Four bid for Gecol's latest desalination project

27 August 2004
Four companies have submitted joint financial and technical proposals for a 30,000-cubic-metre-a-day (cm/d) desalination plant at Zliten, about 150 kilometres east of Tripoli. The client General Electricity Company of Libya (Gecol)has given no indication to the bidders when an award for the plant, which will employ multiple effect distillation (MED) technology, will be made.

The four bidders are: the UK's Weir Westgarth, France's Sidem, and Doosan Heavy Industries & Constructionand Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company, both of South Korea.

Zliten is the latest in a series of desalination projects tendered by Gecol over the last five years. Invited companies have been asked to submit technical proposals by 31 August for two 80,000-cm/d plants at Misurata and Azzawiya and a 40,000-cm/d extension to the Zuara facility. The original tenders were issued in 2002, but the client decided to reissue them after prices were opened earlier this year (MEED 11:6:04; 16:1:04).

The tender process for two larger 250,000-cm/d desalination units at Tripoli and Benghazi South has been put on hold. Sidem was named frontrunner for the two projects last year, but Gecol has yet to announce an award date. Sources close to the projects say the tenders may have been cancelled (MEED 11:4:03).

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