Oman’s Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) expects to award the legal advisory contract for the planned Duqm independent water and power project (IWPP) at the end of November.

It held meetings with six law firms at its offices in Muscat in the second week of September.

They were the local Al-Alawi & Company; US firms Chadbourne & Parke and DLA Piper; and UK law firms Simmons & Simmons, Trowers & Hamlins and Clifford Chance.

OPWP has already awarded the technical and financial advisory contracts on the 1,000MW project, which is to be the sultanate’s first coal-fired power plant.

Australia’s WorleyParsons and KPMG won the technical and financial consultancy contracts respectively in early September.