Sumitomo, Malakoff, Cadagua Fund $300 Million Oman Desalination Plant

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Sumitomo Corporation (OTC:SSUMY) (Tokyo, Japan), Malakoff Corporation Berhad (Malaysia) and Cadagua S.A. (Bilbao, Spain) are funding Oman's largest independent water project (IWP), reports the advisor for the project. The international law firm Trowers & Hamlins advised the project sponsor consortium, and the funding institutions are led by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (Tokyo) in a build-own-operate (BOO) financial structure.

Mott Macdonald (Croydon, England) has been appointed to be the engineering company for the project.

The $300 million Ghubrah project includes a desalination plant with a daily capacity of 190,000 cubic meters. The plant will use reverse-osmosis technology to produce enough fresh water to satisfy the daily consumption needs of 800,000 people.

The plant will be run by Muscat City Desalination Company, under a 20-year water purchase agreement with Oman Power and Water Procurement Company. The current schedule is on the fast track, with commissioning planned for October 2014.

Oman's daily water demand is about 700,000 cubic meters, and it is forecasted to maintain an annual growth of up to 3%. Demand is greatest in the metropolitan area around Muscat, causing the government to plan the launch of multiple IWPs to meet the rising requirement.

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