Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has invited companies to submit bids for the contract to carry out site studies for two planned independent water projects (IWPs).

Firms have until 14 October to submit proposals to provide topographic, geotechnical and bathymetric surveys for the sites proposed for the Sharqiyah and Salalah IWPs.

The schemes are part of the sultanate’s plans to build additional desalination capacity to meet the forecast demand, which is expected to rise by more than 6 per cent a year until 2020, according to OPWP.

MEED reported in August that the utility has received bids from seven groups for the deal to develop the Sohar/Barka IWPs.

The groups that submitted bids, with lead developer first, are:

• Abengoa (Spain) / National Power & Water Company (local) / Muscat Overseas (local)
• GS Inima (Spain) / GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea) / Acciona Agua (Spain) / Oman Investment Corporation (local)
• Hyflux (Singapore)
• Itochu (Japan) / Degremont(France) / WJ Towell (UK)
• JGC Corporation (Japan) / Sojitz(Japan)
• Valoriza (Spain) / Oman Brunei Investment Company (local) / Sogex (local)
• Veolia (France) / Marubeni (Japan) / Nippon Koei (Japan)

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.

OPWP expects to select two different developers for the projects due to their size. The sites were selected due to their proximity to existing infrastructure.

Earlier in 2015, the utility 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 IWP will use RO technology and is scheduled to be completed in 2017.