Amane Advisors, the global consultancy and advisory firm focused on the water industry, has been awarded the contract to provide advisory services for the development of all water and wastewater facilities in the new KSA energy hub, King Salman Energy Park (SPARK).
Located in the Eastern Province within an hour's drive from Dhahran, SPARK is a smart, green industrial city development which will include an industrial area, dry port and logistics zone, as well as residential, educational and commercial zones.
The scope of work will consist of helping to define SPARK's
strategy for developing and operating its entire water and wastewater
infrastructure, assisting SPARK in the development of a request for
proposals (RFP) pack for the selection of its eventual private operator,
securing fair water purchase and wastewater treatment agreements, and
outlining the terms of agreements for provision of utility services to
its tenants.
"Since 2015, Amane Advisors has developed its activities in the MENA
region through its office in Bahrain and has delivered more than 30
consulting projects in the region. We bring to this landmark project
unparallelled expertise and experience across all aspects of the water
sector.
"This will ensure that SPARK is equipped with the most effective
capabilities to deliver the highest level of customer value to its
tenants and to integrate the overarching strategic goals of Saudi
Arabia's Vision 2030 into SPARK's utility infrastructure," said Christophe Guillet, Amane Advisors Managing Partner for the MENA region.
Energy City Development Company (ECDC) is developing and operating SPARK with the objectives of contributing to the kingdom's Vision 2030, strengthen KSA's position as a global energy hub, enhance the energy supply chain reliability, enable Industry 4.0 and support economic development and job creation in the kingdom. The city is targeting energy-related sector's value chains including upstream oil and gas, downstream oil and gas, petrochemicals and power. This smart city will also host digital and innovation hubs that will act as accelerators for the fourth industrial revolution in the energy industry and satellite sectors.
SPARK is expected to contribute US$6 billion to KSA's annual GDP, and 100,000 direct and indirect jobs created at maturity. SPARK has already secured a
large number of anchor tenants from the energy industry, including
Schlumberger, Baker Hughes GE, Halliburton, Yokogawa and Emerson. Over 70% of Phase 1 land has been allocated.
Execution is planned over three phases, with US$1.6 billion investment into Phase 1 which will be completed by end-2021.