BG's IPP starts to take shape

10 May 2002

Plans for Tunisia's second independent power project (IPP) are taking shape. Project promoter, the UK's BG Group, is holding discussions with the government over the development of the combined cycle power plant and international contractors are preparing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bids for the project. The plant is expected to have a capacity of 500 MW, with all the electricity being supplied to state-owned Societe Tunisienne de l'Electricite & du Gaz (STEG).

BG is planning to use unprocessed gas feedstock for the IPP, known as Barca, from Miskar and other fields it operates in Tunisia. The company is the largest foreign operator in the North African state and is planning to develop a new offshore discovery, Hasdrubal (MEED 3:5:02, Oil & Gas).

BG has invited up to eight international contractors to submit EPC bids by a revised closing date of 3 June. Prospective bidders are understood to include Paris-based Alstom, Italy's Enelpowerand US-based Bechtel.

The plant is scheduled to come on stream in 2005 or 2006.

Tunisia's first IPP, the 471-MW Rades station, is due to come on stream in late May. It will be owned and operated by Carthage Power Company, whose foreign shareholders are the US' PSEG Globaland Japan's Marubeni Corporation(MEED 26:4:02).

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