By: AGBI

Saudi Arabia’s Oxagon port, a critical piece of the $500 billion Neom giga-project, is moving forward with fresh preparatory works under way.

Phase 2 of Oxagon, located on the Red Sea coast near global shipping lanes and south of Neom‘s The Line, is undergoing earthworks ahead of major dredging later this year, according to project contractor disclosures.

Partly on land and partly jutting into the sea, Oxagon will feature an octagonal design with its offshore section described as “the world’s largest floating structure”.

“We are busy with the dry earth moving activities for the Oxagon phase 2 project in Saudi Arabia, preparing for the cutter [suction] phase of the project that will be later this year,” Luc Vandenbulcke, CEO and executive director at Deme Group, said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call this week.

The company, among Europe’s largest dredging contractors and listed on pan-European stock exchange Euronext, referred to Oxagon among its key projects for 2025 in its second-quarter deck. 

Vandenbulcke told analysts the company’s dredging and infrastructure segment “maintained a high level of activity” in the Middle East even as the region shrank to just 3 percent of its €7.5 billion ($8.7 billion) backlog at the end of the first half, down from 6 percent for the same period a year earlier.

While The Line has drawn controversial global headlines for doubts on its design and feasibility, Oxagon is intended to provide the industrial backbone critical to Neom’s financial viability.

“Oxagon will be the catalyst for economic growth and diversity in Neom and the kingdom, further meeting our ambitions under Vision 2030,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in 2021. 

He added that it would “contribute to Saudi Arabia’s regional trade and commerce, and support creating a new focal point for global trade flows”.

Oxagon is envisioned to be “one of the world’s most technologically advanced logistics hubs” with port, rail and air connectivity.

Approximately 13 percent of global trade passes through the Red Sea, making it one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors.