The Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has sent letters of award to two groups to develop the Sohar and Barka independent water projects (IWPs) in Oman.

According to sources close to the projects, a group led by Japan’s Itochu and the UK/France’s Engie has been awarded the contract to develop the Barka IWP, and a group led by Spain’s Valoriza has been appointed to develop the Sohar IWP.

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.

The full groups selected for each project are:

• Barkwa IWP: Itochu(Japan) / Engie (UK/France)/ Degremont (France) / WJ Towell (UK)
• Sohar IWP: Valoriza (Spain)/Oman Brunei Investment Company (local)/Sogex (local)

MEED reported in October that OPWP had received technical clarifications from bidders for the IWP projects, after it had received bids from seven groups on 17 August.

Earlier in 2015, OPWP signed a water purchase agreement with Singapore’s Hyflux to develop a 200,000-cm/d IWP at Qurayyat.

Hyflux owns 85 per cent of shares in Qurayyat Desalination Company. Hyflux Utility (Oman) and Hyflux International Modern Channels Services hold the remaining 15 per cent of shares. The Qurayyat independent water project (IWP) will have a capacity of 200,000 cm/d and will use RO technology. The plant is scheduled to be completed in 2017.

Water demand in Oman is expected to rise by more than 6 per cent a year until 2020, according to OPWP.