State-owned Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has appointed three leading international financial, technical and legal consultancy firms for its ambitious water projects in the sultanate, said a report.

Global professional services firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers has been roped in to provide financial advisory services, while Spanish engineering consultancy giant Ayesa has been tapped to provide technical advisory services, reported Oman Observer.

International law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle has been retained to provide legal advisory services for these projects.

The three projects, which will together add 240,000 cu m per day of new capacity to the country’s potable water production infrastructure, represent the single largest procurement of water desalination capacity in the sultanate’s history, said the report.

The largest of the three schemes - a 100,000-cu-m-per-day-capacity plant - will be coming up at Salalah, adjoining the existing independent water and power project (IWPP) of Sembcorp near Taqah.

The joint advisory team will assist OPWP during the procurement via competitive tender of three new water-only schemes, for which a request for qualifications (RfQ) was issued a fortnight ago, stated the report.

OPWP is the sole procurer of all new electricity generation and water desalination capacity in the sultanate under the Sector Law.