A team of Germany's Siemensand Saudi Arabia's Arabian Bemco Contractinghas been selected for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build the Marib power station. The Siemens/Bemco team offered to build the single-cycle Marib plant at a price of $159 million, the highest of all four offers submitted earlier this year but the lowest on a price per kW basis. The two companies have offered to install 341.4 MW at Marib, which is equivalent to about $466 per kW. Germany's Lahmeyer Internationalhas the contract to supervise the construction of the power plant.

PEC has selected Hyundai Engineering & Construction Companyof South Korea for the EPC contract to build the project's 200-kilometre, 400-kV transmission line. Hyundai offered the lowest price at $59.9 million.

The EPC package covering the construction of the project's 400-kV and 132-kV gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) substations has been awarded to Iran's Parsian High Voltage Substations DevelopmentCompany. Parsian's bid to build the substation was priced at $45.8 million.

Germany's Fichtnerhas been selected by PEC for the contract to supervise construction of the substation and transmission line, pending the approval of the committee. The government is financing the consultancy contract, while the other packages will receive funding from the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) and the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic & Social Development (AFESD).

Lahmeyer is pressing ahead with work on the contract to draw up tender documents for a planned second-phase development at Marib for PEC, to be carried out as an independent power project (IPP). Marib phase 2 calls for a 400-MW power unit. It is expected to go for tender in the first quarter of 2005.