Tuesday, December 7, 2010

China Signs US$838mn Contract For Upper Atbara Dam Complex

[The following update is from April 2010 - we only came across it just now.]


China Signs US$838mn Contract For Dam Complex

Sudan - Infrastructure
Business Monitor International, Apr 8 2010

The government of Sudan has signed a contract with China for
construction of the Upper Atbara Dams Complex, located in eastern Sudan.
China is already deeply involved in Sudan's infrastructure sector,
having already built two hydropower projects in the country.

The contract was awarded to a joint venture formed of China
*International Water & Electric Corporation* (CWE) and *China Three
Gorges Corporation*. The total contract is worth US$838mn, funding for
the project is due in part to come from the Sudanese government,
according to the People's Daily Online; however, *BMI* expects that a
large portion will also come from Chinese state banks, as well as other
foreign sources, as has been the case with previous infrastructure
projects carried out by Chinese companies in the country.

The project includes construction of two dams, the Rumira Dam and the
Bodana Dam, which will control the flow of the Atbara River. The project
will include a hydropower complex with a capacity of 135 megawatts (MW).
It will also provide irrigation and water supply through a reservoir
with a storage capacity of 2.7bn cubic metres (m3) and irrigation for an
area of 210,000 hectares. Construction is expected to take five years
and four months.

The Upper Atbara Dam complex will be the biggest Chinese implemented
project in Sudan and the second biggest implemented outside of China,
according to the president of CWE, Lu Guojun, as cited by Xinhua. China
has been active in Sudan for a number of years, most heavily involved in
the oil sector. Sudan is one of a number of countries on the continent
where the company has pursued its minerals for infrastructure strategy -
securing rights to natural resources in return for construction of
infrastructure.

Chinese companies have previously built two hydropower projects in
Sudan. The US$2bn, 1,250MW Merowe Dam, which was inaugurated in 2009,
was built by a consortium including CWE and* China National Water
Resources and Hydropower Engineering Corporation*. Most recently, the
405MW Al Fula project was inaugurated in March 2010, built by China's
*Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation*. The project was
funded 90% through foreign funding and 10% from local sources. In March
2010, the government signed a an agreement with the Export-Import Bank
of China for a US$274mn loan to build the 630km transmission line for
the Al Fula proiect.
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