(AFP, Paris) - The French energy firm TotalFinaElf said Tuesday that it had signed with other companies a contract worth $ 1.5 billion ( €1.64 billion) to enlarge a power generating station and a desalinisation plant in Abu Dhabi.
A joint venture with TotalFinaElf (20 percent), Belgian group Tractebel (20 percent), and the energy division of Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux together with the Abu Dhabi water and electrical authority (ADWEA, 60 percent), would carry out the contract, said the French firm.
The contract, which was won in a public bid, will increase generating capacity from 225 to 1,350 megawatts at the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Taweelah A-1 power plant. Capacity at a nearby desalinisation facility will be increased from 130,000 to roughly 380,000 cubic meters (4.55 - 13.3 million cubic feet) per day, making it "one of the largest co-generation centers in the world," TotalFinaElf said in a statement.
Other groups which bid for the contract included US firms CMS Energy, Enron, and Bechtel, the British company National Power, and the Japanese group Marubeni, the newspaper Gulf News reported on July 27.
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
