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Saudi Water Authority picks Shoaiba desalination bidder

24 February 2025

Saudi Water Authority (SWA), the kingdom’s main producer of desalinated water, has selected the local Alfatah International Company for Water & Electricity Works for a retendered contract to build a new water desalination plant on Saudi Arabia’s western coast.

The retendered Shoaiba 6 seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant contract indicates a capacity of between 500,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) and 545,000 cm/d.

According to SWA, Alfatah submitted the third-lowest bid of SR1.95bn ($521m).

Two other bidders, India's VA Tech Wabag and the local Civil Works Contracting, submitted lower bids of SR1.83m and SR1.89m, respectively. 

The other bidders and their offers for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract are:

  • Mutlaq Al-Ghowairi Contracting (local) / Lantania (Spain): SR2.018m
  • Miya Water (Spain): SR2.2m

Jeddah-based Alfatah offered the lowest bid for the contract when it was first tendered last year.

Shoaiba 6 is one of four contracts that SWA tendered last year using an EPCC contracting model.

The other three SWRO projects are Yanbu 5, Ras Al-Khair and Jubail.

VA Tech Wabag submitted the lowest bid for Yanbu 5 and won the $317m contract to build the plant in September. The plant will have the capacity to treat 300,000 cm/d of seawater.

However, on 16 December, SWA cancelled the contract and informed the bidders that it intended to recalibrate the plant’s capacity and issue a new tender.

The Jubail and Ras Al-Khair SWRO projects will each have the capacity to treat 600,000 cm/d of seawater.

MEED reported in November last year that Najran-based Emar Al-Janoub for Contracting (EJC) had won the contract to build the Ras Al-Khair SWRO plant.

EJC offered SR2.346bn to win the contract, seeing off competition from other bidders including the local Civil Works Company and Saudi Services for Electro Mechanic Works, and the Saudi branch of India’s VA Tech Wabag. 

SWA is the world’s largest producer of desalinated water, with a capacity of at least 6.6 million cm/d. Plants using older and more energy-intensive techniques, such as multi-stage flash technology, account for the majority of the current capacity.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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