Industry Reports
Annual benchmarks and trend reports on capital-project performance.
Global Mega-Project Overrun Trends 2025
An annual review of cost and schedule performance across 412 capital projects above $500M.
The 2025 dataset confirms a persistent pattern: median cost overrun on mega-projects sits at 27%, median schedule overrun at 31% of sanctioned duration. Energy-transition projects (offshore wind, green hydrogen, grid reinforcement) show higher variance than mature sectors due to first-of-a-kind effects.
Headline Findings
- 27% median cost overrun across the sample (n = 412).
- 31% median schedule overrun.
- Owner-side project controls maturity correlates strongly (r = -0.58) with overrun magnitude.
- Independent stage-gate reviews reduce overrun probability by ~ 22%.
State of Project Controls in the Middle East 2025
A regional benchmark of project controls practice across Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman, and Egypt.
The regional benchmark surveyed 86 owner organisations and 124 contractors. Vision 2030 and giga-project demand is driving rapid expansion of the project controls workforce — and acute shortage of senior planners and forensic analysts.
Key Observations
- 74% of owners now require ANSI/EIA-748-aligned EVM reporting.
- Median planning-engineer experience on giga-projects has fallen from 11 to 7 years.
- Adoption of probabilistic risk analysis at stage gates rose from 19% (2020) to 44% (2025).