Contractors are currently working on bids for various contracts to provide operation and maintenance (O&M) services for water utilities in various areas of Oman.

The Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) has invited companies to submit bids for seven contracts covering O&M services for above and below ground water assets in a number of locations throughout the region.

The work will involve providing O&M of distribution and transmission pipelines, pumping stations, wells and water treatment plants.

The contracts which have been tendered are for the following areas:

• Al-amerat, Mutrah and Qurayyat
• Al-Sharqiyah South
• Al-Batinah North
• Al-Wusta
• Musandam
• Al-Dhira
• Dakhliyah

 PAEW has also tendered a contract for O&M of the main water transmission system throughout the sultanate.

The projects are part of the sultanate’s efforts to expand and upgrade its water production capacity and also water transmission infrastructure.

The Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has prequalified eight groups to submit bids for the country’s next independent water projects (IWPs) at Sohar and Barka.

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.

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.

Five of the groups have been prequalified unconditionally, and three have been prequalified with conditions.

The five unconditionally prequalified consortiums are led by:

• Abengoa (Spain) / National Power & Water Company (local)
• GDF Suez (now called Engie) (France / UK)
• Hyflux (Singapore)
• Valoriza (Spain)
• Veolia (France) / Marubeni (Japan)

The three conditionally qualified consortiums are:

• GS Inima (Spain) / GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea) / Acciona Agua (Spain)
• Itochu (Japan) / Degremont (France)
• JGC (Japan)