Alstom Grid has been awarded a €80 million contract from Calik Energy [Calik Enerji], a leading Turkish energy company, for the supply of electrical transmission equipment to be installed in two power plants being built in Iraq by Calik Energy. This contract is considered the largest one to date for Alstom Grid in Iraq.

The contract, which includes the supply of GIS substations and power transformers, has been signed within the framework of the Ministry of Electricity’s “Mega Deal ” project to add more than 10,000 MW of power generation capacity in the country. The natural gas/ fuel oil power plants are critical to meeting Iraq’s growing demand for energy during the period of reconstruction and rebuilding.

Upon completion, the substations and related equipments supplied by Alstom Grid to transmit electricity from the Al-Khairat and Nainawa [Ninewa, Ninawa] gas-fired power plants will contribute to develop the region by transmitting an additional 2000 MW of new generation capacity through the grid. Project commissioning is scheduled for June 2012 with a second phase planned in October 2012.

Patrick Kron, Chairman and CEO of Alstom, said:

“Iraq is one of the most dynamic countries in the region with major construction plans in infrastructure, oil & gas and utilities. Alstom is proud to support Iraq’s economic development and intends to enhance its strategic partnerships, by bringing expertise close to the customer. This prestigious project demonstrates Alstom’s ability to respond to ever-greater needs with customer-valued solutions.“

A project to build a 22km urban rail network in the Iraqi capital has been put on hold due to a lack of funds, an advisor to the Transport Ministry said on Tuesday.

Karim Nouri told AKnews that the cost of the project exceeds this year’s federal budget allocation.

The 14-station metro line was intended to link the northern districts of Baghdad to the center and transport up to 30,000 passengers per hour.

At the end of May, Baghdad provincial council announced that the $1.5 billion project, to be carried out by the French firm Alstom, would take five years to complete and be partly-funded by the French government.

Mr. Nouri did not say when or if work on the planned urban rail link might begin.

(Source: AKnews)

French engineering group Alstom is in exclusive talks to build a high-speed rail line between Baghdad, French junior transport minister Thierry Mariani announced.

“Alstom and the Iraqi railway have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a high-speed rail line between Baghdad and Basra,” Mariani told journalists at the Paris International Airshow, according to a report from AFP.

The two will hold exclusive talks for 12 months to try to wrap up a final agreement. An Alstom spokesman confirmed the agreement, and said they were seeking a deal that would include the construction of the rail line plus trains and service.

The spokesman said the 650-kilometre rail network would handle speeds of up to 250 kilometres per hour (135 mph). The network would include a 150 kilometre link between Baghdad and Basra and serve the cities of Karbala, Najaf, Moussayeb and Samawah.

Mariani said he would travel to Iraq in September or October to discuss the possible deal. No financial details were immediately available. In May, Alstom announced a separate preliminary deal to build a 25 kilometre elevated commuter train network in Baghdad.

(Source: AFP)

A five-year project for French engineering group Alstom to build an above-ground urban metro line in Baghdad will cost $1.5 billion [1.8 trillion Iraqi dinars] and be funded by the French government and banks, according to Reuters.

The planned line will have capacity to carry 30,000 passengers an hour, will have 22 km (13 miles) of track and 14 stations linking northern Baghdad districts with the city centre, the Baghdad provincial governor’s office said.

France’s Alstom signed a memorandum of understanding for the deal in January, while a follow-up agreement signed in Baghdad on Monday paved the way for French financing for the project.

“The company has obtained agreement from several French banks and the French government to implement this project,” Shaker al-Zamili, head of the Baghdad Investment Commission, told Reuters.

A final accord on the Baghdad metro project would have to be approved by the Iraqi cabinet, he added. The loan would be repaid by Iraq after the railway started operating, through a mechanism yet to be determined.

As we reported in June of last year, Iraq’s southern city of Najaf awarded privately-owned Canadian consortium TransGlobim International a $600 million contract to build the country’s first monorail.

(Source: Reuters)

Reuters reports that the French engineering group that has signed an outline agreement to build a metro line above Baghdad’s streets is in fact Alstom.

Shaker al-Zamili, the head of Baghdad Investment Commission, said on Thursday that Iraqi officials signed a memorandum of understanding with Alstom in France last week.

An Alstom spokeswoman in Paris confirmed the agreement was signed last Saturday, allowing exclusive talks for the building of 25 km (15 miles) of high-level track.

According to the Reuters report, the metro will be partly funded by a French government loan covering 50 to 60 percent of the cost, Zamili said, with the remainder financed through a low-interest loan from a French government-run bank to be repaid over 20 years.

Zamili said the line, which would take up to two years to complete, would ease traffic congestion and would link the northern Baghdad districts of Shaab, Adhamiya, Kadhimiya and Hurriya with the central Alawi zone.

As we reported in June, Iraq’s southern city of Najaf awarded privately-owned Canadian consortium TransGlobim International a $600 million contract to build the country’s first monorail.

(Source: Reuters)

Reuters reports that French engineering group Alstom has signed a 20 million euro ($27.83 million; 33 billion iraqi dinars) contract with Iraq on Monday to rehabilitate a unit at one of its power plants.

Alstom, maker of industrial power plants and high-speed trains, said in a statement it would rehabilitate a unit at the gas-fired power station in Iraq’s holy Shi’ite city of Najaf.

The unit, which has been out of operation for five years, is expected to be reconnected to Iraq’s electricity grid by summer in 2011, Alstom said.

Iraq’s power infrastructure has been badly damaged by decades of war and sanctions, and 7-1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion, its national grid still only supplies a few hours of power a day. Intermittent electricity is one of the public’s top complaints.

French energy infrastructure firm Alstom signed a memorandum of understanding with Iraq on Wednesday to build a power plant in southern Iraq, which is suffering a severe electricity shortfall.

According to a report from AFP, Alstom is also set to renovate an existing power plant in the city of Najaf that it built 35 years ago.

“Patrick Kron, chief executive officer of Alstom, today (Wednesday) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Minister of Oil and Electricity, Hussein al-Shahristani … for the development and modernisation of Iraq’s electricity infrastructure,” Alstom said.

The company has agreed to build a 1,200 MW power station between Najaf and the southern port city of Basra, and to rehabilitate a 180 MW plant in Najaf that it built in 1975.

The agreement also provides for training of Iraqi engineers and technicians.

A source with knowledge of the agreement said the new plant is likely to cost between 1.5 and 2 billion US dollars [1.8 trillion and 2.4 trillion Iraqi dinars].

“We hope to build up the electricity sector in Iraq which has been badly damaged in recent years and meet the country’s growing electricity needs,” Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who attended the signing, said in a statement.

The statement said the company would begin talks with national and local officials in the coming weeks “for the practical implementation of these projects.”

Iraq’s daily power generation averages 8,000 megawatts, while demand in temperatures that have hit 54 degrees Celsius (130 degrees Fahrenheit) is typically more than 14,000 megawatts, forcing the use of unpopular rationing.

Only those with access to their own generators and fuel have been able to refrigerate foodstuffs or air-condition their homes around the clock.

Oppressive summer heat has triggered protests in several cities across the country, including in Basra.

Maliki has warned that two more years of shortages lie ahead as there is no quick fix to the problem, which worsened dramatically in the wake of the US-led invasion in 2003.

(Source: AFP)

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