The latest seven-year statement of Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC), the kingdom’s main water offtaker, has significantly fewer projects compared to the previous statement covering the years 2022-28.

MEED understands the streamlined projects pipeline is due in part to SWPC now splitting the responsibility to procure water transmission pipeline and reservoir projects in particular with the Water Transmission & Technologies Company (WTTCO), and Saudi Water Authority (SWA) having resumed the tendering of major water desalination projects.

Ouf of 50 projects in five sub-sectors in the previous capacity procurement plan, the latest statement specifies over a dozen future projects, in addition to about six that are in the tendering process and several others that were awarded during the intervening period.

Of the four or five sub-sectors, the independent water projects (IWPs) appear less susceptible to the changes, with SWPC’s Seven-Year Statement covering the years 2024-30 indicating procurement plans for seven IWPs, consistent with the previous statement’s capacity procurement plan.

These schemes have a total combined capacity of about 2.75 million cubic metres a day (cm/d) and are expected to reach commercial operations between 2028 and 2032.

This is in addition to two projects in the bid evaluation stage: the 300,000 cm/d Ras Mohaisen IWP and the 600,000 cm/d Jubail 4 and 6 projects.

“Our goal is to achieve 100% private-sector participation in the production of desalinated water by 2030,” the statement quoted Khaled AlQureshi, SWPC chief executive, as saying.

A similar number of independent sewage treatment plant (ISTP) projects – seven in total – are included in SWPC’s latest seven-year statement, which is down by six compared to the previous plan, and inclusive of the Al-Haer ISTP project, which has since been awarded.

The total planned treated sewage capacity is about 370,000 cm/d, exclusive of the yet-to-be-announced capacity for the Arar ISTP project. These sewage treatment plants are expected to come online between 2027 and 2029.

A plan to procure small sewage treatment plants remains, but the latest SWPC Seven-Year Statement is silent on which of the planned seven clusters it will implement or procure.

The latest statement is equally silent on future independent water transmission pipeline (IWTP) projects, apart from the one that is under construction and two that are in the bidding stage.

The $2bn Rayis-Rabigh IWTP is under construction, bid evaluation is under way for the Jubail-Buraydah IWTP, while SWPC expects to receive bids in February next year for the Riyadh-Qassim IWTP project.

From a pipeline of 14 independent strategic water reservoir (ISWR) projects two years earlier, inclusive of the under-construction Juranah ISWR, the Seven-Year Statement mentions only three future IWTP projects, including one in Al-Ahsa, which has a capacity of 1.39 million cubic metres, and the Dammam ISWR with a capacity of 3.13 million cubic metres.

According to an industry expert, the drive to improve energy efficiency, reuse treated water and improve storage capacity, while keeping up with increasing demand, implies that the kingdom needs to tap both public-private partnerships (PPPs) and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) models for additional water capacity in the future.

Sharing responsibilities

MEED reported in March that the responsibility for procuring several water transmission pipeline projects in Saudi Arabia had been transferred from SWPC to WTTCO, a spin-off of the Saline Water Conversion Company, which is now called SWA.

Formed in 2019, WTTCO is responsible for "managing, operating and maintaining water transmission, storage and dispatch systems across the kingdom".

It was reported that the procurement model for the following water transmission pipeline projects has also shifted from build-operate-transfer to EPC:

• Jizan-Al Shuqaiq
• Tabuk-Ula
• Rabigh-Jeddah
• Ras Al Kahir-Hafar

IWP and ISTP focus

SWPC announced in May the start of the prequalification process for companies keen to participate in developing five desalination IWPs and seven ISTP projects in the kingdom.

Developers and investors expressed interest in bidding for the projects last July. SWPC also requested that companies submit separate expressions of interest for the IWPs and ISTP projects. 

The programme "will provide local and international developers the opportunity to obtain prequalification approval and receive the request for proposal documents for its future projects ... without the need to submit a separate qualification application for each project".

The five IWPs have a total combined capacity of 1.7 million cm/d. The seven ISTP projects have a total combined capacity of 700,000 cm/d.

The tenders for these projects are expected to launch between 2024 and 2026.

In June, MEED reported that SWPC is in the process of appointing a transaction advisory team for this batch of IWP and ISTP projects.

Restructuring

The kingdom's water sector has been undergoing a restructuring programme, with the capacity procurement process linked to the 2030 National Water Strategy being undertaken by three other clients: SWA, WTTCO and the National Water Company.

SWA, for its part, has received bids in the past few months for EPC contracts for four reverse osmosis technology-based water desalination plants, which have a total combined capacity of about 2 million cm/d. The contract to design and build one of the four projects, the 300,000 cm/d Yanbu seawater reverse osmosis plant, was awarded earlier in September.