UAE’s TAQA weighs investment in Iraq’s power sector

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) of the Unite Arab Emirates is currently studying investment opportunities in Iraq’s electricity sector, according to the company’s CEO. “The company will send representatives to Iraq next month and will consider investment in small-scale diesel-powered electricity generation projects,” Peter Barker-Homek was quoted by the UAE newspaper al-Bayan on Tuesday on the sidelines of a conference in the emirate of Dubai. Established in 2005, TAQA is an international power investment firm that provides more than 85% of Abu Dhabi’s power and water production. The company boasts financial and strategic investments in the sectors of oil, gas, energy, water, infrastructure and mining in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, during a visit to the Iraqi electricity ministry in Baghdad on Thursday, had said that mid-2009 will see an upsurge in the production of electric power at a rate of 15 hours per day. “Contracts were signed with world corporations to get 12,000 megawatt of electricity to attain this objective,” Maliki said. Iraqis are suffering from lack of electricity since 1991 after the U.S.-led coalition forces destroyed the country’s power infrastructure during the second Gulf War. Deterioration continued to take its toll on Iraq’s electricity sector all through the 1990s, growing even worse with the U.S. invasion of Iraq in April 2003. Adding to this, acts of sabotage targeting the oil pipelines that used to feed power stations with fuel and the energy towers had a great negative effect on both the oil and power sector together. AmR (S) 1