FIDIC Silver Book, explained.

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 FIDIC form of choice on major 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. Typical use cases include LNG plants, refineries, power generation facilities, petrochemical complexes and other capital-intensive process facilities.

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 defined 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 throughout the project.

For a focused comparison: Silver vs Red Book.

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 (or, under FIDIC 2017, Exceptional Events). The exact list depends on the specific 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 for the project.

Where Contractors have been caught out on Silver Book contracts, the pattern is almost always the same: signed the Employer's Requirements without fully understanding what they were being asked to warrant.

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.

Deeper: FIDIC claims guide and Extension of Time guide.