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Samsung Engineering of Korea looks set for a breakthrough in the Gulf desalination market. It is part of the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) consortium which has come in as low bidder for the 1,025,000m3/d Ras Azzour desalination plant in Saudi Arabia. The consortium consists of ACWA Power and Sasakura (offering multi-effect distillation technology), with Samsung taking the EPC wrap, working with Degrémont as the reverse osmosis technology supplier for the MED-RO hybrid plant. It is reminiscent of the way Doosan broke into the RO desal market by using Degrémont as technology supplier for the first Fujairah RO plant.

The Ras Azzour tender is also a major victory for ACWA Power-Sasakura, which is a joint venture between Saudi-based developer ACWA Power, Itochu Corp., and Sasakura Engineering of Japan. Sasakura has built a number of medium-sized MED plants in the Gulf – the largest being 18,000m3/d – but the joint venture not only managed to prequalify for Ras Azzour, but out-bid Veolia Sidem, which previously enjoyed a near monopoly on large-scale MED projects.