The Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has prequalified eight groups for the tender to develop the Sohar and Barka independent water projects (IWPs) in Oman.

Five of the groups have been prequalified unconditionally, and three have been prequalified with conditions. OPWP received prequalification entries from 12 consortiums on 25 March for the two water projects. 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 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 Aqua (Spain)
• Itochu (Japan) / Degremont (France)
• JGC (Japan)

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.

OPWP recently signed a water purchase agreement with Hyflux to develop a 200,000 cm/d IWP at Qurayyat.

Singapore’s 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 the OPWP.