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Local firm bids low for Shoaiba desalination plant

4 October 2024

Jeddah-based Alfatah Water & Power is understood to have submitted the lowest bid for the contract to build the Shoaiba 6 seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant on Saudi Arabia’s western coast.

Saudi Water Authority (SWA), the kingdom’s main producer of desalinated water, is undertaking the final bid evaluation for the contract, MEED previously reported.

The plant has a capacity of 545,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d).

SWA received bids for the contract on 19 May, several days after it received bids for the Yanbu 5 SWRO plant.

VA Tech Wabag submitted the lower bid for Yanbu 5 and recently confirmed that it has won the $317m contract to build the plant. 

The Yanbu 5 plant will have the capacity to treat 300,000 cm/d of seawater.

The 30-year contract that Wabag won covers the design, engineering, supply, construction and commissioning of the desalination plant.

SWA – formerly Saline Water Conversion Company (SWCC) – has tendered two other projects.

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

According to sources familiar with the project, the following companies submitted proposals for the Ras Al-Khair SWRO contract:

  • Abengoa (Spain) / Civil Works Company (local)
  • VA Tech Wabag (India)
  • Saudi Services for Electro Mechanic Works (SSEM, local)
  • Mutlaq Al-Ghowairi Contracting (local)
  • Al-Rashid Trading & Contracting (local)

SWA is procuring the four SWRO projects using an engineering, procurement and construction model, in contrast to the SWRO facilities being procured on a public-private partnership basis by state water offtaker Saudi Water Partnership Company.

SWA is the world’s largest producer of desalinated water, with a capacity of at least 6.6 million cm/d. Plants utilising 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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