A US-Spanish consortium, including a subsidiary of power utility Union Fenosa has won a $12.75 million contract to rebuild a hydro-electric plant in Iraq, a spokeswoman for the company said on Wednesday. The US Army Corps of Engineers awarded the contract for repairing the Haditha Dam in north eastern Iraq to the consortium made up of US engineering firm CH2M Hill and Spanish professional services company Soluziona, part of Union Fenosa.
The spokeswoman for Soluziona stated that the company had a 24 per cent stake in the consortium. The contract is the company's first in Iraq and one of the first Iraqi reconstruction contracts to go to a European firm. Last month the CH2M Hill/Soluziona consortium was among those selected by the Corps of Engineers as eligible for up to $15 billion worth of construction contracts to support US military operations in countries including Iraq and Afghanistan. Spanish construction company ACS-Dragados was also in the consortium but opted out of the Haditha Dam project, partly because of a policy not to enter Iraq, a spokesman for the company said.
The Spanish government has been a supporter of the US policy on Iraq, both in the run-up to the conflict and since the fall of the previous regime. There are currently 1,300 Spanish troops stationed in south-central Iraq. The United States said last year that only countries that were part of the coalition in Iraq would be eligible for reconstruction contracts, although Washington has since opened the door to other allies, including those originally opposed to the war.
Source: Forbes
