SWCC takes on $5.5bn Ras Al Zour megaproject

Saudi state-owned agency Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) has been selected by the government to run the mammoth Ras Al Zour power and water project.

Local media reports have this week claimed that the Kingdom plans to relaunch bids for the former IWPP within six months, with SWCC finalising the tender documents.

“The project is needed and SWCC is in charge of it,” Abdullah al-Shehri, vice governor for regulatory affairs at the Saudi Electricity and Cogeneration Regulatory Authority told Reuters.

Ras Al Zour hit the buffers earlier this year when Malaysia’s Malakoff pulled out of the preferred bidder consortium, and the government stepped in to take control of the IWPP in April.

Since that time, the Water & Electricity Company (WEC) has been deciding which government agency will take on the management of the new EPC contract, a task that has clearly now fallen to SWCC.

WEC’s original plan was to make the integrated plant the largest of its type in the world, providing more than 1 million cubic metres of desalinated water a day and a power capacity of between 850 and 1,100MW. The cost for the entire project is estimated at around US $5.5 billion.

SWCC is also in charge of implementing the Ras Al Zour – Riyadh water transmission system, a 400-kilometre pipeline that will ship desalinated water from the new plant to the Saudi capital. SWCC named Austro-German engineering and consulting firm ILF as the owner’s engineer for the transmission system in July this year.