Algeria Cuts Spanish Contracts in Escalating Sahara Dispute

Shortly before Algeria’s suspension of the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation with Spain, the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade (Icex) had invited Spanish companies in the water sector to bid on tenders for the construction of desalination and wastewater treatment plants in Algeria. This is how companies like Cobra, Elecnor, ACS, Acciona, FCC, Sacyr and Abengoa, whose expertise is recognized worldwide, were selected to carry out these projects.

These Spanish companies have built and operated these plants under a 25-year BOT (Build Operate and Transfer) contract. The Skikda and Honaine plants were built by Sacyr Abengoa, while the one in Beni Saf was initially awarded to the Abengoa-Cobra-Tedagua and Sacyr consortium and finally built and operated by Cobra-Tedagua. The Ténès plant was built and operated by Abengoa, and the Mostaganem and Cap Djinet plants were built and operated by Aqualia (FCC) and Inima.

But after Spain’s change of position on the Sahara, Algeria has decided to withdraw these contracts from Spanish companies and award them to local companies such as the Algerian Energy Company (AEC), a subsidiary of Sonatrach, as well as to Saudi and Korean companies, reports The Objective, noting that Algeria currently has 14 desalination plants, six of which have been built, managed and maintained by Spanish companies, which risk not being retained by Algeria for the construction, by 2025, of five new plants in the cities of Tipasa, Oran, Bumerdes, El Tarf and Béjaïa.