Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW) has invited companies to submit bids for the contract to build a new 50 million imperial gallon-a-day (MIGD) reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant in the Doha area of the country.

Prequalified contractors have until 10 March to submit bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deal. The MEW has prequalified nine groups for the tender, having received 26 prequalification entries in March last year.

The project has slipped behind schedule, with the ministry having originally planned to have issued tender documents in October last year. However, according to sources close to the project, the ministry is seeking to push ahead with the tendering and award of the contract as swiftly as possible.

The prequalified groups are:

• Abeinsa Infraestructuras Medio Ambiente (Spain) / Gharnata International General Trading & Contracting (local)
• Acciona Agua (Spain) / Hitachi Zosen Corporation (Japan) / Al-Maseelah Trading Company (local)
• Cadagua (Spain) / Mohammed Abdulmohsen al-Kharafi & Sons (local)
• Degremont (France) / Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea) / Rank General Trading & Contracting (local)
• Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction (South Korea) / Al-Omar Trading & Contracting (local)
• GS Inima Environment (Spain) / KCC Engineering & Contracting (local) / Saudi Abdulaziz al-Rashed & Bros (local)
• Hyflux (Singapore) / Thuwainy Trading Company (local)
• Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan) / Toyo Engineering Corporation (Japan) / Kharafi National (local)
• OTV (France) / Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting (local)

This is the second time the MEW has held a prequalification process for the scheme. The ministry first invited firms to prequalify for the project in April 2012 and had planned to issue tender documents in April 2013. However, due to the environmental impact studies taking longer than expected, the project had been delayed.

A second 50-MIGD phase of the Doha project is also planned, with tender documents expected to be issued in April 2015, according to a source from the MEW.

The scheme is part of Kuwait’s efforts to expand its desalination capacity to cope with increasing demand from rapid population growth. The ministry forecasts that an additional 270 MIGD of desalination capacity is required to meet the estimated demand by 2020.