Bangladesh's Summit Group and GE finance power plant
Bangladesh's Summit Group and a unit of General Electric Co. have announced the opening of a 360 MW power plant in the north western district of Sylhet, Bnagladesh.
The power plant has begun supplying up to 240 MW to the national grid and is expected to be fully operational by September 2015. The new facilities will use 50 million cubic feet of natural gas per day coming from Bibiyana gas field, which is operated by Chevron and owned by state-managed Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corp (Petrobangla).
The total project investment is estimated at US$310 million. The project has been financed through US$100 million of equity provided by Summit Group (80%) and a unit of General Electric Co. (20%) and through three 15 year loans of US$70 million each from:
- International Finance Corporation,
- Asian Development Bank and
- Islamic Development Bank.
When finished Summit Group will have 1200 MW of electricity output in the country (12 % of Bangladesh’s total), where the firm has invested about US$1.2 million.
Bangladesh has a production capacity of approximately 7000 MW, which is not enough to cover the country's needs of 10,000 MW. About 65% of the country's population, 160 million inhabitants, have access to the national grid.
