Oman designates sites for new desalination plants

Oman’s power and water production procurer has identified new sites on the country’s coast for desalination plants with a total production potential for 250 million litres a day.

State-owned Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) said it has identified dozens of sites along the Sea of Oman, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean coasts suitable for hosting Independent Power Projects (IPPs) and Independent Water Projects (IWPs). The planned water production is scheduled to start in July 2018 under a 20-year Water Purchase Agreement OPWP said.
The locations form part of a coastal ‘land bank’ for development as power and water production sites to address domestic demand growth over the next 30 years, the company said in a recent report. OWP said it need to designate sites before suitable locations became scarce in the face of burgeoning infrastructure and commercial investment along the coast.
OPWP said it was pondering a more flexible process for the awarding of new water purchase agreements, aimed at increasing competition between new-build and existing plants.