Oman receives 12 bids for two desalination projects

Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has received 12 competitive bids for two major water projects in the country.

The two Indepenedent Water Projects (IWP) are planned to be built at Sohar city and Barka town in Oman.

Major global firms and consortiums have applied for the projects which will use desalination technology to supply potable water for the region.

The winning companies or consortiums will be awarded the contract to develop, finance, design, engineer, construct, own, operate and maintain the water-only projects.

French Veolia, along with Marubeni, Itochu and Degrémon, GDF Suez, Tedagua (with Sogex Oman, Korea Water Resources, UTICO and POSCO E&C), Abengoa water are the applicants for the bid.

Other bidders for the desalination projects are Aqualia (with Samsung Engineering), Valoriza, Hyflux, GS Inima (with GS Engineering & Construction and Acciona Aqua), Sojitz Corporation, JGC Corporation, and CITIC Construction (with Al Sulaimi Group).

Once operational, the Barka IWP is likely to produce 281,000m³ of treated water each day, while the Sohar IWP has been planned to supply 250,000m³ of desalinated water daily.

OPWP chief executive officer Ahmed bin Saleh al Jahdami was quoted by the Oman Observer as saying: "We received a very good response to the Request for Qualifications (RfQ), which goes to show the level of interest from the private sector in this project.

"The submissions are currently being evaluated and we hope to issue a Request for Proposals (RfP) to the prequalified firms (in due course). An award will hopefully be announced in September."

The two water projects are likely to cost around $500m each.