Red Sea Satellite Desalination Plants Programme
Seawater RO, About 195,500 m3/day in total after the reverse osmosis rebuild: Al-Qunfudah 51,000, Al-Lith 42,500, Al-Wajh 25,500, Duba 25,500, Umluj 25,500, Haql 17,000 and Farasan 8,500 in Saudi Arabia.
The record
- Country
- Saudi Arabia
- Location
- Al-Wajh, Duba, Haql, Umluj, Rabigh, Al-Lith, Al-Qunfudah and Farasan
- Coordinates
- —
- Technology
- Seawater RO
- Capacity
- About 195,500 m3/day in total after the reverse osmosis rebuild: Al-Qunfudah 51,000, Al-Lith 42,500, Al-Wajh 25,500, Duba 25,500, Umluj 25,500, Haql 17,000 and Farasan 8,500
- Capital cost
- —
- Stage
- Operational
- Owner or client
- Saline Water Conversion Corporation, now the Saudi Water Authority
- Contractor
- Sasakura Middle East Company built the 2006 to 2009 multiple-effect distillation generation; the contractor for the reverse osmosis rebuild was not established
- Operator
- Saline Water Conversion Corporation, now the Saudi Water Authority
- Finance
- —
- Award or start year
- 2006
- Commissioned
- 2020
Record last checked 2026-09-20.
History
- 2006-02
SWCC awards Sasakura Middle East a SR 874 million turnkey contract for MED plants at six Red Sea sites
- 2009-11
The six MED plants complete
- 2018
Khafji field production system converted from liquid fuel to reverse osmosis
- 2020
SWCC completes the replacement of desalination technologies in the small Red Sea coast production systems
- 2021
Al-Lith reverse osmosis plant reaches commercial operation at 42,500 m3/day
Sources
8 references
Every field in the record above is taken from the references below. A field that none of them confirms prints as a dash.
- Sasakura Middle East Company, New Satellite Plants Project pages for Al-Wajh, Ummlujj, Al-Lith, Qunfudah, Farasan and Rabigh. sasakurame.com.
- and. sasakurame.com.
- owner Saline Water Conversion Corporation, February 2006 to November 2009, contract value SR 874 million, turnkey construction of desalination plants at six sites at once, each adding 9,000 m3/day from two 4,500 m3/day MED units except Rabigh, which added 18,000 m3/day from two 9,000 m3/day units.
- Saudipedia (Saudi Ministry of Media national encyclopaedia), Production of Desalinated Water in Saudi Arabia. saudipedia.com.
- records that in 2018 the authority converted the Khafji field production system from liquid fuel to reverse osmosis and that "In 2020, the company also completed a project to replace desalination technologies in small production systems along the Red Sea coast". SHARAKAT (Saudi Water Partnership Company), 7 Year Statement 2025-2031, March 2026. sharakat.com.sa.
- gives the rebuilt plants as on production with commercial operation dates and design capacities of Al Wajh New 2020 at 25,500 m3/day, Duba New 2020 at 25,500, Haql New 2020 at 17,000, Umluq 4 2020 at 25,500, Al Qunfudah New 2020 at 51,000, Al Lith New 2021 at 42,500 and Farasan New 2020 at 8,500. The total of about 195,500 m3/day is the sum of those seven published figures and is not itself published.
- Saline Water Conversion Corporation, Annual Report 2022 (English), Production Plants Map, p. 73. swcc.gov.sa.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
lists Haql 3, Al-Wajh 4, Duba 4, Umluj 4, Al-Leith 2, Al-Qunfudhah 2 and Fursan 3 as reverse osmosis plants. This is a programme row covering eight coastal sites, not a single plant; no individual station in it reaches the register's threshold, but together they are the supply of the Red Sea coastal towns. Coordinates are left blank because the sites run from Haql on the Gulf of Aqaba to Farasan off Jizan.