GDF SUEZ wins 1.7 billion USD contract for 2 new power stations in Oman

Total investment will be around 1,700 MUSD for both projects, in which GDF SUEZ will own a 46% stake. The electricity produced by each project will be sold under a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement to the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company.  The partners bid with a consortium of Siemens AG and GS Engineering of South Korea as their EPC contractor.
“Oman is where our operations in the Middle East originated. In 1994 our Group laid the foundation for a vast development of Independent Power and Water projects in the entire Gulf area with the Al Manah Power Project. The Middle East remains an important growth market and contributes significantly to GDF  SUEZ’s international expansion,” commented Dirk Beeuwsaert, Executive Vice President GDF SUEZ, in charge of Energy Europe & International.
Today, GDF SUEZ’s interests in the Omani power sector consist of three assets: Barka 2 and Sohar, both power and desalination plants, and Al Rusail, a gas-fired power plant. Together they represent an installed capacity of 1,921 MW and a water production of 268,000 m3/day. The Group also has a robust operations and maintenance structure already in place in the Sultanate. Barka 3 and Sohar 2 will be adjacent to GDF SUEZ’s existing Barka 2 and Sohar IWPPs, both northwest of the capital Muscat.
Oman has an installed capacity of 3,600 MW and a rapidly expanding power market. Spare capacity is scarce and the Sultanate has a 7-years plan to increase its capacity to 5,900 MW by 2015.
With over 15 years of experience in the Gulf countries, GDF SUEZ is the leading private power developer in the region with approximately 17,000 MW power capacity and more than 2.8 million m? of water per day of desalination capacity in operation or under construction. GDF SUEZ also recently won the tender for Riyadh IPP, a greenfield gas-fired power plant in Saudi Arabia that will soon go into construction, and is constructing four IWPPs in Bahrain (Al Dur), Abu Dhabi (Shuweihat 2), Qatar (Ras Laffan C) and Saudi Arabia (Marafiq, the world’s largest power and desalination installation). The Group also treats over 400,000 m3/day of recycled and reused water and offers engineering and waste management solutions.