether professions are checked before the visa is used or after the gate refuses someone.
- What will you commit to before you have surveyed the plant? The answer that holds up is a condition survey and asset register first, with the criticality ranking, maintenance schedule, spares list and measures built from them — and the register handed back at the end of the term.
- How is each measure defined, and what happens when it is missed? Availability at the equipment and availability at the load it serves are different numbers, and incentive or liquidated-damages clauses are only as clear as the measure under them. O&M disputes trace back to measures that were named but never defined.
- Whose permit-to-work system will you work under, and who can stop the job? Yours, always, with a named supervisor of theirs authorised to stop work when conditions are not met. Ask in the same conversation for the safety record as figures.
What actually changes in a mobilisation
The first weeks of an O&M contract are survey, clearance and transfer, and the clearance runs on other people's clocks.
| Step | What happens | Whose clock |
|---|---|---|
| Survey | Condition survey and asset register; the incumbent's records checked against the plant | The contractor's |
| Transfer | Documentation and history handed over, spares verified, workforce arrangements agreed before cutover | Incumbent, owner and contractor |
| Site access | Passes, medicals and inductions — in Jubail and Ras Al Khair to the Royal Commission's rules as well | The plant's and the Royal Commission's |
| Workforce paperwork | Contracts on Qiwa; GOSI registration before the first shift; work permits within 90 days of entry; Professional Verification for skilled trades | The contractor's, on MHRSD's platforms |
| Ajeer, where it applies | Permits issued before anyone starts | The contractor raises them; you approve |
Two rows usually set the date. Site access belongs to the plant and the Royal Commission, so the requirements are asked for at award and the plan worked backwards from them. For a specialist the contractor does not yet employ, the long item is often professional verification — MHRSD's programme testing skilled expatriate workers against the occupation they are recruited for, across more than 1,000 professions, in their home country before arrival or at local centres once here.
If the incumbent's people are staying, their employment transfers to the new contractor's establishment on Qiwa, which a red-band establishment cannot take in. If the scope includes running the spares store, storekeeper (432101) has been a 100% Saudi profession since 5 April 2026 under Decision 132249, and stock movement clerk (432103) joined it on 4 October 2026 — on the contractor's establishment as on anyone's.
The incumbent's records are where the surprises are. On older plant they are often incomplete, and a contractor that inherits an availability target it cannot evidence has agreed to a number it does not control. The survey is where that gets said, before cutover.
How SCPL runs operations and maintenance
SCPL runs O&M from its head office in Dammam and its office in Riyadh. Jubail, Ras Al Khair and Al Khobar are run from Dammam — there are no premises in Jubail — with SCPL supervision on site for the duration of a contract. The work is service outsourcing: SCPL employs and supervises its own workforce to deliver a written scope, carries the delivery obligation, and is paid against it. Its people are on SCPL's commercial registration and payroll, and their Qiwa contracts, GOSI registration, wage file, iqamas and end-of-service are SCPL's as employer.
A contract starts with a condition survey and an asset register, which produce the criticality ranking, the maintenance schedule, the critical spares list and the measures reported monthly (availability, planned-versus-reactive ratio, response and rectification against agreed targets, and HSE performance), with the register handed back at the end of the term. Work runs under the plant's permit-to-work system, with SCPL supervisors accountable for permits raised, conditions met and work stopped when they are not. Turnaround support sits on a schedule of rates outside base scope, priced per defined scope or per person depending on the client; in the window SCPL's crews remain SCPL employees under SCPL supervisors, delivering a defined part of the work. SCPL holds ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018.
- Operations and maintenance in Saudi Arabia — the service, its scope and its FAQ.
- Industrial plant O&M, preventive and predictive maintenance, shutdown and turnaround support and utilities O&M.
- O&M in Jubail Industrial City, Dammam, Al Khobar and Riyadh — what each city's plant asks of the contract.
- Industrial facility management — the built estate inside the same fence.
SCPL does not act as an Employer of Record, and it does not design or build plant. If you would rather employ the people yourself, SCPL's recruitment service sources candidates for your own establishment — Saudi nationals as well as workers recruited from abroad.
Ask for a written scope — send the plant or asset, where it is, what the incumbent's scope covers today, and any shutdown window in the next twelve months, and you will get back a scope, the survey that has to come first, and the answers to questions one and six.
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FAQ
What do operations and maintenance companies do in Saudi Arabia?
They run and maintain an existing asset — process plant, utilities or a site's engineering systems — under a multi-year contract with a defined scope and performance measures: plant operation, preventive, predictive and corrective maintenance, turnaround work, spares and records. The contractor's own employees do the work under its own supervision, which makes it service outsourcing under Resolution 60339.
What is the difference between O&M and facility management?
O&M covers process and utility plant and is measured mainly on availability and reliability. Facility management covers the services that keep a building or site usable — MEP maintenance, cleaning, landscaping, waste — and is measured on service standards. On an industrial site the plant is O&M and the built estate inside the fence is facility management.
Is turnaround manpower supply legal in Saudi Arabia?
Yes. Resolution 60339 regulates it rather than prohibiting it, and pricing per person is not on its own a violation; what decides the documentation is who directs the crews day to day. Workers who belong to one establishment and work under another's supervision are internal labour outsourcing, a separately licensed activity: an electronic contract and a permit per person on Ajeer before work starts, and work only in the profession on the permit. The receiving plant carries obligations too. Crews that stay under their own employer's supervisors, delivering the work, are service outsourcing.
How are O&M contracts priced in Saudi Arabia?
Most commonly as a multi-year agreement with a fixed operating fee for base scope and a schedule of rates for work outside it, measured against availability, reliability and HSE targets, sometimes with incentives or liquidated damages. No official pricing benchmark exists, and this page does not invent one.
Do an O&M contractor's employees count towards our Nitaqat band?
No. They are on the contractor's establishment and count in its Saudization rate, not yours, so an O&M contract will not improve your band. The contractor's band matters to you differently: in the red band it can issue no new work permits for the specialists your window needs.
Can outdoor maintenance continue during the summer midday ban?
Not under direct sun between 12:00 and 15:00. MHRSD applies the ban to all private-sector establishments, and in 2026 it ran from 15 June to 15 September. Summer shutdown shifts have to be planned around it; working someone under exposed sun without the required precautions is a per-worker violation under Resolution 112377.
Official sources
Verify current requirements directly with the authorities — rules and fees in this area change, and the official portal is always ahead of any guide, including this one.