Saudi Water Partnerships Company (SWPC) has announced that work is moving at a steady pace on the Rabigh-4 Independent Water Project (IWP), which, on completion, will have a total production capacity of 600,000 cu m per day and a storage facility of 1.2 million cu m.

The project, to be located 180 km northwest of Makkah on the Red Sea coast in the Western Province, will include a desalination plant and all associated infrastructure and facilities.

It is being developed by a consortium led by Acwa Power, a leading Saudi developer of power and desalination projects, - with its consortium partners Haji Abdullah Alireza & Co (HAACO), a leading player in the management, operation and maintenance of sea water desalination plants, and Bahrain-based Almoayyed Contracting Group.

"With the work in full swing, Rabigh 4 IWP is on track to enter commercial operations in Q1 2026. It will boast a storage capacity of 1,200,000 cu m," said Saudi Water Partnership Company CEO Engineer Khalid bin Zwaid Al Qureshi after an inspection tour of the project site.

TradeArabia had earlier reported that a total of 39 utility project developer consortiums, including 21 Saudi firms, had expressed their interests in developing the project in Rabigh.

These included Spanish infrastructure majors - GS Inima Environment, Acciona Agua, and Cobra; French utility expert Veolia and Italian group Fisia Italimpianti in addition to Hydro Industries (UK); Aquatech International (US); Marubeni (Japan); J&P (Cyprus) and VA Tech Wabag (India) as well as Acwa Power consortium, Al Bawani Water & Power as well as Marafiq.

However, in November 2022, SWPC revealed that besides the Acwa consortium only two others - Spanish infrastructure major Acciona with consortium local partner Ajlan & Brothers Company and French multinational utility group Engie - had made it to the final round.

And finally in March last year, SWPC announced that Acwa Power consortium won the contract after emerging as the preferred bidder thanks to its attractive levelized cost of SR1.7162 per cu m, which pushed even the Acciona Agua consortium to the reserved bidder list.

According to SWPC, the Acwa consortium will be responsible for the development, financing, procurement, implementation and operation and maintenance of Rabigh-4 IWP.

Under a 25-year concession pursuant to a Water Purchase Agreement, the successful bidder, through a special purpose vehicle, will develop the project and sell the entire capacity and output to SWPC.

For the project, SWPC’s professional advisors are KPMG Professional Services (lead and financial advisor); Eversheds Sutherland (International) as legal advisor and WSP as technical advisor.-

TradeArabia News Service

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