Contractors are to submit bids for the deal to build the Marib 2 power plant in Yemen on 15 July with a second contract covering the Marib 3 plant to follow in the second half of this year.

One source close to the project tells MEED the simple cycle Marib 2 plant will have a capacity of approximately 380-480MW of power.

The client, Public Electricity Corporation, has prequalified eight companies for the scheme.

They include Germany's Siemens, Italy's Ansaldo, Saudi Arabia's National Contracting Company, India's Bharat Heavy Electricals and China's Dongfang Electric Corporation.

The project is financed by the Saudi Fund for Development, the Arab Fund for Economic & Social Development and the Yemeni government. Germany's Fichtner is the consultant on the project.

The Public Electricity Corporation also issued a tender for the third phase of the Marib plant with the same deadline for the submission of bids. It has prequalified the same group of eight companies for the Marib 3 scheme, which will add a further 300MW of capacity at the site, as for the phase two plant.

However, contractors say the deadline for Marib 3 is likely to be extended while they seek clarifications about the project from the client after the tender simply referred them to the same specifications for Marib 2.

Meanwhile, the first phase of the Marib plant is due to be commissioned by the end of the summer. The project was delayed by difficulties surrounding the construction of the associated substation and transmission line.

A bidding group of Siemens and Saudi Arabia's Arabian Bemco won the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the 341MW Marib 1 plant in early 2005.

Sanaa originally tendered the Marib 2 plant as a 400MW independent power project (IPP) but this was scrapped in 2005.