Largest private electricity station in the Middle East to be in Egypt

A consortium headed by the InterGen company, which is partly owned by two Egyptian companies, has signed with the Egyptian government contracts to establishing the 650-megawatt Sidi Krir electricity station near Alexandria at a cost of $450 million. This is the first energy project implemented by the private sector in Egypt. Work is to begin by early 1999.

74% of the InterGen company is owned by the Shell and Bechtel Enterprises companies, and two Egyptian companies, the Arab First Company for Development and Investment and Kato Company for Investment, own the remaining 26%.

The joint participants in the project have established an Egyptian company known as the InterGen Company of Sidi Krir for Generating Energy to develop the station and complete a group of contracts. The parties will focus on financing the project with a group of international commercial corporations, Egyptian trade banks and mutli-national financing agencies.

After signing the contract, Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri said that the country will not bear any burdens in establishing the station, which is the largest in the Middle East to be established by the private sector.