Japanese-led consortium bags US$ 120 million Saudi desalination deal

Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) has awarded a US$ 120 million contract for the expansion of the Shuaiba 2 seawater desalination plant to a joint venture including ACWA Holding and Japanese engineering firms Itochu Corporation and Sasakura.

The 91,200 m³/d desalination project, will use multi-effect distillation with thermal vapour compression (MED-TVC) technology, Itochu said in a statement.

Itochu said the consortium beat off competition from two other bidders to win the deal because it offered greater water volume generation and energy saving performance than its rivals.

President and chief executive of Itochu, Masahiro Okafuji, said: “This is the next big order from Saudi Arabia following the one for the restoration of a seawater desalination plant received last September.”

Shuaiba 2 power and water project was launched in 2003 with capacity to produce desalinated water at 770,000 m³/d and with a power capacity of 500 MW.