Saudi Arabia announces winning bidders for water pipeline

Unsplash.com/Wolfgang Weiser

State-backed Saudi Water Partnership Company expects commercial operations at its Jubail-Buraydah independent water pipeline project to start in the first quarter of 2029. 

The plan follows its announcement about the preferred and reserve bidders for the water project.

A Saudi consortium, comprising Al Jomaih Energy & Water Company, Nesma Company and Buhur for Investment Company, has been named the preferred bidder, offering costs of SAR3.6 per cubic metre.

The reserve bidder is a Saudi-UAE consortium comprising Vision International Investment Company and Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa).

The project will follow a build, own, operate, and transfer model with a 35-year term from the start of commercial operations.  

The Jubail-Buraydah project will link the Eastern and Qassim regions, providing a daily potable water transmission capacity of 650,000 cubic metres across a 587km pipeline. 

The pipeline’s storage infrastructure will be 1,634,500 cubic metres.

The cost of the project was not disclosed.

In May Mohammed bin Zaid Abuhid, head of the General Authority for Irrigation, said Saudi Arabia will spend $4 billion by the end of the decade on recycling over 2 billion cubic metres of water, about 70 percent of the country’s renewable water sources.

Desalination now provides more than 5 million cubic metres of water per day, covering about 70 percent of drinking water.

However, that figure is set to rise to 8 million cubic metres, covering 90 percent of the needs in 2025, according to the Arab Center in Washington DC.