ADDIS ABABA-The Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) signed a contract worth 40 million USD with China Gezhouba Group Co., Ltd (CGGC) on Tuesday.
In a bid to speed up the constr uction of Ethiopia’s strategic dam, the country has contracted the services of two Chinese companies.
CGCG will henceforth handle the pre-commissioning activities at the dam that is expected to be operational by 2020.
‘‘CGGC is expected to work aggressively in joint venture with other companies in order to complete the project as per schedule” EEP’s CEO Abraham Belay said.
EEP also signed a contract worth 113 million with Voith Hydro Shanghai, that includes the electrical, mechanical, and various civil/stru ctural works required to complete the construction of the generating station and spillways of GERD, CGTN reported.
The 6,000-megawatt Grand Renaissance Dam is the centerpiece of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter.
Last year, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed cancelled the contract of a state-run military corporation, Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC), to build the dam’s turbines.
Abiy said at the time that not a single turbine was operational more than seven years after the government awarded the contract to METEC.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas announced it has signed a deal with Djibouti to build a pipeline to transport and export natural gas to global market.
The agreement performed between Dr. Samuel Urkato, Ethiopia’s Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas and Djibouti’s Energy Minister Yonis Ali Guedi.
Chinese firm Poly-GCL Petroleum Group Holdings Limited (Poly-GCL) also agreed to construct the 767km Ethio-Djibouti natural gas pipeline. In a press statement on Saturday, both countries representative have agreed Poly-GCL to start the natural gas pipeline project construction this year.
Poly-GCL is expected to install a pipeline to transport the natural gas from fields up to ports of Djibouti in a period of two years. Around 700 kilometers of the natural gas pipeline will be constructed in Ethiopia, while the rest of the natural gas pipeline will be constructed located in Djibouti.
The Ethiopian Herald February 21/2019
BY ESSEYE MENGISTE
