Sunday, Jan 16, 2011
AMMAN (Dow Jones)--Turkey's Calik Enerji has signed a $445.5 million deal with the Iraqi ministry of electricity to build a gas-fired power plant in Karbala province south of Baghdad, a spokesman for the ministry said Sunday.
Mussab Al Mudaris said the deal is for the construction of the 1,250-megawatt Al Khayrat power station in Karbala governorate some 70 kilometers south of Baghdad.
The deal was signed in Baghdad by Iraq's deputy electricity minister Salam Kazzaz and the company's chief executive officer Ahmet Calik, he said. Deputy prime minister and acting electricity minister Hussein Al Shahristani and the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad were present at the signing, he added.
Turbines for the project have been bought already by the Iraqi government from General Electric Co. (GE), Mudaris said.
Iraq, which suffers from an acute power shortage, hopes to at least double its power generation capacity, which stands at only 7,000 megawatts--less than half of the country's actual electricity needs.
The ministry has recently opened bids to build seven large power plants across the country that could boost its power generating capacity by 4,000 MW.
More than seven 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. Power shortage is one of the public's top complaints now.
-By Hassan Hafidh, Dow Jones Newswires; +962 799 831831; hassan.hafidh@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
16-01-11 0753GMT
