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The German group Siemens has signed with Baghdad an agreement for the rehabilitation of a power plant in the north of the country, destroyed in the war against the jihadists.
The $ 1.3 billion mega-contract was signed between Siemens and Orascom, an Egyptian construction company. It aims to rehabilitate Baji, one of the main power plants in the country, located 200 kilometers north of Baghdad in the Sunni triangle.
Before the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein, Baiji and his region were an industrial showcase of Iraq . It was home to several refineries and thermal power plants, as well as a railway junction and a pipeline hub. The city has since experienced fierce fighting before falling into the hands of the Islamic State organization. In 2016, the Iraqi parliament declared Baïji disaster zone.
It is in this dead city but ready to resuscitate that the renovation works should begin as soon as the contract is ratified by the Iraqi government and a financial agreement found.
Iraq, whose electricity demand has doubled in less than a decade, struggles with daily power cuts and remains dependent on energy imported from Iran . Washington, in an open crisis with Tehran, regularly urges Baghdad to favor US companies, like General Electric, Siemens's competitor.