Bids in for Yanbu 3 desalination plant

26 July 2011

Fisia Italimpianti bids low for contract

Four contractors have submitted bids to build a 550,000-cubic metre-a-day desalination plant at Yanbu as part of the third phase of the Yanbu power and water complex.

Phase three will be built to the south of the existing power and desalination plants at Yanbu on the western coast of Saudi Arabia.

Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) and Marafiq have been working together on the project since they combined their respective schemes for the Yanbu site in July 2009.

Contracts for the power and water components have been tendered separately. Bids were submitted by the following companies for the desalination contract:

  • Fisia Italimpianti (Italy) - $1.01bn without discount and $920m with the discount applied
  • Doosan (South Korea) - $1.018bn
  • Sidem (France) - $1.191bn
  • Samsung Engineering (South Korea) with Acwa Sasakura (Saudi Arabia) - $1.204bn

Bids were submitted for the desalination contract by 23 July, following several bid deadline delays (MEED 11:5:11).

Bids for the power generation component of Yanbu phase 3 on the same day. According to a source at SWCC, bids are likely to be opened next week. The power facility will have a capacity of 2,500MW, following a change of scope from 1,700MW in January.

Construction is expected to take three years from site handover to commercial operation. Heavy fuel oil will be the main fuel source for the project, with diesel oil used for start-up of the plant.

Seawater for the desalination unit will be obtained through an intake channel and an outfall culvert will discharge seawater and brine back into the Red Sea.

The plant will be connected to the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) grid through a newly constructed 380kV substation at Yanbu. Germany’s Fichtner is the adviser on the project.

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