Civil Contracting Company (Civilco) has been awarded a key contract to build a power plant for Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) at Haima in central Oman.

Civilco, as the selected engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, will construct a natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 67 MW of electricity, a report said.

General Electric (GE) Power Systems of France will supply power generation equipment for the facility.

Other bidders for the project included Bahwan Engineering Company, Al Hassan Engineering and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (Bhel) of India.

GE officials said the company would supply one gas turbine-generator and auxiliary equipment in conjunction with Civilco, in a contract worth $16 million. The company also received a contract valued at $1.1 million to provide technical advisory services at the plant.

The gas turbine, equipped with GE's proprietary low nitrous oxide combustion unit, will be manufactured in GE Power Systems' Belfort plant in France and shipped to Haima by December this year.

Commercial operation of the new plant is scheduled to begin by June 2002, the report said.

A total of 69 GE technology units are currently installed or on order for projects in Oman.

The Haima power station will be PDO's 11th such facility in the Sultanate, boosting its combined generation capacity to around 600 MW.

Civilco is also executing a fibre optic retrofit programme for the Ministry of Housing, Electricity and Water.

The project, worth about RO1 million, will allow for the national Load Despatch Centre (LDC) being established at Al Mawaleh in Muscat Governorate, to be connected to the various power stations and distribution centres located around the country.