Is CEM aware that he is out of the country? He will have to come home to submit his passport because he cannot continue to stay in saudi without passport (that is assuming he is in possession of the passport and just send it to CEM). In ksa, the passport is normally with the employer in exchange of a saudi residence permit.
Saudi processing is in Abu Dhabi canadian embassy. I do not see submitting the passport there because as you mentioned, it is CEM who has jurisdiction of the application.
Regarding NBI, he may have to come home anyway.
My first application was in saudi. I was forced to come home to attend to the application, after cancelling the abu dhabi files and transferred to CEM. I had to start from step 1.