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Oman invites bids for third private power plant

MUSCAT: Oman's ministry of electricity and water has invited bids for the construction of its third private power plant at Al-Sharqiya, a ministry official said on Sunday.

"We have issued a tender for the 240 MW (megawatt) plant in Al-Sharqiya as part of our power sell-off," Nabil al-Ghassani, the ministry's director of power privatisation, told Reuters.

The Al-Sharqiya power project would be established on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis, he added.

Ghassani said the government also planned to invite bids soon for a 400 MW power plant in the coastal town of Barka. This project has already been approved by the power privatisation committee, he said.

Last November, Oman appointed Dutch bank ABN AMRO AAH.AS, British group Mott MacDonald and law firm Denton Hall to draw up recommendations for privatising its national power industry.

The group submitted a report to the cabinet for review late last year and Ghassani said these plans had now been approved.

The privatisation drive is part of Oman's bid to increase the role of the private sector in its economy.

The Al-Manah power project, commissioned in 1996, was the first private power station among Gulf Arab states. In August last year, the sultanate awarded a letter of intent to an international consortium for a 200 MW plant in Salalah.

Oman, a medium-sized oil producer with production of 900,000 barrels per day (bpd), is also in the process of privatising its telecommunications and its only international airport.-Reuters