Baghdad Co. for Gas Turbines Ltd. won a contract worth US$129.9mn to build a 500 MW power station in Najaf governorate in southern Iraq.
"The cabinet has decided to award a contract to Baghdad Co. for Gas Turbines Ltd. to build the gas-fired Al Haidariyah power station,? Mussab Al Mudaris, a spokesman for the electricity ministry was quoted as saying by Dow Jones Newswires.
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The project will be carried out on a turnkey basis and should be completed within 18 months from start of work. Turbines for the station have been bought already by the Iraqi government from General Electric Co. (GE), according to the official.
"We look forward to deliver state of the art power project with the support of the ministry of electricity and Najaf Governorate," said Mumtaz Rushdi, Baghdad Company's managing director.
Iraq suffers from an acute power shortage and wants #to at least double its power generation capacity, which stands at only 6,500 MW which is less than half of the country's actual electricity requirements.
The ministry announced earlier this year that it would build 50 small power plants by the summer of 2012 to alleviate shortages. The units, costing US$6.25 billion, would be installed by Caterpillar Inc., MAN SE (MAGOY) of Germany and a number of South Korean firms.
