Bid deadline extended for Jeddah desalination project

17 May 2016

Deadline has now been pushed back several times

Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) has extended the bid submission date until 3 August for the Jeddah 4 desalination plant.

The deadline has now been pushed back several times. The project owner had initially set a submission date of 1 December for the 400,000 cubic-metre-a-day (cm/d) reverse osmosis (RO) plant.

While the deadline for the project as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract has been extended until August, according to sources close to the scheme, SWCC is still considering using an independent water project (IWP) procurement model.

SWCC has set a target of commissioning the desalination plant by 2019.

MEED reported in November that more contractors were attempting to prequalify to participate in the EPC bidding process for the Jeddah 4 plant, with only two groups having been initially prequalified for the scheme.

According to a source within the kingdom’s water sector, the prequalification requirements set by the Ministry of Municipal & Rural Affairs (Momra) were more stringent and difficult to meet than normal for similar schemes in the region. The threshold of previous capacity projects is expected to be reduced to allow more firms to participate in the tender.

In December 2014, MEED reported that the US’ Black & Veatch was awarded the deal to provide engineering and design consultancy services on the desalination project.

Jeddah 4 is one of nine new desalination plants that SWCC is planning to commission by the end of 2020.

The largest project planned by 2020 is the 1.5 million-cm/d Jubail 3 desalination facility, which will have a combined-cycle power plant with a capacity of 3,000MW. The facility will utilise a combination of thermal desalination and RO technology.

A MEED Subscription...

Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.