Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Veolia Water is Awarded a Major Desalination Contract for Sydney, Australia

A couple weeks ago we noticed two water stories in 20 hours at the WSJ's Energy Roundup and promised to look into it.

Veolia goes head to head with GE and seems to be doing alright. This contract is expected to bring NYSE listed VE about $ 800 million over twenty years. It follows the announcement last month of a $945 million desalination contract in Saudi Arabia.

From the press release:

As part of the New South Wales Governments initiatives for sustainable water supply, the Sydney Water Corporation has awarded a major 250,000m3/day seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant contract to Veolia Water (Paris:VIE) and construction joint venture partner John Holland. The projects aim is to help ensure Sydney has a sustainable and secure water supply, and comes after growing concern over climate change.

The contract is for the complete design, build, operation and maintenance of a reverse osmosis desalination plant with expected consolidated turnover of approximately 570 million Euros for Veolia Water over the life of the project. Veolia Water has formed a construction joint venture with John Holland for the project. Both organisations are currently working together delivering the Gold Coast Desalination Plant in Queensland.