Sacyr Vallehermoso, a leading Spanish construction company, said a consortium led by its subsidiary Valoriza Agua has won a $1.2-billion construction contract for a 250,000-cu-m-per-day reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant in Sohar region of Oman.

The contract was awarded by Oman Power & Water Procurement Company to the consortium comprising Valoriza Water (51 per cent), Oman Brunei Investment Company (25 per cent) and Sogex Oman (24 per cent).

It includes the purchase of the plant's drinking water output under a 20-year water purchase agreement.

The project, located on the Batinah coast, is one of the largest investments in desalination of seawater in Oman. It is scheduled to begin operation in 2018.

Sacyr pointed out that the contract consolidates the group's strategy and strengthens its presence in the Middle East.

Spain's Valoriza Agua has designed and built more than 100 plants with a total production of 1.7 million cu m per day of desalinated water, making it the sixth largest company in the world in terms of contracted capacity of desalinated water for the period 2006- 2013.-TradeArabia News Service