Doosan wins Oman power contract
Oman’s Sohar Power Company (SPC) has awarded South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries a $380-million contract to build a power plant in the state.
SPC said the 585 MW power station should be completed by April 2006 with the contract also including the construction of a 30 million gallons per day desalination plant.
SPC is a joint venture of Omani investors and Tractebel, a Belgian unit of French utilities group Suez. The firm was in June awarded a contract by the government to develop, own and operate the power plant in the northeast of the country. SPC has signed a 15-year, $549-million syndicated loan deal with local and foreign banks to finance the plant.
The plant will fuel Oman’s biggest projects including the Sohar refinery and polypropylene and fertiliser plants.
Gas power plant built
The Syrian government plans to switch from oil-based to gas-based electricity generation, with the building a 750 MW natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant in Deir-Ali, south of Damascus.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing Syria with a euro 200 million ($259 million) loan to part-finance the estimated project cost of $350 million. The power plant will comprise two 250 MW gas turbines and a 250 MW steam turbine. The erection of the plant is expected to take over 30 months. The loan will go to the Public Establishment of Electricity for Generation and Transmission (PEEGT).
Road show planned
Pakistan has said it will hold road shows to attract $1 billion in investments a year from the Middle East and Europe to its power sector, which is expected to face a shortfall of 5,529 MW by 2010.
“The country needs at least $1 billion of investment in the power sector annually... we have planned road shows in Dubai and London to attract foreign investors,” Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Aziz said. Pakistan received billions of dollars of investment between 1992 and 1996 from foreign companies, which set up independent power plants.
Iraq electricity supply to increase
The US hopes to boost the availability of electricity throughout Iraq to at least 18 hours a day by the end of 2005 from 11 to 15 hours now. US Agency for International Development administrator Andrew Natsios said power generation would rise from a daily average of 5,000 MW now to 5,500 to 6,000 MW by the middle of 2005. The level before the 2003 US invasion was around 4,400 MW.
“Despite the insurgency in some areas of the country, our programme is moving forward,” Natsios said at a State Department news briefing. “Right now (early December 2004), we have 11 to 15 hours of electricity around the country. We expect to get to 18 to 20 hours by the end of 2005.”
Power firms established
UAE President Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi, has set up two new companies.
The Al Taweelah United Power company will be a public joint stock venture with a capital of Dh1.3 billion ($354 million). It will have 130 million shares each of a nominal value Dh10 and all the nominal shares will be owned by the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea).
Another decree called for establishing the Taweelah Asia Power Company as an industrial private joint stock firm to develop, own, operate and maintain power generation and water projects.
Plans confirmed
Switchgear and cable management system manufacturer Power Solution Industries has confirmed plans to set up production facilities in Sharjah and Dubai.
The first facility, located at the Sharjah Airport International Free (Saif) Zone, will make panel enclosures. Investment in the facility is estimated at Dh4 million ($1.1 million). The production lines will be fully automated. The company is also considering the possibility of obtaining a plot in the Dubai Investments Park for the second facility. This will be used to produce cable management systems and structural steel fabrication works, said the report.
