The local Majis Industrial Services has invited contractors to submit expressions of interest (EoI) for operations and maintenance (O&M) contract for a 4.4 million-gallon-a-day (g/d) water desalination plant at the Sohar Industrial Port Area (SIPA) in northern Oman.

Firms have until 14 April to submit EoIs for the O&M contract.

As part of plans boost desalination capacity in the sultanate, the Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) is planning to tender contracts for five independent water projects (IWPs) in 2014.

In its latest 7-year statement, covering the years 2014 to 2020, OPWP has set out plans to issue tenders for five IWPs before the end of 2014, which will add a total capacity of 116 million g/d to the sultanate’s desalination sector when fully commissioned.

The majority of the new capacity will be provided through three new schemes located in the Muscat Interconnected System (MIS), the sultanate’s main grid, and will boost capacity by 107 million g/d.

The planned projects include the 44 million-g/d Qurayyat IWP for which 12 developers submitted prequalification entries in October 2013. The Qurayyat plant, which will be located just south of Muscat, will use RO technology and OPWP is planning to tender and award the contract in 2014.

The largest scheme planned is the Suwayq IWP, which is planned to have a RO capacity of up to 50 million g/d and will be located in Al-Suwayq, although an alternative site may be selected. OPWP is planning to tender the deal in 2014 and is targeting a contract award in early 2015.

While the Suwayq scheme is provisionally planned as an IWP, it may be developed as an independent water and power project (IWPP) in combination with a proposed independent power project (IPP). Due to a forecast shortfall in electricity supply by mid-2017, OPWP is planning to install an additional generation capacity of at least 2,600MW by 2018, and is currently looking at sites in Ibri, Sohar and Al-Suwayq.