Muscat-based Gulf Petrochemical Services & Trading (GPS) has emerged as the frontrunner to win commercial engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work on a gas loopline project in the south of Oman.

GPS was revealed to have submitted the lowest bid of $33.3m for the contract when bids were opened, with India’s Larsen & Toubro offering the second-lowest proposal of $37.8m. The other bidders were Turkey’s STFA Group and the local Galfar Engineering & Contracting.

The project owner, Oman Gas Company (OGC), is planning to construct a 32-inch, 85-kilometre pipeline to meet increasing demand for gas in the Dhofar governorate.

The loopline will complement the Nimr gas-pumping scheme, which has increased the volumes of gas pumped to chemical and industrial plants around Salalah.

The Salalah loopline EPC deal was tendered in the second quarter of 2012.