Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC), the principal offtaker for water and wastewater projects in Saudi Arabia, announced on Wednesday that construction of the 2.4 billion Saudi riyals ($640 million) Rayis–Rabigh Independent Water Transmission Pipeline (IWTP) project is 87 percent complete.

In an Arabic language brief posted on its X account, SWPC said commercial operations are on track to begin by the end of the second quarter of 2026, adding that electrical commissioning testing has commenced as part of preparations for the operational phase.

The IWTP, which is being developed by a Saudi-Spanish consortium of AWTP and Grupo Cobra, is backed by a 35-year Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) agreement and had achieved financial close in March 2024.

The project features a 150-km long carbon steel pipeline with a diameter of over 2 meters with a reversible pumping system with a capacity of 500,000 cubic metres per day (m3/day), a strategic reservoir with a capacity of 340,000 m3 (two 170,000 m³ reservoirs) and a 13 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic park.

(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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