Today over 10 engineering services providers claim they know how to build desalination mega-project. How to start pre-qualification process from scratch? What data do we need to google?

Points like recent press releases, new hires, acquisitions, launching new products and services will definitely add credit to a company. But by far the strongest indicator is how many times the company uses the "FEED" word on its web site.

FEED stands for Front End Engineering & Design. It is a critical stage of any project, absorbing the engineering services provider know-how. It contains full information on the equipment ordering and defines the exact scope of the next stage - detail mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and control design. FEED substantiates the plant guaranteed functionality and reliability, the project timetable and the budget and substantially decreases the project risks and contingencies.

Having the FEED package, any engineering company without previous desalination experience may execute the project of any size.

By epcengineer.com the FEED contracts usually take around 1 year to complete for large size projects with prices well above USD$ 1 million. Exact figures depend on the FEED scope definition, which follows the technological advances in project engineering.

Modern FEED is a complex multidisciplinary product not related to Basic Engineering it was used to be.

Crenger defines the FEED scope in the following way.