By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 20 August 2014:
More fuel has arrived for Sirte’s new Gulf Power Station. The Italian-flagged tanker Valle Di . . .[restrict]Cordoba arrived from Barcelona with 36,000 cubic metres of light fuel for the station’s first turbine, the only one functioning at present.
It is the second delivery in just over five weeks.
The fuel started to be unloaded from the tanker on Tuesday and pumping was expected to continue until at least today.
At present the 350-megawatt turbine, commissioned last month, is producing 180 MW, according to Mohamed Al-Amyel, spokesman for Sirte Local Council. However, the Libyan news agency LANA has quoted General Electrcity Company (GECOL) engineer Hassan Ferjany saying that it was hoped that the additional fuel would significantly increase energy production for Libya’s national grid.
Whether this is feasible is another matter. It may be that output of the first turbine can be increased, but despite an optimistic statement last month from the the Ministry of Electricity that the project was half way to completion there is little chance of any of the other three 350-MW turbines coming on stream at present with American, French, Turkish and Korean engineers and workers having left. According to Amyel, GECOL engineers have managed to take over some of the work from Bechtel, the managers of the project, but with 1,440 Koreans from Doosan and Hyundai and some 400 Turks from Gama Energy having left, there is little more than can be done at present at the LD1.8-billion project.
According to Ferjany, around 55 Libyan engineers had stepped into the breach to run operations at the plant.
The project has suffered a number of setbacks this year. Back in May, vandals broke in and destroyed two electricity pylons and stole about 800 metres of power cables. In July, no less than 350 employees of the Turkish company Gama were recalled by Turkey for a few weeks following retired General Khalifa Hafter’s call for all Turks, from Sirte to the eastern border, to quit the country. Just as the Turks were returning, the Korean government pulled its citizens from the project. [/restrict]
