Saudi Arabia plans to relaunch bids for the giant Ras Azzour project within six months, Asharq al-Awsat daily reported on Monday.
Japan’s Sumitomo Corp said in May it has put on hold its consortium’s plans for the $6bn power and water desalination plant after the Saudi government said the plant was no longer designated an independent project.
The Saudi government will finance the project and the Saline Water Conversion Corp (SWCC) is finalising the tender documents, the paper quoted Saleh al-Zahrani, a maintenance and operations manager at SWCC as saying.
Officials from SWCC were not immediately available for comment.
“The project is needed and SWCC is in charge of it,” Abdullah al-Shehri, vice governor for regulatory affairs at the Saudi Electricity and Cogeneration Regulatory Authority told Reuters.
The plant would generate 2,400 megawatt of which 1,350 will be allocated to the Saudi mining firm Maaden, 1,000 MWs to Saudi Electricity (SEC), SWCC showed on its Website.
State-owned SWCC is an electricity and water desalination company. (Reuters)
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