The firms are Marafeq, a joint venture of Syria’s Cham Holding and several Kuwaiti firms, with Finland’s Wartsila; and Greece’s Terna Energy.

The Syrian utility is now working on a power-purchase agreement, and plans to issue a request for proposals in October.

In July, MEED reported that three other groups had also submitted prequalification documents for the scheme (MEED 10:7:09).

The Public Establishment wants to build the 250-350MW IPP at Al-Nassirieh, 60 kilometres north of Damascus. It will run on both heavy fuel oil and gas.

The winning developer will own half of the equity in the project company, and the state is expected to list the remaining 50 per cent on the Damascus Securities Exchange.