AMMAN (Zawya Dow Jones)--Iraq said Saturday that six
international companies have submitted bids to build a
1,500-megawatt power plant in the central Iraqi province of
Anbar.
"The competing companies are Italy's Saipem SpA, Greece-based
Metka (METKK.AT), South Korea's Hyundai Engineering Co. (00720.SE),
Turkey's Gama and a consortium consists of Italy's Techint
Engineering and Turkey's Calik," Musaab Al Mudaris, the Iraqi
electricity ministry's spokesman, said in a statement.
The tender committee at the ministry will study the offers and
submit a recommendation to the ministry within one month, he said.
"One of these companies or consortium will be awarded the
contract," he added.
Al Mudaris said the power project, which will be carried out on
a turnkey basis, will be completed within 33 months from the start
of work. Two units of the power station will be operated by gas,
while the remaining two will be operated by other fuel.
Iraq, which suffers from an acute power shortage, hopes to at
least double its power generation capacity, which stands at only
6,500 megawatts--less than half of the country's actual electricity
requirements.
Nine years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq's national grid
provides only a few hours of power each day during summer when
temperatures soar to 50 degrees Celsius.
The ministry last year opened bids to build seven large power
plants across the country that could boost its power generating
capacity by 4,000 MW. Most of these projects were awarded earlier
this year.
- By Hassan Hafidh; Dow Jones Newswires; +962 799 831 831;
hassan.hafidh@dowjones.com
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