Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has received bids for the Salalah and Sharqiyah independent water projects (IWPs).

The project owner received prices from three groups for each scheme. Eight groups had been prequalified to participate in the tenders. 

For the 22 million-imperial-gallon-a-day (MIGD) Salalah IWP, the three bidding groups are:

• JGC (Japan) / Bahwan Group (local) / Doosan (South Korea)
• ACS Cobra (Spain) / Tedagua (Spain)
• Acwa Power (Saudi Arabia) / Veolia (France)

For the 17.5MIGD Sharqiyah project, bids were received from:

• JGC / Bahwan Group  / Doosan 
• ACS Cobra / Tedagua 
• GS Inima (South Korea)

OPWP is targeting a commissioning date of early 2019 for the Salalah IWP and the second quarter of 2020 for the Sharqiyah scheme. Early water from the Sharqiyah plant may be required by the second quarter of 2019.

In June, MEED reported that OPWP was seeking advisers for a proposed new 50-72MIGD desalination plant in the Muscat/Barka area by 2021.

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