Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) has announced the successful financial close of Rabigh-4 IWP with support from the relevant authorities, and the commitment of the private sector developers.

 

Rabigh-4 is an Independent Water Plant with a 600,000 cu m/day capacity that will be built and operated by the private sector for a period of 25 years from the date of commercial operation set for Q1 2026.

 

To be implemented on the BOO (Build, Own and Operate) model, Rabigh-4 IWP project once operational will produce potable water using reverse osmosis technology to service the Makkah and Madinah regions. 

 

It will also feature storage tanks with a capacity of 1,200,000 cu m/day (equivalent to two operating days) to assist in optimizing the availability and reliability of water resources in the two regions.

 

SWPC had selected a consortium led by Saudi utility major Acwa Power with partners Bahrain-based Almoayyed Contracting Group and Haji Abdullah Alireza Company, Haji Abdullah Alireza & Partners Company, a leading player in the management, operation and maintenance of sea water desalination plants, as the winner.

 

TradeArabia had earlier reported that a total of 39 utility project developer consortiums, including 21 Saudi firms, had expressed their interests in developing the key reverse osmosis (RO) project in Rabigh. 

 

These included Spanish infrastructure majors - GS Inima Environment, Acciona Agua, and Cobra; French utility expert Veolia and Italian group Fisia Italimpianti in addition to Hydro Industries (UK); Aquatech International (US); Marubeni (Japan); J&P (Cyprus) and VA Tech Wabag (India) as well as Acwa Power consortium, Al Bawani Water & Power as well as Marafiq.

 

However, in November last year, SWPC revealed that only three consortia had made it to the final round. These were 

 

*Acciona with consortium partner Saudi group Ajlan & Brothers Company; 

*Acwa with Haji Hussein Ali Reda and Partners Company and Almoayyed Contracting Group

*French multinational utility group Engie 

 

The Acwa consortium emerged winner with its attractive levelised cost of SR1.7162 per cu m beating the consortium of Spanish infrastructure major Acciona Agua and Saudi group Ajlan & Bros who had quoted SR2.0386 per cu m. 

 

On the financial close, CEO Engineer Khalid Al Quraishi said Rabigh-4 consortium managed to successfully complete the financial closure in close collaboration with the group of lenders, despite the shifting global market conditions. 

 

"This demonstrates SWPC’s commitment to fully support investment projects and to increase private sector participation by giving local and foreign investors the opportunity to participate in the implementation of these projects. As a result, these projects will generate job opportunities and supporting local content to complement the strategic objectives of Saudi Arabia’s vision 2030," he noted.

 

"Reaching this stage in the project and starting construction works is an indication of investor’s confidence in the investment environment within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the suitability of the investment environment for the private sector," he added.-TradeArabia News Service