The Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) announced last week that it has received bids from two consortiums for the construction of the Jubail – Buraydah Independent Water Transmission Pipeline (IWTP) project.

The project, with a planned length of 587 kilometres (revised down from 602km) and a transmission capacity of 650,000 cubic metres/day (m3/day) of water, is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2029 (instead of fourth quarter of 2027 as previously stated in the Request for Proposals notice).

The bids were submitted by a consortium of Aljomaih Energy & Water Company, Nesma Company and Buhur for Investment Company, and a consortium of Vision International Investment Company and TAQA, SWPC said in a press statement dated 8 August 2024.

The RFP was issued in September 2023.

The SWPC announcement did not disclose details of the bids, including the levelised costs or water supply agreement. However, for comparison, the winning consortium for the Rayis-Rabigh IWTP project had submitted a levelised cost of SAR 1.25678/m3 and secured a 35-year Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT)agreement with SWPC.

According to a April 2022 Zawya Projects report, the Jubail – Buraydah IWTP was among the projects for which prequalified companies were announced in April 2022, alongside the Riyadh–Qassim and Rayis–Rabigh IWTP projects.

The 500,000 m3/day Rayis – Rabigh IWTP project achieved financial close in March 2024 while the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the 685,000 m3/day Riyadh-Qassim IWTP was issued in July 2024.

Saudi Arabia is expected to tender four new IWTP projects, according to a April 2023 report by Zawya Projects.

(Editing by Anoop Menon) (anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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