How to read a contract award

A headline says who won the work. The paperwork says who will actually do it.

When a big contract is announced, the name in the headline is usually the prime: the company that signed with the owner and carries the risk. It is rarely the company that moves most of the dirt.

Before you decide who won, read an award for five things:

• the owner, because who is paying tells you how the money moves
• the scope, which is often narrower than the headline
• the value, and whether it is a ceiling, an estimate or a firm price
• the term, because a five-year award is not a five-year payroll
• the options, since extensions are not guaranteed work

Then follow the work downhill. A prime wins a package, breaks it into pieces and buys those pieces from specialists: haulage, drilling, camp services, civil, electrical, testing. Each piece is a smaller contract with a smaller headline, and most of them are never announced.

The biggest award of the month is not always the biggest opportunity.

If you sell to this industry, the prime’s procurement team is your next phone call. If you work in it, the prime’s name tells you whose rotation you may be on next year.

That is the habit we want to build here: read the award, then read past it. Who won the work is a question. Who is hiring for it is the answer.