Asry and Gulf Marketing House officials after the signing of the agreement

ASRY, the leading ship and rig repair yard in the Arabian Gulf, has agreed a Build-Operate-Transfer contract for the completion and upgrading of a reverse osmosis sea water desalination plant. The agreement, which has an estimated $8.6 million budget and April 2015 operational target, was signed recently at Asry by all concerned parties.

Bahrain-based Gulf Marketing House will build, operate and transfer the 7,000 tonnes per day facility.

The desalination plant project, previously managed by Gemsil Aquatech Services, had an initial production capacity of 3,000 tonnes per day. However under Gulf Marketing House’s new guidance, the capacity will be expanded to 7000 tonnes per day. As such, they have contracted Spanish firm, Enoxa, to supply all technical resources and equipment required for the upgrade and commission of the plant. This will not only meet the future requirements of Asry, but also contribute to serving the Bahrain community by contributing to daily national requirements of sweet water.

Asry chief executive officer, Nils Kristian Berge, said the plant would be built according to the latest state-of-the-art water desalination technology by Inexa, a technical partner of Gulf Marketing House.  He pointed out that the duration of the contract is 25 years and Gulf Marketing House willl provide Asry’s entire requirement for sweet water for the yard and related operations, in addition to supplying sweet water to Asry’s workers’ quarters. “This project is a major success for greater cost-effectiveness at Asry,” Berge added.

Magdy Mustafa, Asry general manager for technical resources and business development, said that at the end of the 25-year contract, the ownership of the water desalination plant will transfer in full to Asry, and highlighted the fact that the new plant will be run on a commercial basis and boost sweet water supply to the people of Bahrain.

Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Hamad Al Khalifa, chairman of Gulf Marketing House, welcomed the signing of the BOT contract with Asry. “This contract will further enhance the reputation of Gulf House Group in the local market, and boost the cooperation between the two companies,” Shaikh Khalid said.

The contract was signed on behalf of Asry by Sheikh Duaij bin Salman Al-Khalifa, chairman, Berge and Mustafa in the presence of Satyan Laxman, Asry finance and accounting manager, and Badreldin Elsimat, its legal affairs manager. On behalf of Gulf Marketing House, a subsidiary of Gulf House Holding Group, the contract was signed by Sheikh Khalid and Sheikh Bader Khalid Bin Khalifa as well as by N S Malhotra, group financial consultant and Abdulla Ahmed Ali Alfahal, project manager.