Who Was Who at SWPF 2009?

Samer Mazloum, deputy general manager, WETICO
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SETE Energy
George Antonopolous, chief executive officer

Can you give me an outline of SETE’s operations in Saudi Arabia?
SETE Energy has been operational in the Kingdom for more than 35 years, historically as a general contractor for large-scale oil-refining, industrial, infrastructure and utilities projects.

However, we have now transferred that multi-sector expertise and are now specialised as a BOOT developer, EPC and O&M contractor for water treatment utilities, including desalination (seawater reverse osmosis, multi-effect desalination and multi-stage flash distillation), industrial wastewater treatment, sewage treatment, oily-water separation and steam generation.

Which major projects is SETE currently working on?
Most significantly, SETE Energy has recently signed off the 55,000 cubic metres per day expansion of Marafiq’s Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant (IWTP) No. 8 in Jubail

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What trends are you currently seeing in Saudi Arabia’s utilities market?
We foresee a continued increase in industrial wastewater treatment new-build and expansion programmes in parallel with the continued expansion of the Kingdom’s industrial cities, along with associated demand for municipal wastewater treatment. SETE is currently in final negotiations for various water treatment projects with institutional clients, although it is still too early to confirm project details.

Dow Water & Process Solutions
Ahmed Khafagy, Middle East sales manager

Why is Dow Water & Process Solutions exhibiting at SWPF this year?
SWPF is a very important event in this region because it is a forum where industry leaders, developers, end-users, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), operation and maintenance (O&Ms) companies, and technology solutions providers (such as Dow Water & Process Solutions), are gathered under one roof for the sake of furthering the water treatment dialogue.

It is all the more important because it takes place in Saudi Arabia, the largest producer of desalinated water in the world.

What major projects are you working on?
One of the projects we are working on addresses a unique problem in one region of Saudi Arabia, where recent studies of ground water have found traces of radioactive material.

We are working with local authorities to develop a solution that would use our state-of-the-art FILMTEC NanoFiltration Membranes NF90-400.

Dow would be helping to deliver safe and sustainable water resources at a capacity of 150,000 m3/day, and this proposed project would be the biggest NanoFiltration water treatment plant in the world so far.

What trends do you expect to see in the Saudi water sector in the future?
I would like to quote His Highness Prince Khalid Al Faisal, the Governor of the Holy Mecca Governate. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is implementing a large development program that is flying on the two wings of the development: Water and Electricity.”