Meed UAE: Saudi-based Alkhorayef Water & Power Technologies (AWPT) has won a contract to operate and maintain treated sewage effluent (TSE) networks and facilities in Riyadh.

The contract was awarded by the Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC) on 5 April, according to a market filing by the company.

The scope covers the operation and maintenance of TSE networks and facilities under Group 1 in Riyadh City. The contract is valued at SR69.6m ($18.5m) and has a duration of 30 months.

The deal follows a recent five-year contract from Jeddah Municipality for the operation and cleaning of stormwater networks in the airport’s sub-municipality area of Jeddah.

According to regional projects tracker MEED Projects, RCRC has $1.19bn-worth of water transmission projects under execution.

In 2024, RCRC appointed the local Mutlaq Damook Al-Ghowairi Contracting for the construction of a $100m heat pumping station as part of the Green Riyadh project.

RCRC designed Green Riyadh in 2018 to improve liveability standards in Riyadh. As MEED understands, the pumping station project will begin construction this year.

Elsewhere, in January, AWPT won another contract with state-owned utility National Water Company to operate and maintain water assets in Tabuk City.

The scope of work includes the operation and maintenance of water networks, pump stations, wells, tanks and related facilities over a 36-month period.

New discoveries
As a result of comprehensive interpretations of legacy geological data nd new, advanced seismic surveys, regional NOCs were able to announce discoveries of considerable unconventional resources in 2020.

The year also saw state energy players present noteworthy capital expenditure budgets towards the economic recovery of resources, particularly the production of gas, from existing and new tight and shale plays.

Saudi Arabia's unconventional programme has witnessed start-stop periods over decades, during which state energy giant Saudi Aramco had been working to determine the extent and economic potential of reserves available. The kingdom's unconventional campaign was flagged off in 2014, with Aramco awarding UK-based Wood Group a project management services deal, which was extended for two years in January 2020.

There are three areas Aramco has earmarked for commercial development: Turaif in the Northern Borders province and the giant Jafurah basin and South Ghawar, both of which are located in the Eastern Province.

In 2017, the first unconventional gas development project took shape in the north - extracting tight gas from the Turaif deposit to feed a new power station at the nearby Waad al-Shamal industrial city, and thereby solving the problem of the latter lacking a connection to Aramco's cross-country Master Gas System distribution network.