The consortium led by Japan’s Mitsubishi and the UAE’s Mubadala has pulled out of the bidding race for the 3,200MW Sohar 3/ Ibri independent power project (IPP) in Oman.

The team was one of four groups that submitted technical proposals on 14 June. It is unclear at this point the reason for the group pulling out of the bidding process before commercial prices are due to be submitted on 2 August.

The withdrawal of the Japanese/UAE consortium from the bidding leaves three groups remaining in the race to win the contract for Oman’s largest ever IPP, which is planned to be split between two sites in Sohar and Ibri. The plants are being tendered as one developer contract, but a separate special-purpose vehicle (SPV) will be formed for each plant.

The remaining bidding groups are led by:

• GDF Suez (now called Engie; UK/France)
• Marubeni (Japan)
• Mitsui (Japan) / Acwa Power (Saudi Arabia)

The IPP is part of the government’s efforts to meet rising demand for power in the Main Interconnected System (MIS), the sultanate’s main grid, and follows on from the Sur IPP, which added 2,000MW to the MIS grid when it was commissioned at the end of 2014.

According to OPWP, in its latest seven-year statement, which sets out forecasts for 2014-20, peak demand is expected to grow at an average of 10 per cent a year, from

• 4,455MW in 2013 to
• 9,133MW in 2020.

OPWP is also currently tendering contracts for two major independent water projects (IWPs), as the sultanate seeks to meet rapidly growing demand for water.

The utility has set a 3 August deadline for the contracts to develop the Sohar and Barka IWPs.

• The Barka IWP will have a capacity of 280,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), while the
• Sohar IWP will have a capacity of 250,000 cm/d.

Both plants will use reverse osmosis (RO) technology.

OPWP is expected to select two developers, one for each project, due to the size of the proposed plants. MEED recently reported that eight international consortiums have been prequalified for the tender.