Bank Muscathas been awarded the financial advisory mandate on the sultanate's first independent water project (IWP), serving the Sharqiyah region. An award is also very close on the advisory mandate covering the country's next independent water and power project (IWPP).

Bank Muscat was low bidder for the IWP mandate when six bids were submitted in early October. The planned facility will have capacity of 10 million-15 million gallons a day (g/d) and will use reverse osmosis (RO) technology.

The financial, technical and legal advisory team led by ABN Amrois understood to be the frontrunner for the IWPP advisory, which is expected to involve the addition of about 450 MW and 20 million g/d of capacity at the existing Barka plant and the acquisition of the government-owned 687.5-MW Rusayl plant. Six teams groups are bidding for the work.

The client on both mandates is the Ministry of National Economy (MEED 8:10:04).