MUSCAT -- Majis Industrial Services Co, Oman's leading integrated industrial water solutions provider, has signed an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract with a joint venture between Spanish infrastructure firm Tecnicas Reunidas and the Belgian construction group BESIX's middle east arm Six Construct for the construction of Sea Water Intake Pumping Station 2 (SWIPS2) at SOHAR Port and Freezone.
The RO 27 million-contract was awarded through a tendering process and is expected to be completed in 27 months inclusive of the three-month trial phase. The station will be able to provide nearly 320,000m3/hr of industrial cooling water for the tenants operating at Sohar Industrial Port Area.
Chairman Nabil bin Abdullah al Ghassani and CEO Rahma al Musharafi represented Majis, while Macario Sanchez Magdaleno and Pierre Sironval represented Tecnicas and Six Construct as General Manager and Managing Director respectively at the contract signing ceremony.
In an informal chat after the signing in ceremony, Nabil al Ghassani urged the contracting companies to support Omanisation by recruiting local engineering expertise. "Instead of waiting for the whole project to complete and then start looking for Omani technicians for the O&M phase, we must try to bring in Omani talent now itself so that knowledge and skill transfer occurs real-time during design and construction," he said.
Commenting on SWIPS2, Khurram Shahid, Planning and Projects Manager at Majis said, "Our first station SWIPS 1 became operational in 2006 and within a period of 5 years full plant capacity was utilised necessitating establishment of the second seawater pumping station (SWIPS II). The combined (SWIPS I & SWIPS II) capacity will make this facility one of the largest such installations in the Middle East. The seawater is screened and chlorinated to remove suspended, macro and microbiological elements being water is supplied to the industrial users. "
More than 30 experts from the contracting companies will be stationed on site over the project period. Mr Macario said that the project is highly critical and time-bound, and involves complex hydraulic modelilng.
© Oman Daily Observer 2014
