Italy’s Eni has awarded France’s Alstom a €400mn turnkey contract for a 740MW gas-fired power plant in the Zubair oil field, near Basra in southern Iraq. Alstom says the plant will support the expansion of production facilities. Operator Eni is raising oil production to a plateau of 850,000 b/d from the current 320,000 b/d. No start-up date for the plant was announced. Eni complains that government bureaucracy is delaying the field’s development.
Alstom will be responsible for engineering, building and commissioning of the plant as well as supplying the four gas turbines. The company says the project is similar to one received in 2011 for a 728MW gas-fired plant in Mansuriya oil field, under development by private firm Kuwait Energy. Alstom has also rehabilitated an existing power plant at Zubair, raising capacity by 60MW to 380MW, and added 60MW in a revamp of the Najaf gas-fired plant. (CONTINUED - 290 WORDS)
