The Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) will hold a meeting on 10 January to shortlist bidders on the two independent power plants (IPPs) Barka 3 and Sohar 2.

A total of eight bids were received in early December for the two projects, and the OPWP will now produce a shortlist of about four consortiums. In an attempt to get the process moving quickly, there was no prequalification stage before bids were made. Instead the OPWP will now select a shortlist of bidders which meet the technical and financial requirements.

The two IPPs are being developed in a joint process which will add a total production capacity of around 1,450MW to the country.

The bidders for the two plants are Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power International, with Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation and South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction as its contractors; Japan’s Marubeni Corporation with Chubu Electric, also of Japan, and Qatar Electricity & Water Company; the UK’s International Power, with UAE-based Mubadala Development Company and the local National Trading Company, and French contractor Alstom; Saudi Oger and Korea Electric Power Corporation with South Korean contractor Daewoo Engineering & Construction; Belgium’s Suez Energy International with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Jomaih Group, and Germany’s Siemens and South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction as its contractors; and India’s Lanco Infratech with Korea Plant Service & Engineering and Balkan Energy Company.

Iran’s Mapna Group bid to develop Sohar 2.