Times of Oman reported that 13 companies have presented their bid offers for a project to construct cooling water intake and discharge station at the Sohar Industrial Estate.

The tender board invited tenders to present their bids for the same on October 30th 2012. Construction of Phase II of the project comes as a response to the increasing demand for cooling water at Sohar Industrial Estate following emergence of new industries in the area. The capacity of the new station is expected to reach 250,000 cubic meters per hour.

The list of companies presented their bid offers included Parsons International, WS Atkins International, Worley Parsons Oman Engg, Malcolm Pirnie for Engineering Consultation (Oman), KEO International Consultants (Muscat branch) Yas Engineering Consultations, Al Hatmy Engineering Consultancy, Monenco Consulting Engineers, National Engineering Bureau, NJS-Consultants (Oman), Century Architects Consulting Engineers, AAW Consulting Engineers and Associated Consulting Engineers International.

The bid offer ranged from OMR 550, 000 to OMR 1.3 million. The departments concerned at the Tender Board and Majis Industrial Service Company, the company operating the station will study the bid offer prior to award of the tender. Phased II of the project comes within the rapid growth of the Sohar Industrial Port following the increase of the project at the area. The first phase of the project makes available at present 334, 000 cubic meters of treated cooling water per hour for the use of 13 industrial units.

The cooling of sea water intake and discharge system is an attraction for mega industrial projects that use natural gas for their industrial operations at Sohar Industrial Port area. The cost of Phase I of the project for construction of cooling water intake and discharge station at the Sohar Industrial Estate which started operation in 2006 amounted to OMR 22 million.

(Sourced from Times of Oman)