Spanish firm to design desalination plant in Azerbaijan's Sumgayit

Spanish engineering company Savener has been selected by HDEC PowerChina as a contractor to carry out engineering design work for a seawater desalination plant in Azerbaijan, according to Spanish media reports cited by the Azerbaijani news agency Report.

Savener won the contract to design a new seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant in Sumgait. The large-scale facility is expected to provide drinking water to nearly 3 million people, highlighting its strategic importance to Azerbaijan's water supply.

HDEC, or Huadong Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of the PowerChina group, is serving as the project's engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) general contractor. The project developer is Saudi Arabia-based ACWA Power. Savener has already begun work on the project.

The plant will be built within the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park and is designed to have a desalination capacity of 300,000 cubic metres of seawater per day.

Savener has extensive experience in the water sector and has previously been involved in the development of major desalination facilities, including Ghubrah III and Barka V in Oman; Shuweihat and Taweelah in the United Arab Emirates; Al Khafji and Shuaibah III in Saudi Arabia; Salalah in Oman; and projects in Morocco.

The project is expected to have a duration of 27.5 years. At the end of that period, management of the facility is to be transferred to Azerbaijan's State Water Resources Agency.

The plant is scheduled to be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2028. The project is valued at $407 million.

By Vafa Guliyeva