State-owned Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has awarded the legal advisory contract on its planned Duqm independent water and power project (IWPP) to UK law firm Simmons & Simmons.

Simmons & Simmons beat five other legal advisers to win the contract. They were the local Al-Alawi & Company; US firms Chadbourne & Parke and DLA Piper; and UK law firms Trowers & Hamlins and Clifford Chance.

In September, OPWP appointed Australia’s WorleyParsons as the technical adviser and KPMG as the financial adviser.

The coal-fired project will have capacity of 1,000MW. The IWPP will be the first project to use coal feedstock in Oman.

OPWP has yet to decide on the plant’s desalination capacity.