'We are hoping to send out invitations for prequalification for the Al-Zour north EPC [engineering, procurement and construction] contract within two weeks, assuming there are no objections from the other authorities involved,' said Al-Enezi.

The estimated KD 700 million ($2,375 million) Al-Zour north project calls for the construction of a 2,500-MW power plant based on five steam units each with capacity of 500 MW. Each of the units will be capable of supporting 25 million gallons a day (g/d) of desalinated water. A 25 million-g/d reverse osmosis (RO) unit is also planned, raising total desalination capacity to 150 million g/d.

The schedule for the programme sees prospective bidders for the EPC contract given two months to respond, and MEW taking a month to evaluate submissions, at which point the full tender will be issued. Potential contractors will have to demonstrate experience of building power plants with minimum capacity of 1,000 MW.

'We are looking to have a single contractor, or a single consortium, which will be responsible for the entire plant from boilers to steam turbines, the civil works, control, instrumentation - everything,' said Al-Enezi. 'Besides this, we will be drawing up a list of prequalified suppliers and manufacturers for specific components and the EPC contractors will select from it.'

There are expected to be some flexible terms in the tender document, such as an option for a flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) unit. If Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) is able to provide heavy fuel oil feedstock with less than 1 per cent sulphur then the FGD unit will not be pursued, but contractors will be asked to price it in their proposals. The EPC contractor will be given 42 months from the signing of the contract to commission the first unit, and full commissioning is to be completed by 2009.

Delays in building new capacity have created a potential supply gap before Al-Zour north comes on stream. As a result, plans for a fast-track project to deliver 1,000 MW of capacity by 2006 are advancing. 'We have two options under examination. The first sees a 1,000-MW combined gas turbine facility built at Subiya. The alternative is to split the capacity, with 500 MW coming from expanding the existing Al-Zour south station and converting its single cycle into combined cycle, and building a separate 500-MW combined cycle plant at Shuaiba north,' said Al-Enezi.

Tender documents for the estimated KD 130 million ($440 million), 1,000-MW plant option are already close to completion and could be issued quickly if this option is taken.

A further 1,000 MW of new capacity will be available within weeks. 'We are due to commission the first unit of the Al-Zour south plant on 18 May, and full commissioning will follow within two months,' said Al-Enezi. 'This will bring total installed capacity to 10,180 MW.'

On the water side, MEW is planning to issue tender documents by early June for the 50 million-g/d second-phase development at Subiya, which is expected to cost about KD 80 million ($271 million). South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Companysigned on 9 May the estimated KD 109 million ($375.8 million) lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) contract to install four 12.5 million-g/d multi-stage flash (MSF) desalination units at the site (MEED 14:5:04).

Studies are also being carried out into the construction of an estimated KD 60 million ($203 million) RO unit at the Shuwaikh plant with total capacity of up to 30 million g/d.