EPC route beckons for Disi

22 October 2004
Official confirmation is expected in late October that the government has decided to scrap the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model for the estimated $600 million Disi water project, in favour of an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) approach. Project sources said in mid-October that a high-level government meeting concluded that the revised tariff price offered by the preferred BOT bidding group, led by Saudi Oger, was still too high and that the EPC route would work out cheaper. EPC tendering on the project is likely to be launched in the first quarter of 2005 (MEED 6:8:04).

The government is now expected to seek funding from multilateral agencies to finance the project, which involves the development of an aquifer in the south and the construction of a 325-kilometre pipeline to deliver 100 million cubic metres a day of water to the greater Amman area.

The Oger-led consortium was selected by the Ministry of Water & Irrigation as preferred bidder for the 40-year BOT contract in the spring after revised bids were submitted by the two bidding groups (MEED 23:4:04). Following the selection, changes took place in the developer team, with the US' Black & Veatch Internationalwithdrawing as an equity partner and being replaced by Athens-based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC).

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