A Marubeni consortium comprising Marubeni, Acciona, Abdul Latif Jameel Commercial Development Company Ltd, and Rawafid Alhadarah Holding Ltd., have signed a limited-recourse financing loan agreement for the Shuqaiq 3 independent water project in Saudi Arabia
The contract was awarded by Water and Electricity Company (WEC), the state-owned firm in charge of desalination and water treatment projects, to the Marubeni-owned company early this year.
The project includes the construction, operation, and maintenance of the RO-based desalination plant, which will generate 450,000 cu/m of water per day (supplied to a population of approximately two million) once operational in 2021.
The water will be sold over the course of a 25-year term.
This loan agreement of approximately US$500mn took the form of co-financing among six commercial banks, MUFG, Cr?dit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, The National Commercial Bank, The Norinchukin Bank, Samba Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
Just as in other GCC countries, the demand for water in Saudi Arabia is increasing rapidly as the economy and population of the country also grow. On the other hand, there is also demand for RO-based desalination plants, which are independent and do not require a fire-based power plant for operation, reflecting the global trend towards renewable energy.
Marubeni owns four IWPP supplying 2,000,000 cu/m per day of water in the UAE.
