In December, financial close was reached on the contract that will see GdF Suez (17.5%) and Sumitomo (17.5%) team up with Kuwaiti government institutions (60%) and Kuwait’s A H Al Sagar and Brothers (5%) to develop the Al-Zour North independent water and power producer (IWPP) project. Al-Zour North will be a 1.5GW gas-fired, combined cycle plant and associated 486,000 cmd desalination plant that will account for around 10% of Kuwait’s installed power capacity and 20% of its desalination capacity. Sumitomo said recently that commercial operations were expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2016 (MEES, 20 December 2013).

But Kuwait’s parliament has now thrown a major spanner in the works. A parliamentary technical committee has said it will review the case as a prelude to referring the investigation to the public prosecutor. (CONTINUED - 696 WORDS)