Saudi utility issues RFPs for 300,000-cu-m desalination project
RIYADH, December 13, 2022
Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) has announced that it has issued a request for proposal to 10 qualified bidders for the Ras Mohaisen Independent Water Project, which, on completion, will have a total storage capacity of 300,000 cu m per annum.
Located 300 km south of Makkah on the Red Sea coast in the Western Province, the Ras Mohaisen IWP will be designed using seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination technology and include all associated infrastructure and facilities.
The project's commercial operation date has been set at Q3 2026, it added.
According to SWPC, the list of pre-qualified bidders (lead and/or technical) include Japan's Marubeni Corporation and Malaysian group Malakoff International as well as Spanish infrastructure majors - Acciona Agua, Cobra Instalaciones Y Servicios and FCC Aqualia.
Also, local firms Acwa Power and Rawafid Al Hadara made it to the pre-qualified bidders list along with the developer consortiums of Marafiq/Alfanar and Utico/Mowah and the lone player from GCC - Emirati firm Kahrabel.
TradeArabia had earlier reported that SWPC had invited prequalification bids for the 300,000 cu m facility for which it had received 44 EoIs.
The top firms who had expressed interest in the project included French heavyweights Engie, Veolia and Saur Sas; Hydro Industries (UK); J&P and Archirodon (Cyprus); Essar Power and VA Tech Wabag (India); Strukton (Netherlands) in addition to Spanish group GS Inima Environment.
SWPC said following the tender bid, the winning group, through a project company to be incorporated, would develop the project and sell the entire capacity and output to the Saudi utility under a 25-year concession pursuant to a Water Purchase Agreement.
Top global consultants are incharge of the project led by KPMG Al Fozan & Partners as the lead and financial advisor, Eversheds Sutherland (International) as legal advisor and WSP the technical advisor.-TradeArabia News Service
