WARRENDALE, Penn., Jan. 19, 2005 – USFilter, a Siemens company, has received a multi-million dollar order to supply 20 horizontal sand filters for the Ain Dar and Shedgum seawater filtration project for Saudi Aramco’s Qurayyah Seawater Treatment Plant located in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Each filter will treat 125,000 barrels per day of seawater for water injection, filtering out suspended solids and particulates to prevent well plugging.  The filters are horizontal sand filters, each 11 feet in diameter with 40-foot side shells. 

Original design capacity of the plant is seven million barrels per day – this equipment order will add 2.5 million barrels per day of additional capacity.  The filtered seawater will also meet a tight specification of 0.2 mg/L Total Suspended Solids in the effluent, which original equipment installed at the plant has been unable to meet consistently.

In March 2002, Saudi Aramco engaged USFilter to perform an independent engineering study to identify existing problems and to make recommendations for improvements and upgrades to the system.  The study was completed in May 2002.

“This is an important project,” says Joe Momont, project manager for USFilter Zimpro Products.  “With the addition of the sand filters, the treatment plant will be able to function more effectively and efficiently, as it was originally intended.”

Expected delivery of the equipment is being staged from October 2004 through January 2005.  Startup will be in mid-2005.

Engineering, procurement and construction contractor on the project is Snamprogetti S.p.A., Milan, Italy.