Oman Power and Water Procurement Co (OPWP) has signed project agreements to build, own and operate Sur Independent Power Project (IPP).
The Sur IPP is the biggest power project ever undertaken by the sultanate and will provide 2,000MW of capacity by 2014.
OPWP signed the project agreement on Wednesday with a consortium comprising Marubeni Corp, Chubu Electric Power Co, Qatar Electricity and Water Co and Multitech, of the Bahwan Engineering Company group, to build the Sur IPP.
The project will cost US$$1.5bn attracting many strong international power companies. The power plant will be located at the Sur Industrial Estate and will utilise natural gas, supplied by the Ministry of Oil and Gas, for power generation.
The project will come on stream in two phases, with early power of 433MW available from April 2013 and the remaining 1,567MW from April 2014. The power purchase agreement between OPWP and the project company, Phoenix Power Co, will last for 15 years.
The project agreements were signed on behalf of the government by H E Dr Abdulmalik Abdullah al Hinai, deputy chairman of the Electricity Holding Co; H E Nasser bin Khamis al Jashmi, undersecretary for the Ministry of Oil and Gas; H E Ahmed Hassan al Dheeb, undersecretary for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and deputy chairman of the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates; Eng Ahmed Saleh al Jahdhami, deputy chairman of OPWP and Saif bin Abdullah bin Rashid al Sumry, chairman of Oman Electricity Transmission Co.
Eng Jahdhami said, "OPWP is pleased to welcome Phoenix Power Co into the family of the private sector's projects. More efforts are to be put in the coming years from everybody to meet the deadline of project as it is quite challenging."
H E Dr Abdulmalik al Hinai, deputy chairman of the Electricity Holding Co said, "Having a power project in Sur will be very beneficial as it will supply power to projects in Barka, Sohar and Alkamil."
Fahad al Mohannadi, general manager of Qatar Electricity of Electricity and Water Co, said, "This project comes in the frame of the economic cooperation between Oman and Qatar. Good management practices and transparency in operations in Oman are among the leading factors of attracting Qatari companies to invest in this brotherly country."
The competitive tendering process for the IPP was undertaken by OPWP in accordance with supervision of Tender Board and the authority for electricity regulation and was completed on time.
© Muscat Daily 2011
