Construction Begins on $210 Million, 80-Megawatt Gas-Fired Power Station in Pilbara, Australia

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Rio Tinto limited (Melbourne, Australia) and CTEC Private Limited (Perth, Australia) kicked off the construction for the 80-megawatt (MW) Newman West Angelas power station in Pilbara, Australia.

Rio Tinto awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to CTEC in 2011, before it was acquired by Forge Group Limited (ASX:FGE) (Perth, Western Australia) in 2012.

Forge Group is an EPC company, which entered into a share purchase agreement with CTEC in January 2012 and acquired all shares of the company. The acquisition has brought significant growth opportunities for Forge, both geographically and strategically, with CTEC's extensive experience in providing power plant operations and maintenances services across Oceania.

The Newman West Angelas power plant will be built near Rio Tinto's existing West Angelas iron ore mine and will feature two 40-MW GE gas turbines. Turbines have been delivered at the site, and the company expects to start the power plant operations by end of August this year.

Besides the $150 million contract with Rio Tinto, CTEC has bagged several other EPC contracts during 2012. CTEC's project portfolio includes a $450 million Diamantina power station project, which is located at Mount Isa, Queensland. The contract is awarded by a Diamantina power consortium, jointly owned by APA Group (Sydney, Australia) and AGL Limited (Sydney, Australia). The 242-MW power station is under construction and is expected to be operational by 2014.

CTEC also was awarded with a $25 million contract with Nova Energy (Whakatane, New Zealand), a subsidiary of Todd Energy, for the 100-MW McKee Energy Power plant in New Zealand. The power plant is in the final commissioning stage at the moment.

Neil Robison, managing director of CTEC, said: "We are enthusiastic about the transaction. Forge brings financials strength and relationships to CTEC at time when we are experiencing significant growth and scale in contract wins."

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