In November 2016, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that Jordan's Ministry of Water and Irrigation had invited five consortia to bid for the first stage of its Red Sea Dead Sea Project: Suez International, Mitsubishi Corporation, CNTIC, Korea Water Resources Corporation and Hutchison Water International Holdings. Seventeen consortia had shown interest. Plans comprised a 25-year BOT contract, intake of 700 million m³ of seawater a year and, north of Aqaba airport, a desalination plant producing 80 to 100 million m³ a year (roughly 219,000 to 274,000 m³/day).
The report showed that the large scheme on the Gulf of Aqaba was attracting bidders from Asia and Europe at the time and was set up as a long-term operator model.