By John — Desalination News
Spanish water group Aqualia, operating through its Saudi joint venture Haji Abdullah Alireza Integrated Services Company (Haaisco), has been awarded a three-year renewal to continue operating and maintaining three floating seawater reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plants moored off Yanbu, on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast. The contract was awarded by Bahri, the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia, and will run until 14 September 2028, with an option to extend for a further two years.
The three barge-mounted plants have a combined production capacity of 150,000 cubic metres of desalinated water per day. They were originally deployed at Al-Shuqaiq before being relocated to Yanbu, where they now supply water to one of Saudi Arabia’s major industrial complexes — a role that makes reliable, uninterrupted operation a priority for Bahri and the industrial users that depend on the plants rather than simply a matter of routine maintenance.
Floating, barge-based desalination units like these are a somewhat different model from the large fixed coastal plants that dominate most of the region’s water infrastructure. Because they are built onto vessels rather than constructed on land, they can be deployed relatively quickly and relocated if industrial water demand shifts — as this project’s own history, moving from Al-Shuqaiq to Yanbu, demonstrates. That flexibility has made floating RO capacity an increasingly useful tool for industrial and municipal operators in the Gulf who need to bring new water supply online faster than a conventional land-based plant allows, or who want the option to redeploy capacity as demand patterns change.
For Aqualia, the renewal extends a relationship with Bahri and the Yanbu industrial complex that dates back to the plants’ original commissioning, and reinforces the Spanish firm’s presence in the Saudi desalination and water-management market, where it operates through Haaisco alongside a number of international and regional players. Saudi Arabia remains one of the world’s largest desalination markets by installed capacity, with state-owned operators and private contractors both active across a mix of thermal and membrane-based technologies; contract renewals of this kind — while less dramatic than a new-build announcement — are a significant part of how that installed base is kept running day to day.
No financial details for the renewal itself have been disclosed. The three-year term, with its option for a further two-year extension, gives both Bahri and Aqualia a multi-year planning horizon for the facility’s operations and maintenance (O&M) budget, and signals continued confidence in the floating-plant model at Yanbu rather than any move toward replacing it with fixed infrastructure in the near term.
(Source: MEED) (Source: TradeArabia)