The FIDIC Silver Book, where the Contractor owns almost everything.

EPC / Turnkey under the Silver Book

The FIDIC Silver Book — the Conditions of Contract for EPC / Turnkey Projects — gives the Contractor single-point responsibility for Engineering, Procurement and Construction. The Employer defines what it wants (through Employer's Requirements), agrees a price, and expects a completed facility that performs.

It is the form of choice on major process plants, LNG facilities, refinery packages, power generation and other capital projects where the Employer wants cost and time certainty and is prepared to pay a risk premium for the Contractor to carry the majority of delivery risk.

Engineering, Procurement, Construction

Engineering. The Contractor designs the facility to meet the Employer's Requirements — conceptual, FEED and detailed design, along with all subordinate engineering deliverables.

Procurement. The Contractor procures all Plant, Materials and services required. Long-lead items and vendor packages are on the Contractor's critical path.

Construction. The Contractor constructs, tests and commissions the works to the performance criteria in the Employer's Requirements.

Contractor responsibilities

• Complete design against the Employer's Requirements, with fitness for purpose
• All procurement of Plant, Materials and subcontract packages
• Construction, testing, commissioning and performance demonstration
• Ground conditions risk to a materially greater extent than under Red or Yellow Books
• Errors, ambiguities or discrepancies in the Employer's Requirements, in most cases

Risk allocation

The Silver Book is deliberately more Contractor-heavy than the Yellow Book. Risks that the Yellow Book might share — ground conditions, errors in the Employer's Requirements, unforeseeable physical conditions — are largely transferred to the Contractor. That is the trade the Employer buys.

Because of this, Contractors typically price a risk contingency into their tender and manage it as a specific reserve during delivery. Project controls teams should track the burn-down of that contingency as a first-order KPI.

Time and cost risks

Time risk on Silver Book projects sits primarily with the Contractor. Extension of Time is available for a narrower set of events than under the Red or Yellow Books — typically limited to specific relief events, Employer-caused delay and force majeure, subject to the exact wording of the contract and any Particular Conditions.

Cost risk is similarly transferred. Fluctuations, market movement and productivity assumptions all sit with the Contractor unless expressly re-shared in the Particular Conditions.

Employer's Requirements — read them defensively

The Employer's Requirements are the single most important document on a Silver Book project. Ambiguity, unclear performance criteria, or scope wording that quietly transfers risk should be flagged during tender. Once signed, the Contractor is generally taken to have accepted the Requirements as sufficient.

Claims, delays and EOT under the Silver Book

The claims framework parallels the Red and Yellow Books — notice, particulars, determination — but the grounds for time and money relief are narrower. Contemporary records and a robust programme are essential; on a Silver Book contract, the schedule is often the only asset that can rescue a delayed job.

Learning outcomes

• Understand why the Silver Book allocates risk the way it does
• Read the Employer's Requirements with a project controls lens
• Manage the risk contingency as an active project KPI
• Serve narrow EOT claims correctly under a Contractor-heavy risk profile
• Advise leadership on defensible negotiating positions on Silver Book contracts