By Ed Attwood
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Technical and financial advisory contracts for the Duqm coal-fired power plant have now been finalised, as Oman pushes forward in its bid to improve capacity.
WorleyParsons and KPMG, respectively, won the bids to build the 1,000MW station, the Sultanate’s first coal-powered generation site.
“The two contracts mean that we are going ahead with Oman’s first coal-fired power project at Duqum,” an official from the state-run Public Authority for Electricity and Water told Reuters.
The Duqm IWPP – worth an estimated US $2 billion, including its desal plant – is one of five major ventures that the Omani government is pursuing in order to match capacity to demand.
The others are the 420MW Mirbat plant, Barka III (650MW), Sohar II (650MW) and the upgrade of the Ghubrah plant in Muscat (additional 500MW).
The Sultanate’s lack of natural resources makes the coal-fired option feasible; over in the UAE, Ajman signed a deal with MMC last year to build a coal-fired plant in the emirate.
