The company which owns the two 50,000 m³/d barge-mounted desalination plants which have provided emergency water supply to Saudi Arabian cities in recent years announced on 13 July 2011 the successful closing of its SR 140 million (US$ 37 million) refinancing of commercial facilities.
International Barges Company for Water Desalination (Bowarege), part of ACWA Power, said that this followed the partial refinancing of the SR370m construction period facilities with SR 175.4 million (US$ 99 million) 7-year term loan from Saudi Industrial Development Facility in 2010.
Saudi Hollandi Bank has structured and arranged the new refinancing under two tranches with loan maturities of 2-5 years to replace the balance amount of construction phase facilities.
The barges worked at Shuaibah (delivering water to Makkah and Jeddah in 2008 ahead of additional supplies coming on line from the Shuaibah IWPP project), then at Shuqaiq (Asir Region) in the first quarter of 2009 to mid-2010 ahead of the Shuqaiq IWPP coming on line. They are now at the Madinah-Yanbu desalination plants complex to serve the industrial city and the city of Madinah where the plant availability of 90% is being maintained to supply on average 45,000 m³/d.
The barges have to date have produced over 30 million m³ of drinking water from the Red Sea.