Ras Al-Zour is located north of Alkhobar in the Eastern Province.

A consortium led by South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Company Limited won the SR6.6 billion contract to build the desalination plant within three and a half years. Al-Arrab Contracting Co. and China's Sepco III Electric Power Construction Corp. won the SR9 billion contract to build the power plant.

Minister of Water and Electricity Abdullah Al-Hussayen signed the contracts with representatives from all three companies in Riyadh on Tuesday. Al-Hussayen expressed appreciation to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, for giving approval to the project. He added that projects such as the Ras Al-Zour power and desalination facilities are urgently needed in the Kingdom as national energy and water demands are rising rapidly. The facilities would support economic diversification and cater to the needs of an increasing population.

The station will have the capacity to produce 2,400 megawatts of electricity and more than one million cubic meters of desalinated water a day, making it the largest unit of its kind in the world.

Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) will manage the plant along with the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) and Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), which will be responsible for managing electricity output. The bulk of the plant's water output will be supplied to Riyadh and other nearby provinces.

SWCC has 36 power and water plants across the Kingdom, producing 5,000 megawatts of power and 3.2 million cubic meters of water in total.

It is the second largest power producer in the Kingdom after SEC, which has total capacity of around 40,000 megawatts. It is estimated that the Kingdom's installed power capacity will grow to 140,000 megawatts within 25 years.