Saudi Arabia's main producer of desalinated water, Saline Water Conversion Company (SWCC), has extended the tender closing date for two of the four seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plants that it is procuring using an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model.

According to a source familiar with the projects, SWCC received bids in May for the contract to build the Yanbu phase five and Shuaiba 6 SWRO schemes.

However, it has extended until 4 July the deadline for companies to submit proposals for two other water desalination plant projects located in Jubail and Ras Al-Khair.

According to an industry source, bids were submitted on 14 May for the contract to build the Yanbu 5 SWRO project, which has a baseline capacity of 300,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d).

Bids were submitted five days later for the Shubaiba 6 SWRO, which has a capacity of 545,000 cm/d.

SWCC has yet to disclose the bidders and the prices submitted for either scheme, although sources familiar with its procurement programme tell MEED that several international and local EPC contractors are likely to have submitted bids, either individually or as members of consortiums.    

SWCC has tendered the contract to build the Shuaiba 6 SWRO before. It was most recently tendered in 2022, when a team comprising the local firms Wetico and Alfanar, and Italy's Fisia Italimpianti submitted bids for the contract.

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

The four contracts are being procured using an EPC model, in contrast to the SWRO facilities being procured on a public-private partnership basis by the state offtaker, Saudi Water Partnership Company.

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

According to data from regional projects tracker MEED Projects, SWCC has awarded the EPC contracts for several SWRO plants in the past few years, including:

• Ras Al-Khair production system expansion: 200,000 cm/d
• Jubail SWRO plant: 1,000,000 cm/d
• Shuqaiq 1 SWRO plant: 400,000 cm/d.