India-headquartered VA Tech Wabag is understood to have submitted a lower bid for the contract to build the next phase of a seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia's main producer of desalinated water, Saline Water Conversion Company (SWCC), received two bids for the contract to build the Yanbu 5 SWRO project, which has a baseline capacity of 300,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) in May.  Final discussions are still ongoing between VA Tech Wabag and SWCC before the final engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract is signed. The other bidder is understood to comprise a team of a local contractor and an overseas-based partner.  The bid evaluation process is ongoing for a second project, the Shuaiba 6 SWRO plant, which has a capacity of 545,000 cm/d. Companies that are likely to have submitted bids for the contract to build the Shuaiba 5 and Yanbu 6 SWRP plants last May include VA Tech Wabag; local firms Rawafid, Civil Works Company and AliShar Contracting Company; and Spain's Abengoa. Contractors submitted bids for the Yanbu 5 SWRO project on 14 May and for the Shuaiba 6 SWRO scheme five days later. SWCC extended the tender closing date for two other SWRO plants to 4 July. The Jubail and Ras Al-Khair 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 the current capacity. (ICE RIYADH)

Fonte notizia: Meed