Saudi Water Authority (SWA), the kingdom’s main producer of desalinated water, is considering retendering a contract to build a new water desalination plant utilising reverse osmosis technology on Saudi Arabia’s western coast. The Shoaiba 6 seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant is expected to have the capacity to produce 545,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of potable water. discussions are being held about retendering the contract, although there is no firm indication of when a new request for proposals will be issued. previously Jeddah-based Alfatah Water & Power submitted the lowest bid for the contract. SWA received bids for the contract on 19 May, several days after it received bids for another desalination plant project, the Yanbu 5 SWRO plant. VA Tech Wabag submitted the lowest bid for Yanbu 5 and has 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. 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. Recently Najran-based Emar Al-Janoub for Contracting (EJC) has won a contract to build the Ras Al-Khair SWRO plant. EJC offered $625.6m to win the contract, seeing off competition from other bidders that included the local Civil Works Company and Saudi Services for Electro Mechanic Works, and the Saudi branch of India’s VA Tech Wabag. 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. (ICE RIYADH)

Fonte notizia: Meed