Oman Power & Water Company (OPWP) has received five responses to its request for proposals (RFP) to consultants for a reverse osmosis desalination plant at Al-Ghubrah.

The winning team will provide legal, financial and technical advisory services for the independent water project (IWP).

The following groups submitted bids:

• KPMG (Oman office) / SNR Denton (Oman office) / Fichtner (Germany) – RO656,000 ($1.7m)
• PricewaterhouseCoopers (UK)/Ashurst (UK)/GHD (Australia) – RO727,279
• Ernst & Young (UK)/Glen House Capital Strategies (UK)/DLA Piper (UK)/Scott Wilson (UK) – RO790,000
• Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle (US)/Mott MacDonald (UK)/Project Financing Solutions (UK) – RO806,663
• Bank Muscat (Oman)/Allen & Overy (UK)/Worley Parsons (Australia) – RO1,158,595

The project was originally to be developed as an independent water and power project (IWPP). A UK-based consortium of Ernst & Young, DLA Piper and British Power International was appointed to advise on Al-Ghubrah IWPP.

However, the power component of the project was dropped in June due to environmental concerns associated with the site. The IWPP advisory team was transferred to the Sur IPP in July 2010.

The water desalination-only plant is expected to have a capacity of about 42 million gallons a day.

The reverse osmosis plant will help the sultanate to meet growing water demand requirements in the Muscat region.