Leading international companies including French group GDF Suez, Singapore-based Hyflux, leading Spanish water technology company Valoriza and consortiums of Spain's Abengoa and French group Veolia are in the race for a $1-billion water desalination project in Oman.

All the five groups have entered the next phase of a competitive tender for a licence to build a pair of water desalination projects on the Batinah coast, reported the Oman Observer.

The water schemes costing $500 million each will be located at Sohar Industrial Port and Barka, respectively, constituting the single biggest procurement of new water desalination capacity in Oman’s modern history, said the report.

The Barka IWP (Independent Water Porject), with a contracted desalination capacity of 281,000 cu m per day, will be the larger of the two schemes, while the smaller Sohar IWP will be sized at 250,000 cu m per day of desalination capacity, it stated.

The state-run Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP), the sole procurer of all new power generation and water desalination capacity in the country, said three other groups, led by GS Inima, Itochu and JGC, were deemed “conditionally qualified” to participate, said the report.

Of these groups, two successful bidders will go on to secure a licence each to develop, finance, design, engineer, construct, own, operate and maintain one of the two water-only schemes, it added.