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New water desalination plant planned for Oman

The Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) is planning a new water desalination plant in Muscat to help meet growing daily water demand in Oman.

The plant, with a capacity of approximated 300,000 m3/day (66MIGD) will be located at Al Ghubrah, Muscat. The planned Ghubrah III IWP (Independent Water Project) is intended to be fully operational by 2022 and will be developed as a private sector project. The Request for Qualification document can be purchased until 19th February 2018 – deadline for bid submissions is 18th March 2018.

The existing 191,000 m3/d (42 MIGD) Ghubrah II IWP water desalination plant owned by the Muscat City Desalination Company and established under a Build, Own, Operate (BOO) scheme came into operation last year.

An older desalination scheme owned by the Al Ghubrah Power and Desalination Company and located at the same site currently operates under a power and water procurement agreement with OPWP which will be completed in September 2018. Due to the plant’s old age and low efficiency compared to modern stations, the plant, which is based on old-style Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) technology , will then be decommissioned.

Both the Al Ghubrah Power and Desalination Company (GPDCo) SAOC and Oman Power and Water Procurement Company are members of the wholly government owned Nama Group.

GPDCo is engaged in the generation of electricity and the desalination of water under a license issued by the Authority for Electricity Regulation. OPWP is responsible for procuring capacity for power and water and purchasing and selling the output in the Sultanate of Oman

Nama has flagged up a number of key challenges facing the Group in its latest Annual Report, including:

  • Lack of suitable land plots for the establishments of Group assets, especially electricity and water production plants.
  • Lack of legislation for the protection of the electric grid lines and assets.
  • Unavailability of natural gas to meet the steady increase in demand of electricity and water.
  • Increasing financing costs

The Government of Oman has launched a number of Independent Water Projects to meet growing demand for water in the region, including two major IWPs currently nearing completion in Barka and Suhar on the Sultanate’s Batinah coast.

According to local reports, OPWP is also considering plans for a new 200,000 m3/day (44 MIGD) capacity water scheme in North Al Batinah for launch in 2022.

Click here for more information about the Ghubrah III IWP tender

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