Saudi Arabia receives interest from firms for Rabigh desalination plant

Riyadh-based Water & Electricity Co. LLC (WEC) has received expressions of interest (EOI) from 55 local and foreign firms for the Rabigh 3 independent water project (IWP), according to a company statement.

Several local companies submitted bids for the project, including ACWA Power, Saudi Industrial Services Co (SISCO), Nesma Holding, Advanced Water Technology Co., and AlBawardi Group, MEED reported.

A consortium of Spain’s Acciona Agua SA and Saudi Arabias’ Abdul Latif Jameel Commercial Development Company Ltd was also among the bidders.

Foreign companies that submitted EoIs included Egypt’s Orascom Construction, the United Arab Emirates’ National Power Co. & Abu Dhabi National Energy (Taqa), Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas, France’s Engie, India’s Shapoorji Pallonji, South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, and Japan’s Marubeni.

WEC will issue a request for pre-qualification (RFQ) this month to interested companies, the statement said, adding that responses to the RFQ should only be submitted by the developers seeking qualification as a sole developer or lead developer as part of a developer consortium.

The Rabigh 3 reverse osmosis (RO) desalination project will supply 600,000 cubic meters /day of desalinated water, with the potential to expand to 1.2 million cubic meters/day.

Under a 25-year concession, the project developer will sell their entire capacity and output to WEC by virtue of a Water Purchase Agreement, which will be backed by a payment guarantee from the Saudi government.

Banque Saudi Fransi has been appointed as lead advisor for the project, while DLA Piper Middle East will serve as legal advisor. Germany’s Fichtner Engineering and Consulting is the technical adviser.