Project propels Fisia Italimpianti into the Oil&Gas sector strengthening position in the water market

Milan, March 25, 2024 – Fisia Italimpianti of the Webuild Group has officially started in Saudi Arabia the construction phase of the Water Treatment Plant, as part of the huge Zuluf onshore oil plant complex in the Persian Gulf. Webuild's positioning in the water market, a sector with huge potential, where it is already leader, has further strengthened, thanks to this project that has allowed Fisia Italimpianti to step into the Oil&Gas sector, returning to its Operation & Maintenance activities.

The ZULUF oil field, owned and managed by SAUDI ARAMCO, is part of a large development programme that began in 2018 within the “Saudi Vision 2030” growth plan of Saudi Arabia. The project awarded to Fisia Italimpianti last year, with the two contracts worth in total €408 million (USD 439 million), includes respectively building and managing the ZULUF water treatment plant. 

The formal construction start of the works for the new water treatment plant follows the engineering design, material procurement and carrying out of the preliminary activities that served to improve the soil's characteristics, and that Fisia Italimpianti, in fact, has carried out during these last months, to allow the site to be able to host the plant's foundations. 

The plant will be located in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. It will treat up to 185,000 m3/day of water, which will be injected in the offshore wells, contributing to increase the production of the field's crude oil. The plant will include a first water de-gassing system that will extract, compress, and deliver the gas found in the water that enters the plant, to the final Client. Then, a water treatment and filtration section will follow in the plant, with the aim of clarifying and reducing the content of solids in the water, to make it suitable for the injection in the oil wells. The project also includes auxiliary systems and the buildings that will be used as administrative offices, technical rooms, and control rooms.

Fisia Italimpianti can truly boast a rooted presence in the Middle East, where it has been in fact building desalination and water treatment plants in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain: plants that already feature technologically innovative solutions, serving over 20 million users.

The Webuild Group is currently engaged in very significant projects in Saudi Arabia. It is in fact currently building 57 km of the Connector high-speed railway line for NEOM to connect "Oxagon" and "The Line". And it has also recently won the contract to build a lake and unique architectural works at Trojena, a desert futuristic location in Saudi Arabia's mountain ranges. In Ryadh, it is instead building 42 km of Line 3 of the capital's metro system, the longest of the metro. And the "Diriyah Square – Package 2 Super-Basement Works”, the structure of the new Ad-Diriyah neighbourhood that will include a multi-storey parking lot for 10,500 vehicles.