ONEIC to manufacture its own RO desalination plants

Oman National Engineering & Investment Company (ONEIC) is planning to manufacture reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination plants in Oman as the demand for water in the country is expected to grow by about 8% each year until 2017.

ONEIC’s CEO Eng Mohammed al Saleh told Muscat Daily that the company intends to start building the plants at the Rusayl Industrial Estate.

He said, “We have already signed an agreement with one of the companies which builds these plants. It is in keeping with our core business.” ONEIC will prefabricate plant components in Rusayl and move them to client sites for assembly.

Saleh was speaking following the announcement that ONEIC had won a RO 1.8 million (US$ 4.7 million) contract to build an RO desalination plant in Murasti in the Al Wusta region.

The company has identified the water services sector as a key growth sector in the coming years, as demand for desalinated water is expected to increase in the sultanate from 163 million m³ in 2010 to 278 million m³ in 2017, according to a 2010 study by Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP).

The company has built or is building five desalination plants for Petroleum Development of Oman totaling 7,500 m³/d, nine small plants for the Ministry of Housing Electricity & Water, and seawater or brackish water plants for the ministry at Sur, Al Khiron, Sadah and Dhalqut.

In the first quarter of 2011, the company’s net profit grew almost 16% to RO 791,617 (US$ 2.05 million) from RO 685,138 (US$ 1.78 million) in the corresponding period of 2010.