Upcoming Mega Projects Middle East

SAUDI ARABIA

Project: Shuqaiq 3 Desalination Plant
Value: USD 565,000,000
Client: Water and Electricity Company (WEC)
Website: www.wec.com.sa

Acciona, a leading supplier of sustainable infrastructure solutions and renewable energy projects, has secured a €500 million contract from Saudi government to finance, design and build the new Shuqaiq 3 desalination plant and operate and maintain it for 25 years.The project was awarded by Water and Electricity Company (WEC), the state-owned company in charge of desalination and water treatment projects, to the Acciona consortium which comprises partners Marubeni Corporation, Abdul Latif Jameel-CDC and Rawafid Alhadarah Holding Company.

The Spanish group said one of its business units, Acciona Agua, will be involved throughout the project structure: as an investor, sole EPC (turnkey) contractor, and leading and majority partner in operation and maintenance.The project, Acciona Agua's biggest so far in Saudi Arabia, will be implemented under a BOO (build, own and operate) model.Located in the country's south west, on the shores of the Red Sea, and scheduled for completion in 2021, Shuqaiq 3 will be one of Saudi Arabia's biggest desalination plants, using inverse osmosis technology and with a capacity to process 450,000 cu m per day, to cater for a population of 2 million people.This is Acciona's third desalination plant in Saudi Arabia, enabling the company to provide some 3 million people with water.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Project: E-commerce Free Trade Zone
Value: USD 545,000,000
Client: Dubai South
Website: www.dubaisouth.ae

State-developer Dubai South aims to spend two billion dirhams ($545 million) to build an e-commerce free trade zone offering foreign firms 100 percent ownership. Foreigners operating outside of free trade zones in Dubai and the wider United Arab Emirates can usually only hold a maximum 49 percent stake, with UAE nationals holding the rest.

The new 920,000 square metre trade zone, known as EZDubai, aimed to attract e-commerce, logistics and other related industries and the construction was expected to start in 2019. Dubai South aimed to invest two billion dirhams over four years in the zone, although the timeline for spending the cash would depend on demand. The funds, which Dubai South planned to raise from banks and other institutions, would be spent on infrastructure, offices and warehouses.

EZDubai will be located in the south of the emirate near industrial and residential developments and Dubai's second airport, Al Maktoum International.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Project: Construction of the Ghasha Concession Artificial Islands
Value: USD 371,000,000
Client: Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)
Website: www.adnoc.ae

National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC) will construct 10 new artificial islands and two causeways, as well as expand an existing island – Al Ghaf. This capital development project is expected to take 38 months to complete and will provide the infrastructure required to further develop, drill and produce gas from the sour gas fields in the Ghasha Concession. At peak construction, the project is expected to employ over 3,500 people.

The award was signed by Abdulmunim Al Kindy, ADNOC Upstream Executive Director, and Yasser Zaghloul, NMDC CEO, and was witnessed by Dr. Sultan Ahmad Al Jaber, Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO, and Mohammed Thani Murshed Al Rumaithi, Chairman of NMDC.

Commenting the latest news, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, said: As one of the world’s largest sour gas projects it will make a significant contribution to the UAE’s objective to become gas self-sufficient and transition to a potential net gas exporter. The Ghasha Concession consists of the Hail, Ghasha, Dalma, Nasr and Mubarraz offshore gas fields.

SAUDI ARABIA

Project: Bus Routes Infrastructure Project in Makkah
Value: USD 87,000,000
Client: Makkah Region Development Authority
Website: www.mrda.gov.sa

The project will be implemented under the supervision of the Makkah Region Development Authority. Implementation includes the installation of 500 bus stops and bus stop shelters, in addition to signposts identifying the wider bus network. Bus stops will span most Makkah neighborhoods and facilities, including malls, schools and hospitals, and will incorporate both Islamic and modern design. Stops include seated waiting areas, screens with bus times, surveillance cameras and ticket-vending machines.

The project includes four main stations around the Grand Mosque that will include platforms for boarding and disembarking. The project also includes the construction of 35,000 square meters of asphalt sidewalks and seven pedestrian bridges, which will include elevators for the disabled and staircases. In addition, the new transport project will be linked to a high-tech system that streamlines traffic.

SAUDI ARABIA

Project: Third Ammonia Plant in Ras Al-Khair
Value: USD 893,000,000
Client: Saudi Arabian Mining Company (MAADEN)
Website: www.maaden.com.sa

State-run Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) plans to build a third ammonia plant in at a cost of about 3.35 billion Saudi riyals ($893 million). The ammonia plant is one among multiple plants Ma’aden plans to develop to for a third phosphate complex that is estimated to cost 24 billion riyals. 

McDermott International, Inc. has been awarded a sizeable* contract from Daelim Saudi Arabia Company Ltd. for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of CB&I Storage Tanks for the Ma'aden Ammonia Plant at Ras Al-Khair, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.The fixed lump sum contract encompasses the engineering, procurement and fabrication of four Ammonia Tanks and nine CB&I storage tanks. Work on the project will predominantly be executed from Saudi Arabia utilizing McDermott’s local capabilities and facilities.

OMAN

Project: Al Shomookh Mining Industries Complex
Value: USD 250,000,000
Client: Special Economic Zone Authority in Duqm (SEZAD)
Website: www.duqm.gov.om

The Al Shomookh Mining Industries Complex is an integrated mining complex for which Sezad has allocated 250,000 square metres of land with an investment cost of OMR95 million. Al Shomookh Mining will implement the project in several stages, with the construction of a clinker plant and a lime production plant in the first phase. In the second phase, the company will build a paint factory, a glass factory, a waste container manufacturing plant and an aluminium factory, and in the third phase, the company will set up a fertilizer plant.

The company had started to conduct soil tests and prepare the outline of the complex and coordinate with factories on the technical specifications considered in the preparation of the outline of the mining complex. The first phase will include a factory for clinker production and another for calcium hydroxide, while the later stages will include a lime production plant and factories for dyes, glass, aluminium, waste containers, fertilizers and poultry.

JORDAN

Project: Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant in Madounah Area
Value: USD 50,000,000
Client: Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources (MEMR)
Website: www.memr.gov.jo

Construction of 52-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic power plant, dubbed AM Solar in Madounah area in eastern of Amman.

The plant is a joint venture between US Applied Energy Services-Jordan, the Japanese conglomerate Mitsui and Nebras Power, on a build, own, operate basis. AM Solar officials expecting the project to be linked to NEPCO’s grid during 2019, with expectations to generate a total of 77 gigawatts of electricity annually. Jordan has been investing in many renewable energy projects according to an energy strategy, based on a future outlook that takes into consideration energy security and independence, local resources, as well as low production costs.