The US’ General Electric Company (GE) been awarded contracts totalling $500m to provide equipment and long-term services to Emirates Aluminium’s (Emal) smelter complex in Taweelah, Abu Dhabi.

The contracts have been awarded directly and as sub-contracts via engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies on Emal’s original smelter and its ongoing phase 2 expansion, the company revealed.

For phase 2, GE is providing gas and steam turbines, generators and a plant-wide control system, while the company will also overhaul Emal’s power plant turbines in December 2013.

Emal is investing about $5bn in phase 2 to expand the Taweelah smelter’s capacity to 1.3 million tonnes a year (t/y) from the current limit of 800,000 t/y by 2014.

The company is a joint venture of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Company and Dubai Aluminium (Dubal).