According to the bid opening prices, France's Ondeo Grouphas submitted the lowest quote at AED 9.11 ($2.48) per 1,000 gallons of water produced. Its price is 17 per cent lower than the quote of AED 10.65 per 1,000 gallons from the group made up of Japan's Mitsui & Companyand France's Vivendi(MEED 20:6:03; 29:11:02).

The estimated $300 million-400 million project involves the construction of a 50 million-gallon-a-day RO plant. The selected foreign partner will take a 40 per cent stake in a new project company, which will build, own and operate the facility. It will also arrange the debt finance.

The RO plant will take advantage of spare power generating capacity at Taweelah in the winter months, when electricity demand can be as low as 35 per cent of the peak summer level. The water is expected to be used to meet agricultural demand in the Al-Ain area.

The UK's Mott MacDonaldis technical adviser on the project; the financial adviser is Citibank.