MENA (Middle Eastern and North Africa) represents a new emerging market for Hyflux, alongside Southeast Asia, China and India. We entered MENA in 2004 and are actively pursuing the many opportunities that the region presents.

A regional office has been set up in Dubai in 2005 to support its expanding operations in the Middle East. We are also setting up another regional office in Algiers, Algeria to oversee and manage Hyflux's operations in North Africa. We also won the bid for world's largest seawater desalination plant in Algeria, with a project value of US$468 million (about S$632 million). Hyflux will build this plant in Magtaa, Oranregion, western Algeria with a capacity of 500,00 m³/day using reverse osmosis membrane technology. This plant is the world's largest in terms of volume production, and is also the largest project to be undertaken by Hyflux to date.

Marking a significant breakthrough in MENA was the project award of a 200,000 m³/day reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant, located in the Tlemcen region of western Algeria in October 2006.

Hyflux went into used oil recycling in MENA, after forming a joint venture with SEDCO (Saudi Economic Development Company) and LUBREC (Lube Oil Re-refining Co) to jointly invest S$45 million in a used oil recycling plant, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This joint venture marks Hyflux’s first footprint in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest (per capita) consumers of lubricants worldwide. Its population of about 24 million consumed some 350,000 metric tonnes of lubricants in 2006. The available used oil generated annually exceeds 200,000 metric tonnes, but current annual re-refining capacity is only at 80,000 metric tonnes. This background presents an attractive business opportunity for Hyflux.