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Local contractor wins Saudi water pipeline EPC deal

19 June 2025

The local Mutlaq Al-Ghowairi Contracting Company (MGC) has secured the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Jubail-Buraydah independent water transmission pipeline (IWTP) project in Saudi Arabia.

The project will link Jubail in the kingdom’s Eastern Province and Buraydah in the Qassim region over a 587-kilometre (km) pipeline that can transmit 650,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of water.

Key components of the project include two main pumping stations located in Jubail and Al-Qulaib, a 587km carbon steel pipeline and a dual-direction flow system that allows for water transfer from Jubail to Al-Shimasiyah and in reverse through Al-Qulaib.

The project also includes a water storage component, with 11 strategically located reservoirs in Jubail, Al-Shimasiyah and other sites. The reservoirs will have a combined storage capacity of 1.63 million cubic metres.

MEED reported in March that Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) had signed a contract agreement to develop and operate Saudi Arabia’s second IWTP project.

It will have a total cost of SR8.5bn ($2.2bn).

A developer team comprising local companies Aljomaih Energy & Water, Nesma Company and Buhur for Investment Company was named as the preferred bidder for the contract in November last year.

The team proposed to develop the Jubail-Buraydah IWTP project for SR3.59468 a cubic metre.

The Jubail-Buraydah IWTP project is larger than the kingdom’s first IWTP linking Rayis and Rabigh, which a consortium including the local Alkhorayef Water & Power Technologies Company and Spain’s Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios will develop and operate at a cost of SR7.78bn ($2bn).

The project is part of the kingdom’s National Water Strategy 2030, which aims to reduce the water demand-supply gap and ensure desalinated water accounts for 90% of the national urban supply, to reduce reliance on non-renewable ground sources.

READ THE JUNE 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

Gulf accelerates AI and data centre strategy; Baghdad keeps up project spending, but fiscal clouds gather; Banking stocks rise despite lower global oil prices

Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the June 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

> GULF PROJECTS INDEX: Gulf projects index leaps 4.3%
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Colin Foreman

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