Sharakat, the Saudi state buyer of private water assets, has announced no financial close in 2026, after closing SAR 11.07 billion of water deals in the final quarter of 2025. Those two closes were the SAR 8.5 billion Jubail–Buraydah transmission line on 30 October and the SAR 2.57 billion Ras Mohaisen desalination plant on 25 December.
Preferred bidders without contracts
Vision Invest was named preferred bidder for the 859 km Riyadh–Qassim pipeline on 23 December 2025, with a levelised cost of SAR 2.627/m³. MEED put the project at about USD 2 billion and reported in September 2026 that no developer agreement had been signed. The Arana and Hadda sewage treatment plants, 350,000 m³ a day combined, missed their expected second-quarter 2026 closes.
Awards fall by more than half
Saudi water contract awards fell to USD 3.14 billion in the first half of 2026, from USD 7.58 billion a year earlier, according to MEED Projects. Treatment made up about USD 2.85 billion of the USD 3.94 billion awarded by early September 2026. No major desalination or storage contract was awarded.
Desalination waits for 2027
The 600,000 m³ a day Jubail 4&6 plant has had a preferred bidder since December 2024, but no purchase agreement has been announced. Sharakat's seven-year statement, as reported by MEED, lifts its procured desalination capacity from 3.88 million m³ a day in 2025 to 7.18 million by 2031. The first request for proposals of the next wave is not expected until early 2027.
Where work continues
The National Water Company completed 50 projects worth more than SAR 2.4 billion in the first half of 2026. Five consortia bid for the Riyadh East sewage plant on 28 September 2026.
Which projects in Sharakat's 48-project, SAR 56 billion portfolio are moving, how the Water Transmission Company's review could change pipeline procurement, and what NWC's concession programme means for contractors are covered in detail. The full report, Water Infrastructure Investment and Project Pipeline in Saudi Arabia, is available for USD 249. For a free overview, see Saudi Arabia Country Snapshot.