Five groups led by international developers - the UK's International Power, Belgium's Tractebel, France's Total, the US' AES Corporationand Japan's Mitsui & Company- are preparing to bid for the project, which calls for the construction of 2,400-MW and 79-million-gallons-a-day (g/d) power and desalination plant. Financial close and the signing of all the project agreements are scheduled for mid-2005, with first operations to start in late 2007.

Citigroupand Samba Financial Groupare the financial advisers on the IWPP. A team comprising Germany's Lahmeyer International, the US' Kuljian Engineering Corporationand Austria's ILF Consulting Engineersare the technical advisers (MEED 20:8:04).

Proposals are due in from developers on 8 January for the Shouaiba IWPP, which is being handled by the Water & Electricity Company. The plant will have capacity of 650-900 MW of power and 194 million g/d of water. Eleven groups and companies are prequalified to bid (MEED 6:8:04).