Oman Power & Water Company (OPWP) has awarded a contract to KPMG, SNR Denton and Fichtner to advise on a reverse-osmosis desalination plant at Al-Ghubrah.

The team will provide legal, financial and technical advisory services for the independent water project.

The team offered the lowest bid. The following groups submitted bids:

• KPMG (Oman office)/SNR Denton (Oman office)/Fichtner (Germany) – RO656,000 ($1.7m)
• PricewaterhouseCoopers (UK)/Ashurst (UK)/GHD (Australia) – RO727,279
• Ernst & Young (UK)/Glen House Capital Strategies (UK)/DLA Piper (UK)/Scott Wilson (UK) – RO790,000
• Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle (US)/Mott MacDonald (UK)/Project Financing Solutions (UK) – RO806,663
• Bank Muscat (Oman)/Allen & Overy (UK)/Worley Parsons (Australia) – RO1,158,595

The project was originally to be developed as an independent water and power project (IWPP). However, the power component of the project was dropped in June due to environmental concerns associated with the site. A UK-based consortium of Ernst & Young, DLA Piper and British Power International was appointed to advise on Al-Ghubrah IWPP, were transferred to the Sur IPP in July 2010.

The water desalination-only plant at Al-Ghubrah is expected to have a capacity of about 42 million gallons a day.

The reverse osmosis plant will help the sultanate to meet growing water demand requirements in the Muscat region.