The Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has received and opened prequalification entries for the contracts to build independent water projects (IWPs) at three locations in the sultanate.

OPWP opened the prequalification entries from 10 prospective bidding groups on 17 January.

The groups which submitted prequalification entries, with lead developer first, were:

• Abengoa (Spain), Seven Seas Water Corporation (US), Modern Channel Services
• GSInima (South Korea/Spain)
• Hyflux (Singapore)
• Sembcorp (Singapore)
• Marubeni (Japan)
• JGC (Japan)
• Sojitz Corporation (Japan)
• Acwa Power (Saudi Arabia)/Veolia (France)/ Dhofar International Development & Investment (local)
• Degremont (now called Suez) (France)/Itochu (Japan)
• Tedagua (Spain)

MEED reported in October that OPWP was preparing to issue the request for qualification (RFQ) documents for the three IWPs.

The planned Salalah and Sharqiyah IWPs will have capacities of about 22 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD) and 17.6MIGD respectively.

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

In addition to the Salalah and Sharqiyah schemes, OPWP is planning a smaller 13.2MIGD IWP in Duqm, depending on government approvals.

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.