Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the leading oil & gas exploration and production company in the Sultanate, will inaugurate the Rima Water Treatment Plant this week, reports Utilities Middle East.
The Governor of Dhofar, His Highness Sayyid Marwan bin Turki al Said, will attend the opening ceremony on the 1st of February, according to the Oman Observer.
The plant, at a cost of $226 million (87 million Omani rials), will use innovative and environmentally friendly techniques to dispose of oily wastewater from the oilfields in Rima, in the south of Oman.
The capacity of the treatment plant is 60,000 cubic metres per day, higher than the project’s design capacity of 40,000 cubic metres per day, resulting in a 10-gigawatt reduction in energy consumption. The project was awarded to Suez and partners Merit National Investments (LLC) and Al-Shawamikh Oil Services (SAOG).
The project is a Design Build Own Operate and Maintain (DBOOM) contract, according to PDO, and will prevent disposal of the produced water by drilling deep wells, thus leading to a reduction in greenhouse gases emissions associated with deep water disposal. The expected reduction in GHG emissions will be 48,000 tons per year.
A large desert area of about 5 square kilometres will provide wetland habitat for many species. The produced water will circulate through the built wetland and be purified through biological treatment, then will evaporate under the desert sun.
