Mobile Water in the Middle East: Don't Chase a Mirage
The repeated attacks affecting power and desalination facilities in Kuwait remind us how essential water is to our daily lives. Without desalination, life in much of the Middle East would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. Across much of the Gulf, natural freshwater resources and rainfall are simply insufficient to sustain the population.
For people, water is vital. For industrial operators, securing a reliable supply is fundamental to business continuity. An oil and gas plant cannot operate without water: the entire process can grind to a halt. Water for cooling systems, for example, is critical.
Mobile water units can form part of a contingency plan, although they cannot replace a major desalination facility overnight. Their value depends on preparation: the right capacity, the right treatment process, and the infrastructure and people needed to put them into operation.
Given the number of discussions I have had recently about mobile water in the region, I thought it would be useful to share my perspective.
Setting up this business may look easy. Running it reliably—and profitably—is another story. If you have containers in Europe and think you can simply ship them here and rent them out, think again. Don’t chase a mirage.
1. Heat
In the Middle East, it gets hot, and your equipment must withstand high temperatures. Your cooling systems must be designed accordingly.
Your client expects the plant to operate throughout the summer. Equipment selection, ventilation and cooling must reflect the conditions the units will actually face on site.
2. Salinity
Gulf seawater is much saltier than water in the Mediterranean or the open ocean. Your equipment will not perform as it does elsewhere.
Your design must account for the local feedwater conditions. Pretreatment is critical too: you need to understand the water you will be treating before committing to capacity, quality and operating costs.
3. Maintenance
Heat and salinity make maintenance more important than ever. Depending on the design and operating conditions, equipment may need servicing more frequently, membranes can degrade faster, and maintenance intervals may be shorter.
And moving a pump in 50°C heat is no small task.
Define your KPIs and maintenance plan before deploying the fleet. Plan the people, spare parts, access and downtime required to carry out that maintenance safely.
4. Design
Everything starts with the design. Your client expects the plant to operate 24/7, whatever the temperature. A temporary plant still needs to be well designed: a 12-month contract, or longer, is a significant operational commitment.
Storing membranes and chemicals on the other side of an industrial site is not practical. Plan your layout so that everything is accessible, while respecting safety and storage requirements.
Power is critical too, whether supplied by generators or a grid connection. Electrical rooms also need adequate cooling.
These decisions may look like details during the proposal stage. They become daily operating constraints once the plant is running.
5. Standby Capacity
You need standby containers, and this is often forgotten when sizing the fleet and pricing the contract.
Membranes need cleaning and replacement. Equipment needs maintenance. Some units will suffer under demanding operating conditions and may need to be taken offline. The remaining capacity must still meet the client’s requirements.
For critical continuous operations, standby units should be on site, connected, commissioned and maintained in a state of readiness, so they can take over when needed.
A spare container sitting in a yard is not the same as operational redundancy.
Even a spare container on site may be of little immediate use if the plan is to move it into position only after another unit fails. At that point, you may need a crane, lifting permits, access authorisations, mechanical connections, electrical work and safety checks. All while the client is waiting for water.
The changeover must be designed and prepared in advance. You do not want to discover the practical meaning of “standby” during a breakdown.
6. Permitting
Permits and authorisations take time, and requirements vary by country and site, from brine discharge approvals to the client’s own site rules.
These requirements must be anticipated, not discovered at the last minute.
Even bringing a diesel tanker onto the site to refuel your generators requires preparation. When moving a container from point A to point B, the necessary permits must be arranged by the right people, with strong HSE oversight.
7. People
People are key. Many claim they can do it, but mobile plants have specific requirements. Safely operating a desalination plant 24/7 is a profession in itself.
You need the right operators, maintenance specialists and HSE professionals before the first unit arrives.
A fleet does not become an operating business simply because the equipment has reached the site.
8. Balance of Plant
This is often seriously underestimated, yet it is critical. It is not something you can simply exclude from the scope.
Tie-ins, isolations, intermediate tanks, intake and discharge systems, cabling and civil works: this is often where the margin disappears. The connections and arrangements needed for standby units must also be included from the start.
You need a strong execution team to deliver this work. It requires different skills from those needed to operate the plant.
If the balance of plant is poorly defined at the bidding stage, someone will still have to deliver it. The question is whose margin will pay for it.
9. Chemicals
It sounds obvious, but you cannot run these plants without chemicals, whether to control biological growth in the pipework or to clean the membranes.
Membrane cleaning must follow operating conditions and performance trends, not an arbitrary annual schedule. I have seen what happens when cleaning is neglected: an entire set of membranes needs replacing, and production is lost.
Chemical supply, storage and handling must be planned as part of the operating model.
10. Logistics
The GCC is one region, but it still has borders.
Imagine you establish your business in a Dubai free zone for practical reasons, with your fleet and spare parts based there. Moving them to Saudi Arabia is far more complicated than it looks: customs procedures, authorisations and permits all need to be managed.
Extended deployments can also create customs and tax obligations, depending on the country and import arrangements. Knowing where your units are, and how long they are allowed to remain there, is essential.
If Saudi Arabia is your target market, establish a local base: keeping spare parts and chemicals close to your operations can make a significant difference to response times.
You cannot be everywhere, but where you position your fleet and stock is a strategic decision.
11. Refurbishment
Refurbishment needs to be planned from day one. Depending on equipment quality, operating conditions and maintenance, a significant overhaul may be needed after just two or three years.
I remember speaking with a highly experienced water industry professional who was entering this business with brand-new assets. When I told him he should be prepared for refurbishment within two years under demanding conditions, he was shocked.
The exact timing will vary, but the need to plan will not.
Now imagine your containers are committed to a five-year contract with no refurbishment plan, no replacement capacity and no allowance for the associated costs: welcome to your worst nightmare.
Reliability Must Be Priced Into the Business
A fleet can be fully deployed and still lose money if execution costs, maintenance and downtime have been underestimated.
Standby capacity has a cost. So do local stock, qualified teams, membrane cleaning, replacement equipment and refurbishment. These costs need to be included in the commercial model from the beginning.
A minimum take-or-pay commitment may provide a revenue floor, but it does not remove the supplier’s obligations. The availability requirements, performance guarantees and consequences of an interruption still depend on the contract.
The commercial model must reflect what it actually takes to deliver the promised water supply. If meeting that commitment requires additional containers connected and ready on site, those containers are part of the cost of delivering the service.
They need to be in the design, the fleet plan and the price.
Build the Organisation Before Deploying the Fleet
The demand is real. So is the learning curve.
Mobile water will continue to grow in the region, and industrial clients need reliable partners more than ever. But success does not come from the containers alone.
It comes from designing for local conditions, building the right organisation before deploying the fleet, taking the balance of plant seriously, and positioning your units and stock where they are needed.
It also comes from understanding that reliability requires investment before anything goes wrong.
These are lessons we learned on the ground, often the hard way. If you are considering entering or expanding in this market, I would be happy to exchange views.
