Geoscience Ireland member, ByrneLooby, is increasing its footprint in the Middle East. Last month, ByrneLooby opened a new office in Saudi Arabia as demand increases for engineering and project management consultants.

Regional Director of the Middle East, John Barnes met with An Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar on his trade mission to Saudi Arabia last month and the United Arab Emirates. The four-day trade mission, which included Riyadh and Dubai aims to support the accelerated export-led recovery of Irish businesses in the Gulf region.  ByrneLooby set up operations in the Middle East over 11 years ago. In 2021, ByrneLooby was named 174** in the world’s top 225 engineering design firms, based on revenue outside of the home country.

ByrneLooby has provided engineering services on a range of critical infrastructural projects in the Middle East and KSA including key mega projects which form part of Vision 2030, including Amaala, Neom, Jazan Economic City and Qiddaya. Its teams have provided engineering expertise on the ports of Aqaba, Dammam, Doha, Dubai’s Maritime City and on the CHIT award-winning Doha Metro.

In Ireland and the UK, ByrneLooby work on significant flooding schemes for the OPW, Irish Water and various major civil engineering developments, including Dublin’s Port Tunnel, Newbridge Lidl Logistics Distribution Centre, Lowestoft Port, HS2 Crossrail, Heathrow’s Terminal 2 and Belfast City Airport. ByrneLooby currently sits on the framework for Irish Water. In Saudi Arabia, its water team has consulted on water infrastructure projects including the SWCC (the publicly owned Saline Water Conversion Corporation), who is one of the largest producers of desalinated water globally. One of ByrneLooby’s projects includes the Shuqaiq water treatment plant (WTS) from SWCC, which is one of the most complex water transmission systems in the Kingdom. During the past 18 months, ByrneLooby has made significant project wins, including the Qiddiya Geotechnical Investigation, Amaala Service Marinas and Saudi Cruise Berth Improvement. Its Gulf team provide environmental and sustainability consulting services of which includes the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) for the Bahrain International Sports City (BISC) in Sakhir.

John Barnes, Regional Director of the Middle East at ByrneLooby, commented: “Over the past ten years, we have seen significant growth in demand for our services in KSA. We target large, complex projects where we can add value and which require complex engineering expertise. This year, it is a huge privilege to help kickstart cruising in Saudi Arabia, providing the detailed design of the Saudi Cruise Berth Improvement Project across three strategically located ports. Our local ByrneLooby office demonstrates our commitment to Saudi and our desire to partner with clients to help achieve Saudi Vision 2030 and contribute to IKTVA (In Kingdom Total Value Add). 

It is widely acknowledged that this decade needs to be one of climate action and adopting circular economy principles can help decarbonisation. Implementation of circular principles could include designing for reuse or adapting existing buildings and assets. Our teams can offer sustainability strategies and strategic environmental assessments for many different types of projects. Having experts in-house provides a holistic approach to solutions, embedding resilience and sustainability into solutions, such as the application of green concrete or providing environmental management plans. Our environmental and sustainability consulting team are well-positioned to help clients realise Saudi Vision 2030 goals of a thriving, diverse economy based on social responsibility.” He added.

For further information and details on projects, visit ByrneLooby’s website (link).