Market brief
Oman
The authorities that procure water infrastructure in Oman, how the deals are put together, and what is in the pipeline.
Reference profile for OmanMarket snapshot
The commercial picture in Oman: the scale of the economy and the water sector, the investment climate, and where the near-term activity is concentrated.
Political stability
World Bank Governance Indicators, 2024. Percentile among all countries; higher is more stable.
Investment climate
World Bank Governance Indicators, 2024. Regulatory quality for private investment; higher is better.
Financing & PPP
- PPP frameworkActive (RO IWPs at Barka, Sur, Sohar)
- Tracked pipelineUS$ 3.3 bn in our projects register
- Active fundersSovereign budget, Project finance
- Climate adaptation planIn preparation
Opportunities
- RO IWP expansion along the coast
- Aflaj restoration & aquifer recharge
- Reuse for agriculture
- Solar-powered desalination
Key challenges
- Coastal desalination dependence
- Falaj (aflaj) heritage system decline
- Aquifer salinity
- Demand growth
Sources: FAO AQUASTAT / national reports (latest available); World Bank 2023–24. Figures approximate. Governance indicators: World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (2024).
Contracting authorities
The bodies that commission, regulate and operate water infrastructure in Oman. Ministries set policy and sign the offtake; utilities run the assets; regulators set the tariff and the service standard.
- Ministry of Housing & Urban PlanningMinistry
- Authority for Public Services Regulation (APSR)Regulator
- Nama Water Services (ex-Diam)Utility
- Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Water ResourcesBasin & resources authority
- Oman Power & Water Procurement Co. (OPWP)PPP procurer
How deals are structured
The framework in Oman is Active (RO IWPs at Barka, Sur, Sohar), the schemes we track carry US$ 3.3 bn of disclosed value, and the funders most active in the sector are Sovereign budget, Project finance.
Delivery splits by asset class across the region: dams and trunk conveyance are mostly engineering contracts carried by sovereign or development-bank finance; bulk supply increasingly uses build-operate-transfer concessions against a long-term offtake; and distribution work is let as performance-based contracts paid against measured leakage reduction. The Finance & Economics hub sets out each model and where it has been used.
The projects register bears this out. Of the 25 tracked schemes in Oman, 4 name a concession structure in the finance note; the rest record only where the money came from, which is not the same as saying they were not concessions.
How to bid
Oman has two procurement channels and a common mistake about which law governs them. Royal Decree 52/2019 and its 2020 implementing regulations do allow partnership contracts of up to 50 years, with competitive tendering, a 30-day bidding period reducible to 15, limited direct award in the public interest, and an unsolicited route through which a project partnership idea goes to the partnership authority with cost reimbursement and a right to match.32 Water projects, however, are procured under the sector regime, and Royal Decree 40/2023 is now its water half.1
| Procuring bodies | Nama Power and Water Procurement for bulk desalination as single buyer; Nama Water Services for wastewater and networks. The older name, OPWP, is still in circulation.54 |
|---|---|
| Which law applies | Royal Decree 40/2023 covers desalination, water transport, wastewater and groundwater wells, includes a tariff chapter and a chapter on market liberalisation, and allows both the procurer and the working companies to contract for water. That flexibility is why the 2025 sewage package was tendered by Nama Water Services rather than by the single buyer.14 |
| Route | Pre-qualification then invited bid in both channels. The Al Ansab phase three and Al Amerat phase two package is procured on a build-own-operate-transfer model, with pre-qualification closing on 16 December 2025; the concession length was not published.4 |
| Local content | In-country value is run by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals and is strongest in oil, gas and minerals, with the Tender Board concentrating on local content for government-sponsored procurement. Expect an in-country value plan and Omanisation commitments to be scored; no water-specific percentage is published.6 |
| Tax | Withholding tax of 10% of gross income on royalties, research and development, software, management fees and the provision of services to a non-resident without a permanent establishment. Withholding on dividends and interest has been suspended since January 2023. VAT is 5% and appears on the utility’s own fee schedule.7 |
The reference transaction is Ghubrah III, 300,000 cubic metres a day of reverse osmosis, which reached financial close in December 2024 with about US$370 million of project finance: GS Inima with Aljomaih Energy and Water and SOGEX Oman, lenders KEXIM, Standard Chartered and Bank Dhofar, client Nama Power and Water Procurement.5 What could not be established: payment security, dispute forum, governing law, and the single buyer’s own published tariff and plan, because its site and the regulator’s were unreachable at the network layer.
Regulatory intelligence
| Regulation | Status | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Water Sector Master Plan | Active | 2015–2040 | Efficiency, reuse and resource protection. |
| Water and wastewater sector law (RD 40/2023) | In force | 2023 | APSR sets network standards; market opening with cabinet approval. |
| IWP framework (Nama PWP) | Active | — | Competitive desalination procurement. |
| Water Resources Protection Law (RD 29/2000) | In force | 2000 | Licences for wells and any change to a falaj. |
Primary references: Nama Water Services and the APSR.
Projects
Tracked schemes in Oman, largest first. Each has its own page with the parties, the finance and a dated history.
25 tracked in total. The full set, filterable, is in the major projects register.
Track record
What has actually been signed in Oman, from the awards log and the major projects register.
Disclosed value by year
US$ bn of tracked awards in Oman carrying a published value
6 further awards in this sector carry no published value and are not in the chart.
| Year | Project | Winning firms | US$ m |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 on line | Muscat and Sharqiyah Water and Wastewater Services Partnership (Cluster 1) | National Sustainable Water Alliance LLC, a consortium of Suez, National Trading Company LLC and National Energy Center SAOC | n/a |
| 2024 | Ghubrah 3 IWP | GS Inima | 325 |
| 2024 on line | Duqm Desalination | Tedagua, Grupo Cobra, design and construction | n/a |
| 2021 on line | Salalah 3 SWRO | Fisia Italimpianti and Abengoa | 210 |
| 2020 | Barka 5 IWP | GS Inima, Fisia Italimpianti | 129 |
| 2019 on line | Sohar Desalination | Sacyr Sadyt | 216 |
| 2018 on line | Aseelah IWP | Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction | 180 |
| 2018 on line | Barka 4 IWP | Suez, design, construction and commissioning | n/a |
| 2010 on line | Al Ansab Sewage Treatment Plant | ACWA Power, Kubota | n/a |
| 2009 on line | Barka 2 IWPP | Degremont, a Suez subsidiary, for the desalination plant; Ansaldo Energia gas turbines to Siemens design | n/a |
| 2006 on line | Wadi Dayqah Dam | VINCI Construction Grands Projets | n/a |
| 2003 on line | Barka 1 IWPP | Ansaldo and Hitachi Zosen | 410 |
Years without a label are award years from the curated log; rows marked on line are dated by commissioning, from the projects register. 12 rows in total for Oman.
Repeat winners
- GS Inima2 tracked awards
Firms or consortia appearing on two or more tracked awards in Oman.
Pipeline & tenders
Structured procurements and live tenders in Oman, drawn from the same review that maintains the pipeline tracker.
Pipeline & awards
Tenders
Prices
What households pay
| Household tariff (US$/m³) | Cost of supply (US$/m³) | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1.72 – 3.43 | not published | 2025 | Nama Water Services, services tariffs and fees; Nama Dhofar Services 2025 schedule |
OMR 0.660/m³ for a citizen household with two accounts or fewer; OMR 0.770 for a citizen above two accounts and for expatriate residential; OMR 1.320 for commercial and government. Wastewater adds OMR 0.154 to 0.231/m³ and a monthly sewage fee.
Residential tariffs, and the cost of supply where a utility publishes it, are kept in one place for the whole region so the comparison holds: a tariff means little without the cost it is measured against.
Watch list
What has actually moved in Oman, dated, from the monthly briefings. Each item names the edition it came from.
- 2025-12Qualification for the Al Ansab and Al Amerat expansions closed on 16 December with no published result.August 2026 briefing
The full editions are in the briefing archive.
Sources
12 references
Project, pipeline and tender records are compiled from procurer announcements, lender disclosures and trade reporting; each project page carries its own source and the date it was last checked. Institutions are from the decision-maker directory. Economic and water indicators are cited on the reference profile.
- Decree Blog, “Regulating the waterworks: the new water and wastewater sector law”, on Royal Decree 40/2023.
- CMS, Oman’s public-private partnership legislation. A law-firm guide; the decree text itself is behind a login.
- Trowers & Hamlins, the implementing regulations of the partnership law, June 2020.
- InfraPPP World, “Oman launches PPP tender for expansion of two key sewage treatment plants”, 2025.
- GS Inima, financial close of the Ghubrah III desalination plant, 9 January 2025.
- Oman Observer, “Omanisation and ICV: a comprehensive overview”, 3 May 2025.
- PwC, Oman: withholding taxes, worldwide tax summaries.
- FAO, AQUASTAT — Global Information System on Water and Agriculture: country water resources, withdrawals by sector and dam register. fao.org/aquastat. Latest country values as compiled at build.
- World Bank, World Development Indicators and country water-sector reporting. data.worldbank.org.
- Kaufmann & Kraay, Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank), 2024 update — political-stability and regulatory-quality scores, 0–100, shown in the market snapshot. worldbank.org/wgi.
- World Resources Institute, Aqueduct 4.0 Water Risk Atlas (2023) — the sub-basin risk, stress and groundwater-decline layers on the interactive maps. wri.org/aqueduct.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
Numbered references are linked from the superscript markers in the text. Figures without a marker come from the sources above as compiled in the site methodology.