Marubeni in pole position for Taweelah B

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The Japanese group has ADWEA’s backing.

The Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (ADWEA) has completed its evaluation of the three offers for the Taweelah B IWPP and made its recommendation to the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. ADWEA is understood to have ranked the Marubeni consortium in first place.

The Executive Council is expected to endorse ADWEA’s recommendation in the next few weeks. Once the council’s approval is given, the transaction can proceed to final contract negotiations. There is an end-of-year deadline for signature of a power and water purchase agreement.

The Marubeni consortium, which includes BTU Power, JGC Corporation and Powertek Berhad, offered a price of $1.69 billion for the project in July, putting it ahead of an offer of $1.59 billion from a consortium of Tractebel and International Power (see GWI, August 2004, pp8-9).

Marubeni Europower’s Masumi Kakinoki was cautious when contacted by GWI. “We are still the first-ranked bidder but nothing has been finalised yet,” he stated. However, a senior executive from one of the rival consortia more or less admitted defeat. “Unfortunately for us, Taweelah B has gone to another consortium [Marubeni],” he said.

Marubeni’s use of new financing sources is believed to have given it the edge over the opposition. Its technical offer is also thought to have been more competitive.

The company is proposing to use four colossal 17 MIGD MSF distillers supplied by Italy’s Fisia Italimpianti for the desalination phase.

● International Power is to join the developer consortium implementing the Taweelah RO independent water project.
International Power will link up with Japan’s Mitsui & Co. which has been locked in negotiations with ADWEA since it was selected as the first-ranked bidder for the project in a consortium with Veolia Water.

Veolia is now out of the developer consortium, but it remains interested in the project as an EPC or O&M contractor through its Veolia Water Systems subsidiary.

The International Power/Mitsui team is expected to step up its search for a plant operator in the next few weeks. The consortium will issue a public tender and ask for submittals either later this month or in early November.