The GE/Fisia team beat off competition from one other shortlisted bidder, South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Company, to take the contract, which calls for the installation of 597 MW of power and 29.4 million gallons a day of desalination capacity. The contract is to be implemented on a fast-track basis with project completion set for the summer of 2007. HSBCis acting as financial adviser on the project; the technical adviser is the UK's Mott MacDonald.

Further new capacity is planned as the government seeks to meet rising power demand estimated at 10 per cent a year. The next project will be for phase 1 of the Mesaieed facility B project, which is to be undertaken on a build-operate basis. The request for proposals (RFP) is due out from Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) in November/December for the project, which will have capacity of 1,000-1,500 MW and possibly a desalination component. Phase 1 will supply the network in 2008. A second phase is planned, which will take the plant's generating capacity up to 2,500 MW. The technical adviser to Kahramaa on facility B is Germany's Fichtner.

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