Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has signed a water purchase agreement (WPA) with Qurayyat Desalination Company.

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 cubic metres a day (cm/d) and will use reverse osmosis (RO) technology. The plant is scheduled to be completed in 2017.

According to Oman’s IWP laws, shares must be floated on the Muscat Securities Market.

The WPA covers a period of 20 years, between 2017 and 2037.

Hydrochem, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hyflux, will be the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor. Operation and maintenance of the IWP will be carried out by another Hyflux subsidiary, to be incorporated in Oman.

The IWP will be located in Qurayyat, just south of Muscat.

Local press reported it would cost RO100m ($260m) to develop.

Hyflux was selected for the scheme in December 2014.

Prequalification for two IWPs, in Barka and Sohar, is under evaluation. The new Barka RO desalination plant will have a capacity of 280,000 cm/d, while the Sohar facility will have a capacity of 250,000 cm/d.

Water demand in the sultanate is expected to grow at more than 6 per cent until 2020, according to OPWP.