RIYADH, 19 August 2003. In a major effort to cope with surging power requirements, Saudi Arabia has awarded a SR544 million contract to Siemens of Germany for the construction of a gas turbine power plant.
The Jubail plant will be located on the Arabian Gulf, approximately 100 kilometers north of Dammam, according to Erich Kaeser, chief executive officer of Siemens Limited in the Kingdom.
Kaeser told Arab News: “Siemens will construct the first gas turbine power plant with process steam extraction and the plant will have a capacity of over 500 tons of steam per hour. The facility should become fully operational in May 2005 with a capacity to produce some 260 megawatts,” he explained.
The power plant will be owned by Jubail Energy Company and will provide power for the petrochemical company, SADAF.
Commenting on the award of the contract to Siemens, Oliver Bientzle, first secretary for economic affairs at the German Embassy, said: “We are very happy that a German company has won this major contract.”
As for contract details, Kaeser said that the gas-fired plant would be equipped with two Siemens 501D gas turbines, manufactured at the company’s plant in Hamilton, Canada.
In addition, the two generators will come from Siemens’ manufacturing plant in Erfurt, Germany. The company will also supply the Tele-perm XP instrumentation and control equipment as well as the two heat-recovery steam generators. The Siemens chief said that the power plant unit would be exclusively gas-fired. The power generated in Jubail will mainly be purchased by SADAF.
Excess electricity from the plant can be fed into the public grid. “With this order in Saudi Arabia and another recent power plant order in Kuwait, Siemens PG is further expanding its strong position in the Gulf,” Kaeser said.
The Power Generation Group of Siemens AG is one of the most important companies in the international power generation sector.
M. Ghazanfar Ali Khan Arab News Staff
© Arab News 2003
