Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has cancelled the planned project to build an independent water project (IWP) at Ras Laffan Industrial City.

Kahramaa has informed bidders it is withdrawing the request for proposals (RFPs) for the planned IWP, which was known as Industrial Desalination Water Facility (IDWF), due to its decision to shelve the project. The bid deadline for the project had been extended until 10 May.

MEED reported in February that Kahramaa had downsized the capacity of the planned desalination facility, having removed the industrial capacity from the scope. Kahramaa had originally invited bidders to submit prices for an initial 65 million-imperial-gallon-a-day (MIGD) capacity and also for an expanded capacity of 95 MIGD. However, the scheme was downsized to include only 35 MIGD capacity for potable water.

While bidders are disappointed about the cancellation of the scheme, with the prequalification and bidding process having being drawn out over a period of two years, the decision should not come as a major surprise, with Qatar having sharply scaled back its planned industrial projects pipeline in recent months.

The Ras Laffan IWP was originally envisaged to provide a significant amount of water for some of the major industrial projects that have been cancelled. In September last year, Doha shelved plans for the estimated $7.4bn Al-Sejeel petrochemicals complex, and in January this year, the $6.4 Al-Karanaa petrochemicals scheme was also cancelled.

With each complex planning to produce 3 million tonnes a year of petrochemical products by 2020, the Ras Laffan IWP was planned to produce a significant amount of additional industrial water for the projects. Doha has also recently selected companies to build an industrial desalination unit at Ras Abu Fontas and for the country’s next independent water and power project (IWPP), known as Facility D, making the decision to cancel the IWDF project an easy one for Kahramaa.