'It [Ras al-Zour] is enormous,' said WEC contracts manager Farrah Andejani at the MEED Middle East Power & Desalination conference in Abu Dhabi. 'But it just goes to show the continuous demand for power and water in the kingdom.'

Requests for proposals (RFPs) are expected to be released in the third quarter for the massive cogeneration project, which is now expected to have an estimated value well in excess of $4,000 million, with first unit commissioning set for the first quarter of 2011.

Andejani also confirmed the cancellation of WEC's Jubail IWPP. 'Linking Jubail with WEC is no longer the case, it's now with Marafiq [The Power & Water Utilities Company for Jubail & Yanbu],' he said. The proposed 1,100-MW, 75 million-g/d cogeneration plant was widely expected to be put on the backburner after the Marafiq scheme was reclassified as a national project last year (MEED 3:2:06).