Aquatech International Corporation, a US-based provider of water purification technology solutions, has won a contract to supply a wastewater recycling and reuse plant, valued at over US$100mn, for the Mukhaizna enhanced oil recovery project in Oman.

Pennsylvania-based Aquatech will export the state of the art wastewater recycle/reuse facility with the help of a US$23mn working capital loan guarantee from US Ex-Im Bank.

The loan from PNC Bank in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will provide Aquatech with working capital to fulfil its contract to supply equipment and related services to Occidental Mukhaizna and Contractors Technical Services.

The facility will use mechanical vapour compression-based evaporation technology to desalinate and recycle wastewater that will be generated during the development of the potentially prolific Mukhaizna field in central Oman one of the largest in the sultanate.

Occidental Mukhaizna, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, is the operator of the Mukhaizna (Block 53) field. The company, which signed a production sharing agreement with the government of Oman for the development of the oilfield in June last year, plans to invest around US$3bn in harnessing its hydrocarbon potential.

Occidental Mukhaizna plans to use steam-flooding to ramp up production from the current output of roughly 8,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to reach a target of 150,000 bpd within five years.

The company aims to recover 1bn barrels of heavy oil from Mukhaizna over the life of the project, from its present estimated reserves of 2bn barrels.

Occidental Petroleum holds a 45% interest in Occidental Mukhaizna, while the rest is shared by the government of Oman, through Oman Oil Company (20% stake), Shell Oman Trading Company (17%), Liwa Energy, an investment company of the government of Abu Dhabi (15%), Total E&P Oman (2%) and Partex Oman (1%).

The government, as owner of Mukhaizna’s hydrocarbon resources, will retain 80% of all revenue proceeds from the field’s output.