BW Offshore and BW Group have established a 50/50 joint venture entity, BW Elara, to design and build floating desalination units (FDU).
The companies stated that the new venture will combine BW Offshore’s experience in developing floating production units with BW Water’s desalination expertise to offer, “a rapidly deployable freshwater solution to address global water constraints.”
Under the agreement, BW Offshore will oversee project execution, including hull design, construction, and system integration, and will co-invest alongside a BW Group affiliated company.
BW Water will be responsible for designing and building the desalination plant, which uses custom-engineered reverse osmosis systems.
BW said the FDU concept was developed over the last two years and offers a flexible solution designed to bridge the gap between immediate water requirements and long-term infrastructure.
It added that a ready-built FDU can be deployed and fully operational within as little as three months from contract signing, capable of supplying 20 to 40 million litres of drinking water per day.
"Applying our extensive offshore engineering and operations expertise to developing new floating transition solutions is a strategic focus area for BW Offshore," said Marco Beenen, CEO of BW Offshore.
Matthew White, Executive Chairman of BW Water, commented, “floating desalination units fill a critical gap between emergency relief and long-term infrastructure investments in today’s market.”
