The consortium of France's Engie and Saudi's Nesma and Ajlan & Bros broke ground for the the 570,000 cubic metres per day (m3/day) Jubail 3B Independent Water Plant (IWP) in the Kingdom's east coast, marking the start of construction.

The consortium, led by Engie, was awarded the desalination project in June 2021 after submitting a bid with a tariff of 1.591 Saudi riyals/m3, equivalent to $0.41/m3.

Engie said in a press statement that the project also includes a 61 megawatt peak capacity in-house solar plant to optimise electricity consumption and reduce grid reliance.

"The Jubail 3B IWP plant will not only use reverse osmosis, a more energy-efficient process than traditional thermal desalination technologies, but will also use renewable solar energy in place of traditional fossil fuels, helping to reduce its carbon footprint. Moreover, the plant will critically support the creation of local job opportunities," said Khaled Z AlQureshi, CEO of Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC).

The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the project was awarded Acciona-SEPCOIII consortium in November 2021.

An SWPC statement in October 2021 pegged the total project cost at around 2.6 billion Saudi riyals ($693 million).

Jubail 3B IWP will supply potable water to Riyadh and Qassim, and is scheduled to commence operations in the first quarter of 2024.

(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)
(anoop.menon@lseg.com)